Table for One: Papat
Papat, 9pm, 20th Feb 2010, Thai Accent, Vivo City
Papat told me there will always be a point in our lives where the chemicals in our bodies will go against our will and our plans, to want for us to be with somebody. Sitting across from her at the dining table, in a chair that was meant to be empty, I shrugged at the idea wondering when something like that will come to me and brushed the thought aside being contented the way I am alone.
Yet, months later, in the middle of this journey, I feel those chemicals vaporizing through my skin, causing a warm sensation above my shoulders and close to my neck. Occasionally that heat will it travel to my cheeks, and makes little carousel circles around it. Even in times when we are not together, I'll smile occasionally thinking about your sweet gestures and laugh now and when I replay to myself some of your jokes. Have those chemicals taken over me, I wonder. Has it made me silly?
Even after meeting Papat that night, we continue to exchange thoughts. Now and then, she will share with me snapshots of her children. It tickles me all the time to see them strike silly poses at a twisty-balloon party or pretend to be superheroes with diapers over their head. It brings me joy when in pause for a breather between work, I'll go online just to look at them play even in when it comes through in the stillness of a photograph.
There was a photograph I encountered of Papat's daughter that made me chuckle to tears. It was a portrait of Anya with a plaster over her upper lip and tears drops dotting her a face.
"What happened to little Anya?" I asked Papat. Papat says that she was running around in the room and collided head on to her brother. "She didn't need the plaster", she added, "she just wanted her father's attention."
I can never think of any thought more adorable.
Just like children after a fall, it will be nice for both of us to dust the sands off our knees and continue play again. This time, you can be sure that if you'll collide with anyone and feel pain, I'll be glad to be the one to put on that plaster to make you feel better once more.
How timely it is, that it is at this midpoint, the tables begin to turn. When before I look across to a seat that has been left empty, we now face each other. I don't care how long or how short this encounter might be. I'm just glad for us to be sharing this table for two.