Cigarette

Chapter two: yellow ledbetter

He was a man in black, well not so black, but blacks enough to be categorized in black-skin class. When I first met him I was 13 years old, he was shorter than me, his hair combed to the middle, a standard hair style for a young teenager who just popped their puberty and trying to impress young innocent girls with his pretentious macho-like hair style. Just like yesterday, I still remember completely the day we first met, the day we started being friends, and god knows he still one of my best friends on earth. It was Monday, the first day of school, a new school for us, in the middle of Pahang in a place called Muadzam Shah. He wore a blue shirt tucked well in his dark blue trouser; there was a small yellow line and blue line striped tie on his neck, and a pair of very very shiny black shoes. Well, in the name of our friendship, I swear, that was the look the style that you can never longer see in him to this say. So handsome, so short, so naïve and many years ahead, there was no major different in his face, he just does not aging well. Fuck him. After the first period, he came to me and began to develop some small talks; the first question he asked me was about where I came from. As a young boy who never left his hometown before, who never had in his life stranded to alien like culture where everyone came from different state, I answered..

“ aku orang Ghraub”

He replied

“Ghraub? Oh Raub”

Oh yes, the people of Raub usually pronounce R to Gha. And since that day, I began to change my thick hometown slang to standard slang so it would not sound so different. I don’t want to be different. I want to click well with them. I did not have any friends there, the only person I knew was Fazlan Soid who came from my hometown too. Ah it was 14 years ago, with slang or standard slang would be no different now. But, with that first ice breaking, we became friends and many of my memories had him too in it. Farid Zaki, his life just ended today. To the age of 24, he had tried his best as a good human being and now his journey has ended. He was a kind hearted man and easy to be with. He was good at giving advices and a great listener. You can trust him in anything but never left your cigarette’s box to him because it just will end not in the situation you wanted to. He had many girlfriends, a proof of how sweet talker he had been and even a man will misunderstood either he tried to score or just making sweet conversation. Congratulation, and good luck on the other side, Farid Zaki. I will always love you!.