2008-07-25 - 8:01 p.m.
June 10, 2008
He was still terribly exhausted from the day before. I could tell. How?
Usually, he woke up at about eight or nine. I usually made him a cup of tea at that time.
But that morning, the tea had left untouched and gone cold. It was already way past eleven. I'd had my breakfast. He still didn't come out of my room.
Was he okay? Was he ill? Oh, please no!
"Maybe he's still tired from last night," Mom speculated, reading my mind. I just shrugged.
Yeah, maybe. Well, I hoped.
Finally, he woke up at almost about twelve. He rushed to the bathroom and then returned to my room. By the time he got out, he was well-dressed again. He smiled at me and I just grinned back at him.
"Hi," he said softly. "Sorry, I guess I was so out of it last night."
"That's okay." I shrugged. Then he looked at his watch.
"I don't think we're gonna have enough time to go to any museums today," he said. "I mean, all museums here close at three, right?"
"Right."
So, we ended up driving around the city with my brother all day long. My brother was delivering my sister's wedding invitations to all of her friends around. Nick was quite amazed when he checked into the huge plastic bags full of hard-covered red envelopes.
"That many??"
Yes, dear. That many. My sister's popular, remember?
It was too bad that we didn't get to visit any museums that day. Honestly, I was afraid that it might've bored him to death, but I thanked God that he still remembered to bring his camera with him. When we passed an autoshop in Cipete, Fatmawati, South Jakarta, he suddenly laughed.
"Now that's really funny. I should take a picture of that."
"What?" I looked out the window with him. At that time, the car was still stopping to a red light in front of us at the intersection. When I finally noticed the sign at the autoshop, I understood what he thought of it and grinned.
The sign said: CAT OVEN.
"Actually, it's an auto-paint heater," I had to explain that to him, especially since he's a cat-lover. "My people tend to mix up the use of English and Bahasa, because cat (pronounced 'chat') means 'paint'."
"I see. Interesting."
We also picked up some photo-frames for my sister's pre-wedding pictures from Tebet, Central Jakarta. Thankfully, we'd also managed to snag some ba pao in Panglima Polim, South Jakarta on the way, because I was starving. (I'm sure Nick was too, although he didn't say anything about it.) I was also glad that my brother the smoker had been understanding enough not to smoke around Nick.
The we picked my sister up from work that night. Since she was hungry and so were my brother and I (and it was also dinner time), we went to "Sambara" - a Sundanese restaurant in Cipete. We ate quite a lot. Nick and I ordered red rice (much healthier, they say) and some vegetables. I also ordered a piece of fried meat. Nick tried 'sayur asam' (sour vegetables with corn).
We met our parents' old friends at that restaurant too. Uncle Eddie and Aunt Nana used to work with my parents at the same office. When they saw us, they smiled and waved at us as they approached.
"Just look at the three of you now," exclaimed Aunt Nana happily - in Bahasa, of course. The Almost Twins and I grinned. "You've all grown up!"
Yes, it's been a while.
"And you, Ruby," she went on after noticing Nick sitting beside me. "I still remember when you were a little girl and how you wanted to talk to foreigners - so you called them all: 'Hey, tourists!'"
I felt my face get hot. Why do most of my parents' friends always remember that embarrassing incident long time ago? I was just a silly little kid!
After they said bye to us and left, Nick looked at the three of us curiously.
"Who are they?" he asked.
"Our parents' friends," my sister told him with a smile. "They worked in the same office long ago."
"Ah." And then he looked at me. "And what did the lady just tell you?"
Oh, should I just tell him? Hehe, of course. I couldn't lie to his smoky-blue eyes, remember?
From that smile on his face, I suspected that he might've thought that my childhood encounter with Caucasians was pretty amusing.
When my sister asked for the bill, a waitress came and handed her that. My sister stared at the bill and was obviously stunned.
"No way," she gasped in Bahasa.
"What's wrong?" I asked her. She looked up at me.
"They just paid for our bills too," she told me, still in shock. "Mom and Dad's friends."
Oh, wow.
"What is it?" Nick asked too, suddenly sensing our puzzlement. My sister looked at him and repeated her answer in English:
"Our parents' friends just paid for our bills."
"The couple who just talked to us," I added, just in case he forgot. I saw him nod with a puzzled look on his face.
Then my sister called Mom and told her about what had happened.
Uncle Eddie and Aunt Nana, I hope you guys are reading this. Thank you so much!
--- // ---
We went to Hero Supermarket in Terogong, South Jakarta after dinner. My sister needed to buy some stuff. While The Almost Twins were busy shopping a little, Nick and I were just loitering around. He took another picture of a jar of mushrooms that was labeled: FUNGI. (Haha!)
He and I went to the 'net-bar' again before finally going home. All in all, it had been an ordinary day.
Thank God Hani and Mbak Bina would take over my job by showing him more around Jakarta while I'd be working.
The Author
