PHEW! I was finally through with the first stage of 'interrogation'. I had handled the waves upon waves of questions by Lyn's father and sibling quite successfully entertaining them occasionally with my rehearsed routines and quickies that I took two weeks to prepare and perfect. They must be having a fairly good impression of me by now, besides considering the presents that I had brought along as advised by my buddies, for my first visits to the Ngs for dinner.

Lyn did not have a big family (which was a relief on my wallet). It consisted only of a mischievous kid-brother, a humorous father who at the same time has a bit charisma around him and a kind, concerned mother who was easy-going on almost anything except, yes except when it comes to her cooking. The time and pride taken in her own cooking and each new dish tried was something Lyn used to tell me about.

There was this case where Lyn's father unwittily commented that his spouse's newly prepared Italian dish being not very appetizing, resulting in both cold war and that same dish for the next two weeks. The torture was enough to make the head of the family forget about his pride, his dignity, his self-respect and go down on his kneels to beg for forgiveness. Hopefully Lyn did not inherit this nature of her mother, else I would be in deep deep shit.

"Dinner's ready! Come and get it!" Lyn's mother called from the kitchen excitingly. I could have sworn I noticed Lyn's Pa's face twisted in agony for a moment but put it off as me being over-sensitive. As we made our way to the kitchen, Lyn came over by my side, squeezed my hand tenderly and smiled. Guessed she was pleased with my performance so far. Lyn's father took the Master seat at the long table which was packed with delicious-looking food, with his active son on the right and his wife on the left. I took my seat next to Lyn's ma directly opposite to Lyn's.

The lids to our first dish were removed revealing a plate of noodle-like yellowish strings soaked in a some mud-coloured and concentrated liquid. It was degalas. That's a French word that meant disgusting but sounds even worse. And this thing in front of me is definitely worst.

"This is my new try-out. Do you like it? It's my new African dish. Please please give me your comment?" Ma was looking earnestly at Pa with a smile that almost touched her earlobes.

"It's nice. It's ... uh ... original ... It's special. I ... like it." His left hand rubbed guiltily against his chin as he tried to forced a smile. It was obvious this man was lying through his teeth. Better sit further away from him else the lightning bolt may miss him and get me instead.

"Well that's goooood, please eat. Please!!" An excited mother urged everyone on. I was to eat this for my future. As I looked helplessly at Lyn I started to ask myself: Was she worth it? African dish? They might even be real spiders and centipedes inside crawling around waiting to get into my stomach... Yucks! I could have sworn I saw a cockcroach's leg somewhere in there. What's this black thing here floating on the surface?! Was it my imagination or what that it seemed to be swimming around? My stomach did a triple somersaults as I searched through the liquid for other possible pests.

With all my gastronomic juice gone, I was beginning to try working up a major sickness. It's a toss-up between lock-jaw (which of course would be very handy for turning down those dirt) and some vague allery that would make me itch all over if I ate those... whatever they were. Guessed if this pulled off, I would have graduated from the school of professional liars...

"You er ... don't like it?" Ma was looking at me now. Her slight tone of hurt shattered all my thoughts. Looked at those strong arms!!! Didn't think the lockjaw bit would work, most probably she would forced the muddy-substances down my throat. The terrible allergy wouldn't be able to pull off too; just looked at all those medicines in that white glass cupboard. Guessed the old man had already tried that trick already... Suddenly felt like crying for help... *Gulp* ...

"Er, hullo, how is it?" She looked deep into me again. I was lost, trapped. Perhaps it was my fear, I had turned into a soft potatoe inside and answered without even thinking straight and regretted immediately afterwards...

"I do, I do! I love it!" Where's that lightning conductor? I needed it desperately now.

I decided to endure the torture. Lyn was worthed every bit of it. I closed my eyes, reached down swiftly with my fork, grabbed something whatever it was and send it to my mouth, feeling the bitterness in the food I gushed it down with a gulp of water quickly. All this just took me a record of ten seconds.

But as I opened my eyes, I was greeted by a stunned mother. Lyn was on the other side burying her face in her hands while Pa was trying very hard to control his laugther by holding his right hand across his mouth but the broad grin was too big to hide. The kid-brother on the other hand let out all his feelings freely. He was laughing his heads off rocking to and fro ignoring an angry shot of stare from his mother.

I had gathered that in my rush, I had eaten from Ma's dish ... Die! Cham! From the looks on her, I gathered that all I had to do now was to give her one little piece of ammunition and she'll blow me up to smithereens. I was caught between deciding whether to go down onto my kneels now or to face the possible torture the next time I come over for dinner again...