A Farewell

No, not mine. Other people's. :-)

We had a farewell today. A friend of us is retiring. He is a retiree from government service before he joined us 9 years ago. So he had his second retirement today. Well, his contract ended actually and since he is an old man don;t you think it would lend a nice ring to call it a retirement instead of resignation? Or even contract termination.

A beauty coincidence is that, this old man shares the same birth day and birth month as I am. And we both left and will be leaving in the same month. He is a very nice person, very down to earth, a wise person and can be a little bit nerdy sometimes saya suka mengusik dia. I would sure miss his stories about his kebun pisang, mangga harum manis and his healthy diet. No more homegrown bananas for me. Sad.

After that another colleague that I rarely see came to my room. With his right hand shoved in front. I quirked my eyebrow. He said "I heard you are leaving". I said "Not today" beacuse I thought he must have somehow gotten it wrong. It was somebody else's farewell.

"I know. I might not be around" he said. Ok.
And then both of us went silent. We rarely see each other, we rarely spoke. He is a man with little words, but I don't know why I always feel a little bit intimidated around him.

It was awkward. I don't know what to say. He clearly wants to say something but I guess the news of me leaving came as a shocked to him it render him speechless.
After a long pause, he said "Going somewhere?"
"Nope. I'll be around"
Another pause. His gaze was intent. I guess he still need time to digest the shocking (to him) news and my answer.
I know, most people say my reason doesn't match. That's why nowadays I refrained myself from answering such question.
He breaks the silence again, "A wise decision"
Serta merta I feel relieved. Finally, someone agrees with me without me saying so why. He is a wise man. And a very observant one. Now I know why I feel intimidated by him. He could tell and read between the lines.
I smiled. And he left.

But it was really awkward. He know things that I don't want to say out loud. Things that I kept to myself. Things that some people pressured me to spill. But I kept mum. But he, he doesn't need to ask further. He knows. He understands. And he respects.