Kapitel 5: #5. The Conversation
My niece and I, we're like oil and water. We just don't mix.
I'm inside of a bar, alone with peace to myself. She's out with her friends for a wild time, bunch of girls and guys, to the local mall to spend money on watching a movie on a big screen while sitting and leaning on a red chair for most likely 2 hours. That's not including the possibility of her and her girlfriends taking a hundred selfies in the bathroom. Looks like she has forgotten the concept of the internet, where she could have streamed movies for free.
Oh well I can't really judge. She's all grown up, for a high school kid at least.
I've only watch a handful of movies from the West, and I find it surprising that there's always a bar fight or confrontation involved, if not a plain meeting. Meanwhile at this bar over here in the south side of Bogor. Nothing.
This place is a ghost town, except the bartender.
I've always been more of a wine person ever since I got my first of taste of it at my sister's wedding back in 1982. First time the drink just gets sipped into my mouth and I'm like whoa. It's obviously very normal for anyone over 21 or even near my age to drink alcohol, although I've seen more people take out cigarettes and vaporizers, occasionally running the risk race of getting cancer as early as an early bird.
Not to say alcohol can't kill you. I know my own limits though.
The bartender, a youth somewhere in his 20s, provides me another shot of wine.
"Just by yourself Miss?" He asked.
"You don't think I'm one of those women who spends their night out hanging out with other women and then laughing out really loud right?" I asked
"Probably not."
"Exactly. I am who I want to be."
Phone was ringing. "Hello?"
"Aunt Rifi?"
"Hey Bunga! How are things?"
"Better." Her voice was full of joy. No surprise there. "I think I'm going to be longer here than expected. Roads are really crowded. Can you tell my mom that we'll be late at say around, 10.30?"
"Why don't you do it?"
"Cause for some reason she's not answering her phone. I called her three times. It's going to be four if I try again."
"Okay, I'll message your mother about you being late."
Soon, I could hear a phone ringing from here.
"I guess I'll have to get that." The bartender said. "If anybody come here for a drink, tell them I'll be back soon." I gave a thumbs up to him. Sure enough, by the time the bartender left to go to the back, and I could hear the door opening behind me. I wagreeted with the presence of a man wearing a black fedora, with white stripes and even an ace card sticking out. He was also wearing a black suit, the only other color than black being his very white tie.
"Nice hat." I tell him by the time he took it off and put it next to me.
"Closing time?" he asked.
"Nah, the bartender's grabbing a call in the back. Not sure why they have a phone there though, then again this place isn't exactly the most glamorous bar in this part of town."
"Understandable." He said as he laid both his arms on the bar counter.
Silence. Just myself and this new guest. I doubt a phone would get me to kill time here.
"Waiting for someone?" I try to start some small talk with the man.
"Hardly." He replied. "More like getting away from someone."
"Ouch."
My phone buzzed. I picked up and I saw a message from my sister.
Can't pick up Bunga tonight. I have to attend a meeting. Have her go home by herself. I left the key under the door mat.
"Excuses." I say under my breath.
"Everything alright?"
"I wish. My sister was supposed to pick up her daughter, but then gives this excuse of having to attend a meeting at work. At this hour? Seriously? Excuses. No wonder my niece rarely gets attention from her. Oh well, I can't be angry in the end. I have to sympathize with it."
"Just like that?"
"She's still family, just like the rest of the people in my family."
"And you'd still maintain a healthy relationship with them? Even if one of those family members screw up?"
"Well I've never had anybody in my own family screw up, considering my sister's all married and happy, and my parents are as healthy today. But that doesn't mean I can't imagine at least what I would feel if somebody in my family screw up. Why? Somebody in your family screwed up?"
"Something like that."
"Well, whatever issue it is, I'm sure you're going to settle it in a nice way." I filled my glass with some more wine. I paid for an entire bottle, and I'm filling it myself for tonight.
"I didn't think taking a life would be so complicated." He said. "It's not like in the movies."
I nearly choked what I sipped.
Surely he can't be serious? He must be drunk, or maybe he's so mad at what happened in his family that he started saying things like that.
"My brother was in a relationship. Nothing was out of the ordinary for me and my family. Nothing at all. His girlfriend was the embodiment of a great partner, a woman whose personality traits were as excellent as her looks, but we personally cared for how she treated him. Everything was fine until something happened, but it was how he handled it that really pissed me off. He went out for a walk around town just after she couldn't come to their date. Hours later he finds her with another man at a store in a mall full of people, then goes head on with them point blank." The man smashes his hands. "Boom! Just like that. My brother was as blind as a bat, not even his ears could help him realize that he was literally beating a man and downright slamming his girlfriend with words on how he felt. We as a family, we couldn't take that. My parents couldn't take it, and I joined in. We were more than hurt really. He injured somebody's son physically and somebody's daughter mentally. We didn't want to get involved in a possible trial for what he did to the man his girlfriend cheated on him with, so my parents cut him loose. But I was pissed off the most." he paused, before glaring at me. "I visited his house and I did what I did. I gave to him what he gave to that man. I lost sense. My brother at that time wasn't the one I educated, nor my parents educated. He wasn't like he was back then."
I wasn't holding my glass of wine at this point. The man in front of me was that agitated. He seemed like blowing up in anger. There also wasn't any chance of me making a move, thinking it could get worse if I did something.
"Why are you telling me this?"
He looked at me. "People have a tendency to tell their life story to others, even when they're not drunk."
"No drunk person would talk like you." I told him. "Let alone confess to what could only be a murder."
"At least I don't spend money on drinking wine.
"Hey! This is my way of leisure." I tell him angrily.
He looks at me then at the glass and bottle of wine right next to me. "Leisure or releasing yourself from anger?"
"Does it matter?"
"Seems to me that you're drinking just to avoid being angry at your workaholic sister who seems to care more for her work than spending time with her daughter."
"You listen here, you don't know my sister, just like I don't know your brother. Even if my sister can be at work way too much, even if she can be a workaholic, even if she works damn hard for the sake of making a living, she's still my sister. Unlike you, I can forgive my sibling for their flaws."
"Then why are you still drinking?"
"I'm not the one who committed a murder." I signaled toward him.
"No, but you are the one who's had too much to drink."
"Miss?" said a voice from my right. It was the bartender.
"Miss you alright?" he asked. "I heard some voices."
I looked back to the direction where I saw the man with the fedora. He was gone. Poof. Just like that. "What?" I began to stumble upon my seat. The bartender's eyes widened and his voice raised as I seem to fall. Falling to my knees on the floor, I looked left and right, up and even down. The man wasn't here.
The bartender called me again. I ignored him as I went on my feet, and went out the front door. He was gone.
"Not possible." I told said returning to my seat before facing the bartender, who asked what was wrong. "There was a man here. He was in black, had a fedora with him."
"I just got back from answering a phone in the back Miss." The bartender told me. "There's nobody here but you."
"But you said you heard voices."
"Your voice." He said as his eyes pointed to the glass of wine and its bottle. "I think you've had too much to drink."
Never mind. I told him before I paid him and went over to my car. There was no man at all. Unbelievable. Can't believe wine made me do that. Going into my car I rang my sister's number.
"Yes Rifi? I still have a meeting."
"You mind if I pick you up?"
"Oh?"
"I don't mind. Really. I'll pick you up then we'll pick up Bunga together."
"Oh of course." My sister said in a cheerful tone. "I'm surprised you're willing to pick me and my daughter at this time."
"Just trying to be a good family member. That's all."
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein