Kusoi

Typical. When one gets bored, they procrastinate, especially when they have something to do. I was supposed to be studying, but instead, I played video games in the middle of the exam month. The gap between my previous paper date and my next one was about a week, so I wasn't worried, but I should've.

For a few hours, I sat on my favourite chair with a controller in my hands, killing raiders in an apocalyptic world, destroyed by a nuclear fallout. I had all the time in the world that night. The room was cozy and I had nothing to worry about.

I thought everyone in the house was asleep, but my dad opened the door slightly, in the middle of night, and I figured he just wanted to see me, making sure everything was okay. He smiled, and I noticed he had a plastic bag in his hand. He lifted it and asked, "Hungry?" Before I could answer, he saw it through my face that I was hungry, so he continued, "We eat this later together." Then he closed the door and went to his room.

I laughed, because it was random; My dad came in the middle of the night, asked if I was hungry and wanted to have a midnight snack together.

A few minutes later, he opened the door again and went into my room. He had the plastic with him, so I immediately paused my game and followed him. He sat down on the carpeted floor and insisted me to join him. I sat down with him, and he reached inside the plastic bag. I expected food in a plastic or styrofoam container, but he pulled out a lunch box and a small plastic container, inside was filled with white powder. I was really curious of what he brought.

He told me, "A friend of mine made this for me, it's called 'Kusoi'." I never heard of it before, so I began to wonder how it would look like. He gently opened the lunch box and the whole box was packed with brown cakes. I was surprised. He opened the small container as well, grabbed one of the cakes, dipped it into the white powder and ate it.

I was eager to try it, so I took one, did what he did and took a bite. The cake was cold, and eating it with the powder made it even better. I didn't expect it would be that delicious. I took another one and ate it without the powder,  surprisingly, it was still tasty. I started asking my dad questions about it; what is the white powder, how is the cake made, is it a traditional food and more. Apparently, the white powder was coconut powder, I didn't expect that. I guessed my dad was thirsty because I was too, so I left my room for a while, grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge and went back.

After we finished, dad stood up and told me throw away the plastic bag along with the coconut powder. I thought it would be a waste throwing the powder, but I threw it anyway. No sense of keeping it since all the cakes was already in our stomach. He left the room, and I sat on my chair, smiled and continued my video game.

Truly, it is one of the moments I will cherish forever. Being with my dad in the middle of the night, eating together the best cake I never tried before in my life. Father and son bonding.

Parallel Universe

She told me to wait for her. It seemed like she’s just saying that, like she wanted to abandon me, but by some means, part of me believed it. So I sat down and waited for her. A friend of mine came by while I was waiting, and we talked. After a few minutes have passed, my friend left, and a dose of doubts began to pour inside my head. I started to think that she actually did ditch me, like a blind date gone wrong where the person wanted to go to the toilet, but actually left the other person behind. That would be really rude.

She came back, and as soon as I saw her, I stood up like a recruit when a high-rank officer comes in. Apparently, she was just grabbing her jacket, which reassured me. She looked prettier, as ever. I thought I would never see her again. Seeing her made me smile. “Let’s go”, she said in a polite manner.

Normally when I’m with her, I would be nervous; I will stay quiet, be shy and awkward, and fidget a lot. Fortunately, I didn’t show any of those. I somehow kept all of them to a minimum.

“Alright.”

We went outside. The weather was quite nice, it was cloudy, and the temperature was just right, not too hot nor cold.

To be honest, we barely talk. We don’t know each other that well. But this time, in some way, we both felt we knew each other for a long time, like we were childhood friends.

We walked together aimlessly, like we were strolling in a park, beside one another. We didn’t mind where we were heading. We just talked; we exchanged our friendship and shared our stories.

We came across a building that seemed haunted. The walls of the building were dirty, and the grass around the building were half-dead. It looked like an abandoned school. I believe we stumbled upon a ghetto, where everything appeared awful.

I began to feel concern of our surroundings and what could happen to us. So I asked her, “Aren’t you scared walking through here? I feel like it’s haunted.” “Not really”, she responded in a calm behavior.

I strike her as a person who’s not afraid of horror films nor ghosts. Perhaps she has a strong spirit within her that causes her to react calmly in danger situations.

“Well, I am, because it’s creepy and it’s giving me the heebie-jeebies, and I feel weird about this place” I informed her. “Well, that is true”, she agreed.

She was lovely, friendly, honest and sweet. The point where we walked together and talked was where I felt like I’m home, as always when I’m with her. Seemed like we were close friends; we acted like there was no history between us, we just went with the flow and we weren’t shy of each other anymore.

Re-imagining the moment again and again makes my eyes misty and warms my heart. But ever since then, my heart felt emptier than before, because it felt real.