RE1

Sarah Kollwitz is pretty sure that she will die right here, right now. She hasn’t eaten anything since this morning and her last water intake was four hours ago, right before she started her shift in the museum. Judging by the look of the conductor who keeps going back and forth between coaches, she knows that an accident had happened on the railway and that could mean that someone was dead. Sarah kept saying to herself that dehydration is nothing compared to the suffering that the said person felt before, but for her this is so close to almost dying, therefore nearly the same.

“Schon wieder, ne?” She looked at the person sitting behind her to share her frustration.

“Sorry, mein Deutsch ist nicht so gut. Was meinen Sie?”

The guy put down his book, Sarah caught herself off guard, she didn’t think that the short talk as an invitation to share an evening with him, but before she could pack her laptop and ran away, the guy soft voice landed on her ear, and the riddles of where he came from and what’s his story to land on her country glued her to her seat.

It’s fascinating to see how grief falls upon him while he hears the news that railways suicide often happened in Germany.

“Good news it’s not your sister that is outside, huh?” she can’t bear to crack a joke just to make his almond eyes light up again. “Not really.” His answer felt flat until she couldn’t bring another word to come out of her mouth, but she couldn’t bear the silence. “Do you know that we have to take a bus in Düren now?” And from there she finds a way for him to tolerate her until they arrive in the station.

“I’m Budi by the way, nice talking to you…” The introduction sounds so much like a goodbye and Sarah wouldn’t let that happen. The truth is, he is the coolest Asian guy that she’s ever seen, beside DPR Ian, a Korean guy that captures her watching hours the last two years. It’s not that he got his charisma, nor his outfit is as striking. In fact, everything about him on paper felt, well, short. It feels uncomfortable to walk with him in this heels, she wished to take it off, just so that he shouldn’t elongate his neck while they talk about the curse of Deutsche Bahn. But the contradiction sparks something in her, something that she wants to hide from her boyfriend, something that she wants to learn more of.

Now it was time to get out of the train, the heavy rains came out of nowhere. She handed him her umbrella, told him to keep it as a welcome gift. If there’s one or two things that she understood for commuting between these two cities, it’s that always expect suns in Köln and rain in Aachen, never vice versa. She almost offered him her number, not only to get her umbrella back but also his intention, but she knows too well that mystery is what makes a woman a woman and a man on his toes. So she waited until he asked, only to just answer it by, “This city is too small, i’m sure we’d meet again, until then keep it close by, okay?”