An old-looking-young-man

An old-looking-young-man

It was a fine morning when I was walking hastily across Parterre to get my faculty. Glancing at my watch, it was 9.20 a.m. I was 20 minutes late for an appointment with one of my lecturers. As I got there, I rubbed the perspiration on my forehead and then knocked the door. When I was entering the waiting room, there were two people sitting, an old man with grey hair whom I presume to be the secretary, and a young man with a brown hair, judging from his appearance, he was a foreign student supposedly from Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, or somewhere near Russia. As I walked into the room, the old man smilingly greeted me “Hananta, Mr Suk was waiting for you, but now he is in a meeting. You can sit right there” while pointing at a sofa. Then I sat down, released my bag, took some reading book, and then started reading it.

When I was turning the pages, the old man said in Sundanese “Hananta, budak ieu ti Kazakhstan, ganteng nya?” (Hananta, he was from Kazakhstan, he’s handsome, isn't he?).

With a phony smile, I said in Sundanese as well “Muhun pak” (yes sir). But actually, what I wanted to say was “So what’s the point? Who cares? Do you think I am a gay? No matter how handsome he is, I won’t fall in love with him anyway”.

Then I continued reading after such an unimportant interruption. However, because of my curiosity, I listened to their conversation and pretended to keep reading.

From that, I knew that the young man was in some kind of trouble and was waiting for Mr Suk as well. I glanced at my watch and said to myself: “Shit, it’s gonna take a long time”

There was the silence of the grave in the room until the old man tried to break the ice. He told me a joke about the young man. He spoke in Sundanese again “Tingali Ta, si ieu umurna 20 taun, tapi bengeutna kolot pisan nya” (Ta, look at him, He is just 20 years old, but his face is old as hell). Then he laughed undoubtedly out loud.

And again, with such a phony smile, I said “Yes, sir” while glancing at the young man who looked crossed, he frowned. I wonder if he was angry – or at least, felt inconvenienced because there was an old man laughed his ass off in from of his damn eyes.

Shortly after that, there came two old women said that they needed to use a fax. At that time, I definitely knew what was gonna happen if the old people were gathered, they would chatter.

And I was right, the three old people made fun of the poor old-looking-young-man whose the face looked more and more confused. They spoke in Sundanese, presumed that the young man wouldn’t understand what they were saying.

I felt sorry for the young man, but at that time, I just couldn’t help being silent. I just wanted to feel their happiness for a bit, so I laughed, but not at the young man, I laughed at the situation in which three old people were trying to escape from the boredom of their routines life, and to make their life years younger by making a-young-foreign-student as the ‘direct object’. 

The laughter suddenly ceased as a professor came and talked to the young man in sundanese, on the threshold, he asked “Kumaha damang?” (How are you?).

And the young man answered “Aya masalah pak, tapi ieu bade dicarioskeun sareng pak Suk” (Actually there’s a trouble sir, but I’m going to talk about it with Mr Suk).

“Oh, sok atuh, cing bener nya” (Oh, so make it right then) and the professor left right away.

For some minutes after the professor left, somehow the situation was quiet. I saw the old man’s eyes were bulking, so as the two old women’s. They looked nervous to death. I said to myself “Oh god! This guy can speak Sundanese”. I bet the old people were thinking of what I was thinking.

The quiet crept into the room, and soon the laughter changed into silence, as cemetery.

Both of the old women left the room right away. Well, they had the same idea of leaving room as mine, but they implemented it first though. A couple of minutes later, the old man stood up, still with a nervous face. Awkwardly, the old man said whole pointing out to some direction “Uh, I.. I need to go to check some drafts” and promptly disappear as wind.

Then, there were only me and the young-man-with-old-face. I was like a sinner being judged for all my filthy deeds. I felt his gaze stabbed me on the eyes. I thought “God! Why should the old man leave? He’s the one who is responsible”

I glanced at my watch repeatedly, the time move twice slower as usual. I started setting up some plans to leave the room. I should leave this place immediately; anyway, the meeting seemed to take years. Besides, the young man was the first to come. So I pretended to check my phone, and called someone while leaving the room.

The best words

In the dawn, when I was on television, a teenager came from nowhere and asked me to do a favor for him. I did not even know him, but somehow he reminded mo of something in my past. He asked me what to do if someone whom he invested his love and faith to, left him alone, shivering in the despair. Because I had been through that kind of problem, then I simply said that he was lucky that God had shown him the way, and he should not have to wait longer. I asked him to honestly said that he loved and trusted her, then left without glancing over his shoulder. And then he smiled and disappeared.

I was wondering who was that teenager when suddenly there came a young man sprang up like a mushroom. I was startled to see his familiar face but I just too shock to recognize him. Like the previous upcoming, this young man threw me a question, he asked if nobody would take at his words anymore, that was because he talked about uncommon things. Afterwards I was flustered too, since I couldn't cope with it. But then I told him to just take it cool, afterall the dark valley will be radiated by the morning sun. It just about time. Then, like the previous one, he vanished.

In the dusk, I was closing the window when a man emerge, without any permission or introducing himself, he came in and just sat down in he corner of my room, his pupils were dilated, he gritted as if somebody was chasing after him, in a trembling voice, he whisper that he was hunted. Here, I fell in an abyss of quandaries about what had happened in that day. Then the man said that he croaked that he was asked to lie, but he refused it.

Then I told him to do the opposite, perhaps people would think him honest and everything would turn back into normal. 

When he was about to go, there came an old man "Wait!!", and he added. "Are you going to deceive yourself?"

"But it would better than death" The young man drawled.

Angrily, the old man yelled "I know you two and all your problems since you were a child, you are the part of me as I am the part of you. There are still such problem later, are you going to runaway from all of them?", then he cried "you know, the best words are not judged from the diction, metaphors, or structure. The most beautiful word is the word telling the truth!"

Then, as the other people, I and the young man vanished. The old man looked up the night, smiled, and murmured to himself "I always want to turn back the time and fix everything, but this is life".

Dung Beetle

It was rain when I decided to wait until the rain stopped. “It’s gonna take a long time” I think. I glanced my watch, it was 4.45 p.m.

In my right side, there were the road gang boys got drunk and sniffed glue behind their draggled shirt. I was wondering why they voluntarily sacrifice themselves for a moment self-indulgence, self-destructive. 

“Life is too short to be wasted,” I said to myself.

Then I came and asked them "Hey, Where do you life?"

"We live here" One of them said.

"Where did you live? Where is your parents?"

"We are all from Majalengka, I just find myself happy by living like this, with my loyal friends in my good and bed time. They never leave me, they don't criticize me, unlike my parents"

"You could have had a better living condition if u did not leave your parents". They did not say a word, and then I added "You know that right?"

"Yeah we know that, but the most important thing is that I am happy to be what I am, aren't we?" One of the boy looked at the others, and one of them added "Ya, happiness is a thing that cannot be bought by money".

"Ya I got it, the rich are not necessarily happy since they don't have the attitude of gratitude. Yes, it is the key of happiness in this life" I said with flaming eyes.

The rain eased and then I said farewell to all of them.

I got a new lesson in life. There is no point regretting life. I learn how a child can find a needle in the haystack. I used to think that they are scum and the disease within the society, but then I think they are much better than some established men in suit, the rat-headed people that devour the earth and swallow the ocean, yet, they never get satisfied.

Even a Dung beetle can live happily in a hole that full of shit. They always share their food, and never fight over it. Moreover, their life is useful for the farmers in seed dispersal when they rolled the 'dung'. Now I am living in a place that is much better than that, as a human at least, I should be better than a dung beetle.

be a grateful person and useful to others, that's enough.