Suddenly, a bright light
flashing from somewhere far. Then dims and disappears a second later. Nobody ever
noticed it but the only one feels it, Frysanthia. She is just another
ordinary girl. Not the most beautiful one of her village, not so special for
most people, But yes she's a great girl, a very great friend. That's all about
Thia. However, the life of this girl is so ordinary, so straight, so usual, so far
from complication, conflict or problem. She's the girl that will always stick
to the routines. Wake up in the morning, go to school, read magazine at
bookstore on the way home, or sometimes play at park. So ordinary that nobody
would ever guess that the next chapter of her life will take her into something
beyond any expectation. Even beyond her own imagination.
--------------
She's there today when all
those flashing lights appeared. Sitting there alone on the park bench. Sunk at
her deep thought of someone who once ever meant everything to her. No, if you’re
thinking about boyfriend, you're completely wrong.
Giovanni, that's his name.
They met at elementary school and have already spent a very long time together
ever since. He's not the one said "I love you" to her. Not the one
who kissed and gave her red roses. No, he simply would laugh at her loud,
screwed up her diet with showing much delicious food. Meanwhile he also is the
one who saved her life at the Mathematics Exam, or from her bad breakup. He
preferred to call her with Fry instead of Thia, just because it sounds weird.
He could be a stupid guy who laughed at her big stomach after lunch, then ran
away when she chased him around the canteen. But he could be as vulnerable at
the same time, when he was crying over the phone, telling the pain when he'd
broken up with his ex before. They knew everything, every sorrow, every joy,
every story about each other. Ya, he's Thia best friend ever! So many memories
come up between them. The truth is, he has gone to California to chase his dream
to be a successful singer, which he has achieved already. The first day he left
was the hardest. They kept sending text message to each other. But it didn't
last long. Their busy life at last had truly taken the best of them. As time
goes by, Gio never replied the text, even other text that being sent by Thia.
Afterall, Thia’s message was just pending, never come up to Gio's cellphone.
They lost each other's contact ever since.
It doesn't mean Thia forget
about him. Like today, alone at the park, she misses him a lot, she cannot
resist. Even the flashing light that come up can only took her attention for a
minute while she then convince herself that the light is just her imagination.
That light is not real. She plants it at her mind dozen times.
Anyway, it's been one hour so
Thia decides to get back on her way home. Taking her bag from the bench, she
steps out her foot back to the road. She passes on the same narrow street she
always walks in, with the green field full of pinus tree in right and left
side. Through the same bookstore over there, which right now is full of people,
most of them are watching their friends play some kind of- new action video
game out loud. They look thrilled and scream a lot once their friend shoot at
each other or explode something on that game. It's weird to see people opening
video game corner inside a bookstore. It's actually not good to have those
noisy things here, where people would rather read quietly.
The thing that catches her
attention is not those noisy group of people. It's the magazine. Now all
magazines are all in there with the same cover, Giovanni's face. Curious of
what she has seen from outside, then she enter the bookstore and read one of
those magazine's headline.
"Giovanni, founded
disappeared from his own apartment at Costa Verde, California last night by his Manager. All
his relatives said nothing about Gio's lost."
How it makes Thia shocked.
She doesn't know what she has to do. Here it is, her best friend, the one she
misses for an entire life, now become the headline of almost every magazines.
Not because of his achievement, but because of a big lost. She cannot stand it
but running home, crying herself to sleep.
--------------
It's another bright sunny day
yet she still finds her heart being taken away from her body. It's been a day
since she read the news about Gio's lost at the magazines. Now it's not a hot
topic anymore- another gossip & celebrity news come and go, fill up all the
magazine's headlines. However, Thia still feels sick. There's nothing she can
do, though she really wants to do something about it. She's full of sorrow and
being more introvert right now.
Walking at the same street,
suddenly a guy appear running from her back and bump on Thia till she falls
down the street. What a harsh guy! He doesn’t stop to say his apology, not look
behind even once. Thia can only grumble while trying to stand up again. What
suddenly catch her attention that the harsh guy's wallet is accidently fallen,
down the street and being left behind. Thia is such a kind girl that she then
decides to chase that harsh guy to return his wallet.
"Hey you! Wait! Stop!
You left your wallet there!" Thia shouted while running away to chase the
guy.
The guy clearly hears Thia's
voice and stops his step the second after. But not the wallet that he then
grabs, it's Thia's arm. With his panic face, he pulls her up to run with him.
Thia suddenly panic, tries to escape herself, pulls her hands backwards. But
it's a small village in half isolated place. The street is so quite and
nobody's there to help her. This guy has a lot more power and also a bigger
body rather than Thia so he can pull her to follow her. But with Thia
continuosly fights back, it makes him harder to start running again.
"Trust me please, you
should follow me. Now it's dangerous for you to be here alone after he saw you
chasing me and grabbed my wallet in time back there. I promise you, I'll tell you
everything after this!"
And it's the first time Thia
can see this guy's face clearly. Those face, she feels like she has ever seen
him once before eventhough she is not sure where. His face is expressing a
great panic, but seeing his eyes, Thia can tell this guy is telling the truth.
So she runs with him down the street, hoping there would be other people whom
she can ask for help soon.
But the street is as quiet as
she never expects for. Remember that her cellphone isn't with her this time, it's
accidently left at her desk in her room this morning.
The sound of heavy step
echoing behind them. Thia looks back and finds there's the guy that now is
actually chasing them. The guy with black clothes from head to toe carrying a
huge black backpack. Big cap covers his head and also his face. It's
terrifying. Thia & the guy start to run faster. The man behind them starts
to be left behind again and disappeared.
Sun starts to set soon and
Thia starts to loose her energy from running. Panic makes her cannot control
her mind. Logically, she would run to her home, asking help to her family. But
in fact, they run into random direction. Now the pinus tree in their left and
right side, slowly disappear, replaced by a very wide long yellow grass field
as far as they can see. No bookstore, no home on sight. Still no people,
fortunately, also no sign from that terrifying guy who chased them back then. Minutes
later, no light on Thia's eyes either. Everything suddenly become blur then
dark.
--------------
What happen to the light?
Why is it all dark here?
What did I do wrong?
Is it real? It isn't just a
delusion, a total madness, is it?
You just found a wallet, you
wanted to return it to its owner
Then suddenly your safe
world.
The world that you've already
known for dozen years
Now's changing into something
that you have no idea at all
What did I do wrong?!
--------------
Light slowly fills up her
eyes. It is blurs at first when Thia starts to open her eyes. She finds herself
sleeping above the green grass, near a big tree. Beside her, is the guy- the
wallet owner, holding small-black-rectangle things on his hand with despair on
his face.
"Ah thank God you’re awake!"
The big relief comes to his face right away, followed by his next words.
"I don't know where we are. But I think we'll be safe here for a while. I
do really hope that guy is really left behind and cannot find us soon. You need
to rest, here.." He gives Thia a bottle of half-empty-mineral water.
Thia drinks all of it quickly
then she feels her energy is back to her body by the time. Now she starts to
feel that she needs to know everything. So she asks the most basic question.
"Who are you and why is that
guy chasing you all the time?" But many questions are continuing to come out
in her head "Why did you bring me in? Are you out of your mind?? I never
do something wrong to you?! Have I?! I don't even know anything, or you?! Why did
you bring me in?!! TELL ME EVERYTHING!!" She ends her words with loud
hysteria scream. Anger suddenly fills up her. Panic, scared, sad, despair,
everything mixed up. Stuck in here, helplessly, with the guy that she barely
even knows.
Shock expression appears on
this guy face to see that sudden anger on Thia, but he tries to calm himself as
fast as he can. Full of regret, he starts to apology so badly. Then he
introduces himself.
"My name is Josh, just call me Josh. I'm so sorry about the thing that happen to you, in fact you
have no guilt on anything. You have no idea how I could be so regretful of
this. I'm so stupid to drag any other people into this. I'm so sorry" The
tears of regret start to appear on his eyes.
"I'm sorry to disappoint
you but I have no idea of what's going on either. The only thing I know about
that guy, is that he's a very dangerous man. So here is the thing." He
then starts his story. "The first time I met him was in a small bar on the
border of this village. I don't even know who he is, never really seen him
clearly either. He always wears that black cap covering his face all the time.
At that moment, I'm blindly drunk that I didn't watch my step. I hit him and I
didn't have idea of who did first. But being drunken, I felt like it's him who started
everything. I couldn't be more surprised when I heard something fell very hard
to the floor. It's his cellphone and also mine. I got down, took my cellphone
then suddenly filled with anger because I found it no longer worked anymore. This
cellphone." He point out the small-black-rectangle thing he held on his
hand before.
"I tried to turn it on
again when you still rest before so we could just call the police, but it
didn't work out." The frustration expression comes up again on his face.
"Anyway, I'm so drunk at
that time, so I was trapped into deep anger and punched him right in his
stomach without even think. Then I ran. I didn't know why I was running. I was
drunk, I just kept running. And he chased me. As time goes by, at last I
suddenly came back to my consciousness. I felt stupid. Why I kept running all
the time like a child. I was intended to just get back to him and said sorry
and be responsible to all risk from my stupidity while suddenly, he blown up
the bookstore! Though our distance is pretty far at that time, I heard clearly,
the sound of big explosion and people screaming out there. I was panic. I still
want to live and I have known that these guy is really dangerous. So I just
kept running and I bumped on you. I was in a total disaster. This dangerous guy
is really angry with me, he still chased and searched me everywhere. And he saw
you there, he might thought that you are with me. He might kidnap you to get me
or do something even worse, I couldn't stand it.." His words stopped
there.
Thia suddenly has weird
feeling about this guy. His expression by the time he finished his story, his
eyes, it made some strange feeling. "Josh, do you know me? Do we ever met
befo-" her words were cut by Josh, while he screams "RUUUNN!"
Thia turns back, the
terrifying guy is right behind her. Either there's no time to run again or it's
just her who unconsciously want to finish all of this, she doesn't move. She is
just freezing, stands there, facing what they have to face.
"Don't go Fry, it's
me" the guy suddenly takes his black cap away.
It's him, it's Giovanni, the
one she misses the whole life. Standing there alone.
She cannot do anything but
run so fast to him. Hugs him so tightly, she never want to lose him again. Thia feels something that’s
lost for a long time, now is back. The happiest feeling in the world, indeed.
Time might have stopped. But
the sound of someone's yelling out there remind them that it's not just the two
of them. It turns out, Josh was still stood there with the most shocked
expression he could ever give.
"Oh my God! You are the
singer on television!! Your face felt familiar. And Thia knows you that well?! And you're the one who
chased me all the time?! What kind of life is that?!! What the hell
happen??!" He doesn't even move a bit, apparently shock of what just
happened.
Gio releases himself and give
the looks as if saying "I want to tell you something later" to Thia
while walking into Josh.
"I'm so sorry to make
you afraid.. Josh." He sees confusion on Josh's face. "I know your name
from your cellphone, here" he gives the exact same black-rectangle-thing
to Josh. There's no difference with the cellphone Josh has all this time. Only
that this cellphone is still completely working. The display is turned on.
"I want to give it back
to you all this time. I turned it on and it showed me that it's not mine, it's
yours. I just have no idea why you kept running away from me before" Gio
tells Josh.
Josh's still in a huge shock,
he doesn't move a bit. "But you blown up the whole bookstore! Oh God"
"It's the video
game!" Thia suddenly has those all moment back on her memory. The last time
she went there. New video game that is being rent in the corner of the
bookstore. The explosion, shooting guns and everyone's screaming once their friend
is being shot at that game.
Josh cannot be more
shock than that. The huge coincidence which happens today is unbelievable.
"And you ran the whole village just to return my cellphone?"
There's a long pause there
before Gio replies "You've already saw and knew what we have to know. Now,
I guess we all need to rest. I think I'll drop Fry home and you can go to your
home as well" he turns his head back and call Thia "Fry, so let me
drop you home or you want to go with him?" He clearly points Josh there.
"What? No! Why you even
ask for that? I miss you so much Gio, you have no idea!" She cannot resist
this feeling. Now she feels so safe, so happy, a feeling she never felt for so
long.
"I miss you more Fry.
This time I tell you, you really have no idea. I can tell but we need to rest.
Now let's go home"
Gio accompanies Thia to go
home while Josh walks into different direction.
--------------
"These all coincidence..
that we can meet again. It's just.. a crazy day that I could never forget.
Oh God, so you're just runaway the whole village just to return, Josh's
cellphone?" Thia laugh at him loudly that she'd never done for a long time
since they separated.
"Oh Fry, you still don't
change, do you? You're so funny, still funny! The laugh that made my whole day,
your stomach, the way you walk, everything, you still remember that, don't you?
You always can make me smile again, you really do. Oh God. You really think
that way? That I run the whole village just to return Josh's cellphone? No, I
run for a way better reason.. It's you."
"What?! I don't
understand. You meet me after you chased Josh for a while. Lalala~ don't flirt
me. I'm good with that~ Huahahahaha!" She finds it's easy to laugh with
him. It's not, when she's with anyone else ever.
"It's not you, I saw
first. Don't you see, it's your photos on his cellphone that made my spirit
come up again to find you!"
"What?! How could it
happen?" Speechless, Thia cannot speaks much this moment.
"What?! You don't even
know Fry? There's some photos of you on his cellphone edited into one, put by
him as his wallpaper. I want to find out more but the phone is locked and asked
for a password"
"OH MY GOD! I didn't
even know him before Gio, I promise! Yes I know I did feel like I had seen his
face somewhere, but I never really know him before! How could it happen?"
"So you don't even know Josh?" Smile and big happiness suddenly come up to Gio's face in the middle
of his tiredness. "I thought that he's someone special. Thought that I'm
being replaced already." He's hesitates for a while then continuing.
"Listen, I feel so scary to tell you this, I'm scared that you will laugh
at me, like you always did. I'm scared that you won't take this seriously, and
our friendship.. I don't know. But I got another chance to meet you and I won't
throw this chance away." He takes a deep breathe. "I love you. I love
you Fry, so much I won't ever give up on us again. I don't know when it happens,
it just happens. I lost my mind when I've gone to California. And my manager made
me more suffered by taking out my old cellphone, erased all contacts, changed
my number, didn't allow me to leave California and back to our old village. No he
took those all away and said that I should concentrate more to my career. Cause
the chance is very rare and God trust it to me. At the first time, I lived that
way so hard, but then I realized, you know what Fry? I love you, I really do! I
know you're the only girl in this whole universe that can make me happy, all
the entire time! It's not the friendship, it's love-"
"I love you too Gio, oh
God how I miss you, I never find anyone else that accept everything in me, the
way you do. Knows every story the way you know. I found new friends since I
moved here. But it's just different. It's friendship. Then I realize that my
feeling to you. It's not a friendship not anymore. It's love-"
"I realized that too
Fry, you know that! So I disguise myself. With all the black and big cap
covering my face, so that people wouldn't know, it's me. I got some privacy
back so I ran away from my apartment in Costa Verde, I went to our old village,
your old house. But people said you moved out already and they didn't know
where you moved. I didn't have my old contact at all, not even one. And here in
village, when people barely have the internet signal, not even familiar with the thing like Social Media- like
Facebook, so I really have no idea anymore. I just went into random direction,
disappointed of myself. Why was I so scared to admit this feeling before. And I
was being so late and you weren't there anymore. Full of despair, that night at
the bar, I was about to give up when suddenly that guy bumped on me. His cellphone
gave me new spirit. I chased him. With the proof on his cellphone, your photos,
I knew, I would find you. And here we are."
He looks at her eyes and
smile, so happily.
"I miss you, I love you
too Gio. How life's here so hard, without you.. I don't even know why I can
tell these things right now. Usually I'm just going to laugh at you, and push
you like this if you remember" She pushes him away and laughs.
"You know what Fry, you
made this all easier. Haha~ You know me right, I'm not that kind of guy, the
romantic one, haha~ but I tell you, this time I will change. Now give all your
attention to me, I will amazed you, huahahaha!" He grabs his backpack and
searches something deep inside. "Here, I bring this from California, if you
really think I'm not that kind of guy who give you roses, now you're wrong!
Haha!" He give the red roses to Thia, it's so beautiful.
"Now you would be my
girlfriend, wouldn't you?” Thia nods and smile. She looks at the roses happily.
"Ah ya, I almost forget.
Don't worry of taking care the roses I gave you. It's plastic! Lalala, yeyeye,
hahaha~" Gio had back as usual, laughs out loud and run away.
Now Thia is the one who chases
him away. Right in the middle of the sunset. But this time, with the happiest
feeling, ever.
--------------
Woken up in the park bench
alone, Thia took her face up from a big book on her lap. All the stories are
written there. Some great imaginary short stories that she wants to publish.
The fictional story, the extraordinary story that never exist on the real life.
The manuscript of her second short story collection, it's all finished at last.
Yes, she is Frysanthia. A
former writer in a small village who is frustrated of her ordinary life. So
straight, so usual, so far from complication, conflict or problem. Unlike all
her short stories which is full of adventure, that a lot of people have
expected.
Suddenly, a bright light
flashed from somewhere far. Then dimmed and disappeared seconds later. Nobody
ever noticed it but the only one felt it, Thia. She'd fallen asleep while
sitting there alone at the park bench to finish her manuscript, when suddenly
those lights woken her up.
She so surprised, she woke up into her consciousness
and turned back to the source of the light. There's this guy, she feels familiar
with his face somewhere she doesn’t even remember. And that is the source of
the light. The light from the small-black-rectangle thing he held on his hand.
It's the blitz of his cellphone,
He used to take photos of
her.
