She was clearing their plates at table S06 when he asked her.

“Excuse me,” he said, with amusement in his eyes. “Can I ask you a question?”

Resisting the urge to say, “You already did.” she gave him her best customer-smile and said, “Sure.”

“What colour is Lilac?” he asked while his partner tried to supress the smile on her face.

Lilac? Isn’t that a flower? Not being too good with flowers, she hesitated. “Uhm… Isn’t it purple?”

A stunned and surprise look on his face as he turned to his partner while she was giving him that see-I-told-you look. “It is?” he asked her (no, not his partner).

“Well, my impression of Lilac is purple.” she (no, not his partner) said. Clearing the last empty plate on their table, she smiled, “Well, I’m sorry I’m not too good with colours.”

As she walked to the back of the restaurant to place the dirty dishes, she posted the same question to her colleagues. Most of them said that Lilac is purple; Some did not know. Her manager said he is not fond of flowers and therefore, does not know anything about Lilac. When she asked her boss, he released a loud “hmmmmm”, picked up his precious iBook, and started doing a search while she went away and attended to customers.

When she returned to him, he had this excited look on his face.

“Lilac,” he started, emphasizing each colour, “is a whitish-pinkish-purple.” A pause. “In other words, light purple.”

Rather amused at his child-like excitement, she beamed at him, “That’s great. Thanks, Chai!”

She brought them their bill and as he was signing the receipt, she said with an emphasis on each colour, “And by the way, Lilac is a whitish-pinkish-purple.” A pause. “In other words, light purple.”

A broad smile was on her face as she saw the surprise look of theirs. Where on earth did she find that out?

She thanked them, hoped that they would return someday, wished them a good evening and turned around to take table S07’s orders.