Thursday, August 09, 2007

hitching a ride





where am i goin after all these? no one can ever answer, neither am i. do i have to stand the rain although coldness has seeping into my bones. in the far i can see someone putting up his hand begging for mercy from bypassers. the night is freezing cold, no one wants to crack their door open to let him and his soak bag pack into their vehicles. standing 100 meters apart myself i can see his shallow but attractive face, deep lines covered his musty expressions. i cannot bear frosty wind just for a minute. i cant imagine his condition during this time of hour without his elegant sidekick. could this be his final moment of glory? theres no usual smile on his face. night grows darker and gloomier. not one of the desired help comes and pick him out of this abandoned place. disappointed as he is, still insists of moving up to the open road instead of turning back. slowly and surely, not more than few meters he will be able to see me, his good natured sidekick. i will let him talk and i, will listen like all good assistant should do. his grayish hair finally light up my heart as always. not more than two steps. his lanky legs draw closer to myself. he looks up but i can only catch nothingness on his emerging blue eyes. suddenly, i can feel my feet gone cold and frozen in matter of minutes. he hasnt moved from his position and it seems hes waiting for somethin to come up from the old winding road. minutes passes by but nothing comes out from his twisted lips. he waits and waits. finally, he cries and sceams out loud. i am furious and a bit frustrated seeing him in this state. never once in our journey he states his emotional thoughts in such awkward ways. but perhaps he has never been in pain such as this. i touch his forehead to calm him down and make sure he knows i am here for him. surprised by the coldness, i resist my intention to take back my tenderness upon his head. he keeps crying and bellowing somethin but i cant make of it. he says sorry for more than dozen of times but i cant understand why would he say such thing. he says more puzzling words for another minutes. on his knees, he asks forgiveness to the almighty God. more and more i become frighten by his actions. and then, those blazing lights come straight to us. i thought it will make us a headline news for tomorrows newspaper but it stops and i can hear the owner of the vehicle lowering his window. an aging man face pops out of muddy window. old man asks whether he can help with anything. my friend looks up and nodds. he mentions of a place that i havent heard before. old man nodds and wave his hand toward his passenger door. i am flooded with happiness. it can only means one thing. finally, after one solid hour waiting for good samaritan to give us a ride to whatever the name of the place is. however, before my hand reaches door handle, the old man decides to leave me in the deserted place. i try to scream out of my fury but isnt able to. the rain stops from falling and replace by frosting snow. each minute passes and not a single lights occur to shed my day. dark as it seems i manage to wrestle my sights to find a piece of photo. it is me and him. laughing and gigling at probably nothing at all. those glory days were hard to miss. an old photos always make my heart numb. i am not sure where and when the photo was taken. it was old thats for sure. the wind blows and pull it out off my hand. it flies aimlessly and vanishes in the dark. it suddenly strikes me as lightning crumbles a beach house. the photo was actually taken before the incident in namibia few years back. one by one each of the pieces come back in place and sets me into a journey of the past.

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