A Single Meeting

I couldn’t tell for sure why this memory suddenly came flashing in front of my eyes, maybe…yes, maybe it was because I was looking at my son sleeping peacefully in his crib. A small human being who needed my guidance and my care through some parts of his future life.

When I was ten years old, about twenty years ago, I met a stranger whose presence seemed to linger in my memory for decades. This stranger was an old man around fifties, I thought so when I first – and the only – time I saw him. As I grew older and looked back at that moment, I thought he might not even be in his forties yet, pain had made him older than his real age.

He was leaning on the fence of our family’s farm, looking so tired and lonely.

“What are you doing in my property?” Said I.

“Your property?” the man replied.

“Yes! This is my dad’s farm. See over there!” I was pointing at the big house that looked small from where we were standing. “That’s my house”

“Aaa…then, it is your father’s property, not yours,” He replied with plain expression.

“Well, what belongs to my father is mine because I am his son!” I raised my voice out of dismay.

“Not unless you buy it or inherit it.”

“Aw whatever!”

Then we both became quiet. I was so annoyed with him but I couldn’t make my feet dragged me to another place, I just sat there looking at him. Then the man sat with his back on the fence pole, and like a cow being dragged in its nose, I sit not far from him. I had no reason to do so and I was also annoyed by him but he also intrigued me in a way I couldn’t explain.

“How old are you?” He suddenly asked me.

“Ten″

“Hmm…I thought so,” When he said it, there was cloud over his eyes. He remained silence for few moments.

“I have a son about your age once. A handsome and obedient boy. But I was a bad father. I look like a bad father, don’t I?”

I shrugged as my answer for his question. How do I know how a bad father looked like when I was still ten? He smiled seeing my shrug as an answer.

“You’re just ten, how do you suppose to know how a bad father looks like, right?” He said with a smile and looked directly at me.

“Wow! That was awesome, Sir! You could guess my thought. Are you a hyp…hyps..hypsosist, sir?”

Instead of answering me, he laughed so loud. I smiled with him even though I didn’t know what he was laughing about.

“No, I am not a hypsosist…I don’t think no one in this world is a hypsosist”

“You’re wrong! I saw it on TV, a hypsosist was reading someone’s mind.”

He simply smiled without explaining me and correcting my mistake. He remained silent again afterward.

“Why are you a bad father, Sir?” I tried breaking the silence between us.

“I abandoned him,” He gave a long sigh and continued “I thought if I could give him anything he wanted, he would be the happiest boy in the world, so I worked hard to fulfill his needs”

“Sounds like a good father to me. My dad always talking about a lot of things I don’t understand when I asked him to buy me something”

“Does he play with you?”

“Yeah…we always played football, badminton and other sport there” I pointed the left side of my house. “Dad is really good with sport even though he is only a farmer.”

“You have a good dad then” The cloud appeared on his eyes again. “I never played with my son, always so busy with my work. I bought him everything he wanted and needed but I didn’t give him the thing he desired the most, time to play with me, to spend time with me. I brushed him off every time he asked me to do something together…all in the name of work.”

“Dad also works all the time and he even makes me work in the morning.”

“Having this big property, I can see how busy your dad must be” He smiled again at me “But somehow, he had time to spend with you, right?”

I nodded.

“Most of the time, I went to work before my son woke up and got back home after he was asleep.” His eyes were watery at that time. “Listen kid, you seemed to have a good father, follow his step, ‘kay. Enjoy every minute you have with him. And be like him when you grow up and have your own children. No matter how much money you’ve spent for your children it will never replace the time you spend with them. Time is priceless and you can’t go back to the time you have left behind. Do you understand kid?”

“Sort of.”

“Good! You might not understand now, but just remember everything I said, you’ll understand it one day,” He gave me another smile.

Then, I heard my dad calling for my name, it was time for me to help him with some chores.

“Go to your father, kid.” He stood up and I did the same.

“Well…bye then,” I was few paces from him and turned my body at his direction. “So, you will spend time with your son now?”

Another smile, a very sad smile, he said “I wish I could”.

He left me looking at him for few seconds then he turned away to the direction opposite me. And I ran to my dad.

I never saw that man again. I didn’t understand his last words back then, but now I knew what it meant. My dad had given me a great live experience and that stranger had put it in words. I make a pledge in my heart while I was looking at my son and remembering the event by that fence. I will be like my dad and will try not to be like that man. I wondered what had become of him now.