Handsome, fair skinned and well-mannered
He was kind to me, helping me with my projects in physics
A transferee student was I on my last year in high school
We became the best of friends
He and his friends would join my all girl group during class breaks
Our classmates used to heckle us, as a beautiful pair since we were both fair-skinned, they say
The sparkle in our eyes when we together say it all, perhaps?
Did they smell something scintillating in the air?
Yes, we got tickled by their jest
But we were young then, naive about love
Falling in love was far from our thoughts
We never talk about the special feelings we have for each other
The splendour of being together even with friends was already a blessing for us.
Days before our graduation
He gifted me a pink handkerchief
His name thinly sewed on it
After graduation, we went our separate ways
We got lost in each other
But he was often a guest in my mind
Reminiscing our happy days in school
I missed his pranks, his voice and his crispy laughter
I’d look at the handkerchief and his name on it
I wonder if he missed me as well?
A year after, I threw away the handkerchief
Many more years and everything about him was buried in oblivion
I had my career and my own family to nurture.
One day I read his name in a newspaper
He’s already a prominent medical doctor
And I am a doctor as well though in a different field, coincidence?
I still remember him so well
The floodgates opened up a memory lane of decades past
But no longer was the feeling there, no, not anymore
It was erased by time and circumstances.
.
