The Conversation With The Devil (not suitable reading for underaged kids!)

You would have thought that the Devil would appear in flaming red skin, complete with 2 horns and a pointed sharp tail, and holding a 3-headed spear that would have made a lousy challenge to the modern-day shotgun. But the Devil came in the shape of Mister FN, a not-so-fantastic-looking guy who was a foot shorter than me and took pains to gel his hair up straight to make up for his lack of vertical distance. You might have imagined the Devil to select a better body for his reincarnation. This Devil was in disguise.

The appointment was for lunch. And at two o'clock in the afternoon, Mister FN and I gathered at the students' canteen and extended friendly greetings to each other. We got our food and sat down.

"I am going to get married next month!... We bought a condo... must wait for her to finish her exams first... ..."

It was amusing the word marriage could come from the tongue of a man I had long considered to be the Master of flings. Vividly stucked in my memory was Mister FN replying to an SMS of a girl. He had wanted her to get out of his life - vanish like a puff of smoke. She had wanted to be with him forever. It was not uncommon that a guy was trying to break up with a girl; just that, Mister FN already was in a relationship with another person when he got to know this girl. The big problem was he was only looking for sex. He had bedded her umpteen times and had left her in the midst of not knowing whether her first experience of coitus was just pure lusty physical contact or an expression of undeniable love. This girl had been led into a pool of lies by the Devil; she had been wishing this was going to be the man of her life.

Cheated. She had been cheated. She wasn't the only one on the list. There were more, but those were in the past.

Marriage was in the cards of a man like that? Great - maybe now he had finally begun to comprehend the lack of sincere true love in his life and had wanted to redeem a more appropriate livelihood by settling down and setting up a family.

"Look over there."

He pointed to a lady wearing a thin brown sleeveless and collarless top, and a jeans skirt that was worn low so that much of the lower tummy was visible. Her long wavy hair, dyed golden brown, was flowing down lusciously onto her straightened back and ample bosom. He was going to tell me something - something that would deeply offend my senses.

"That girl wants it. Can you feel it? I can feel it. Damn, she is hot..."

He went on to elaborate how he was going for a dinner date tonight with a business undergrad. It was to happen without the knowledge of his fiancée. He didn't have to tell me exactly what he was doing. He was still practicing infidelity wantonly. He wanted to have mistresses after mistresses; one woman was not enough to satisfy his taste for variation. However, this Devil was not practicing polygamy. At least in polygamy, the man truly loves all his wives and works hard to provide for them and protect them from harm. This animal, staring at me over his plate of human food, was nauseating. I felt like I was in a farm.

I cannot believe a person, not even looking half as good as Tom Cruise, could manage to literally snuggle down so many girls behind his belt. What if he were Tom Cruise?

"Come on, Genghis. The girls just want it. Everyone just wants to have a kick once a while... ..."

Mister FN felt that girls, be it whether they were single, attached or married, want to be thrilled by an adulterous love affair every once so often. So, he presented himself as the Hero trying to save every damsel from the distress of not having enough different guys on their beds every night. He is doing them all a favour!

Yes, he is an outrageous tiny young man. But the sad truth is that everything written above occurred without a doubt. And it can be postulated how Mister FN is not the only such man running around seducing woman to allow him to warm their beds and bodies; there must be more out there. If in every 100 man there is one Devil, then in Singapore, from the age of 20 to 40, there must be 1000 of them lurking around the dark corners, waiting to pounce on your girlfriends or wives or daughters.

Thankfully, the world is not lopsided. Mister FN was having lunch with his nemesis today - nope, I wouldn't dare call myself God. There are good men around. But just like the Devil, they are all in disguise. No woman can be certain which guy has a red tail and which guy has a pair of dove wings. She can only guess. On the contrary, the Devil may have rightly pointed out the truth about some woman wanting a fling or two. For that, I think the Devil has found his match. For others, I just hope the damsel can get over the fact that she has trusted the wrong knight.