FADE IN.
Act 1
EXT. ROADS - MORNING
PETER in suit is walking leisurely towards a row of bus stops.
PETER (V.O): I need to read many files in court today. But it's up to me as to when I should arrive.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.): Yesterday, I checked that apart from taking the convenient green bus near my home, I could also take the KMB Route#16 bus there.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): When was the last time I rode on a Route#16 bus?
Peter surfs the web with this phone.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): It was in mid-July 1973 that KMB rearranged its bus routes.
Peter sees a Route#16M passing by.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): No, that isn't a Route#16 bus.
Act 2
INT. BUS STOP - LATER
Peter waits at a bus stop.
FLASHBACK
EXT. JORDON ROAD BUS TERMINAL - DAY (1960)
Coming out from a ferry pier, Peter (5) follows his DAD (27) to the Route#16 bus terminal. They get on board a single decker and take their seats.
PETER (V.O.): The non-cushioned seats can't be compared with bus seats on the Hong Kong island side.
Hawkers get on board of the bus, selling magazines and chewing gums etc.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): This is pleasantly different though. It seems that we're going somewhere far away.
END FLASHBACK
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The trip wasn't short. The Kowloon scenes weren't eye- appealing. When we're in NT, even the sea and green fields looked boring.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): We got off at Tin Sum, about 23 1/2 miles from Tsimshatsui. That was the way to identify our location.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): My parents were building our living quarters, chicken sheds and a pigsty on virgin land. They bought the land for HK$2,500.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Decades later, I found out that the vendor bought the land at HK$1,500 just months earlier before reselling it to my parents.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): My parents believed that they should become independent. Running a farm could be a way to make a living.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): But they knew nothing about the nitty gritty. We needed lots of help from our good neighbours.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): Even so, it wasn't long for the family to realize that it was a non-profit-making business.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): Then, there're cottage industries in the vicinity. Earning wages as employees were my parents' only option.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): My Dad, who used to work as a newspaper photographer in Central, became a labourer in an iron foundry.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): My Mom, after giving birth to her 5th child, began working as a factory worker.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): While my parents provided us a roof over our heads, putting food on the table for a family of 9 was hard.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): Over money matters, like paying school fees, my Mom could become bad tempered.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd):She complained a lot and my Dad took all the blame silently.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): When my Dad became a skilled welder, his work life was a little easier. My grandma would boil some "sugar water", and I would bring it to my Dad at 3.15pm.
Sighing.
PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): Then came the 1967 Hong Kong riots. My Dad became unemployed. And I could have become a car mechanic's apprentice.
EXT. BUS (MOVIING) - LATER
Sitting in the middle of the last row of a double-decker bus, Peter is in thoughts.
PETER (V.O.): In 1968, my Dad joined KMB, as a bus conductor. After working in Kowloon routes for a while, he was transferred to work on NT routes.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Later, he became the terminal captain of Route#19. The bus route was from Castle Peak Bay to Sheung Tsuen - where the British barracks were.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): He worked on the route until his retirement in early 1992. Soon, he helped me to bring up my only son then.
Peter gets off at a stop.
Act 3
EXT. ROADS - CONTINUOUS
Walking.
PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): Before mid-July 1973, I took the Route#19 bus to Yuen Long to attend my secondary schooling or to Castle Peak Bay for the summer sun and beaches.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): When I went working in Castle Peak Hotel either from home on Sundays or after school on week days, I took the Route#16 bus.
Peter stops at a crossing.
PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): Now, I don't take a linear view of the illusive time. Time itself is unreal. All "the past", "the present" and even "the future" are one in spacetime. They're all in "the now" - appearing in my mind.
Crossing a road, Peter enters a court building.
FADE OUT.
THE END

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