The Man Who Sold The Words

Ini adalah tugas creative writing yang ditugaskan oleh seorang dosen beberapa minggu yang lalu. Bahasanya terlalu lugas dan tidak ada yang menarik, Grammarnya mungkin masih ada yang salah. Judulnya terinspirasi dari judul lagu Nirvana "The Man Who Sold The World". Anyway, selamat hari blogger nasional!

I remember the first time we met. The boy was sitting in a corner of a coffee shop—two floors coffee shop with a bookstore in the first floor. He knocked the table in rhythm with the beat of the song while reading a book. He wore a flannel shirt which the sleeve rolled up to the elbow, ripped jeans, and a pair of converse. By his side there was nobody but a bag. He also wore very thick glasses which he did no need to pull up because his pointed nose already helped to hold them. His lips were not too red because I thought he likes drinking coffee, a black coffee, like the one which was served in front of him. His hair was long enough for a man. Sitting in a coffee shop while watching him, and listening to 90s Britpop song was like going to several years ago.

            Our second meeting was in the same place. I had sat there for almost an hour. I put on my headphone and listened to Landon Pigg’s Fallin in Love at a Coffee Shop. When the song had not finished, I turned down the volume because there was a boy stood at the small stage and introduced his club. He said that they wanted to read some poems. I put off my headphone. Some poem readers had read the poems, plainly. Then, the man whom I met several days ago appeared. His appearance was the same, a T-shirt with Radiohead logo which remained me of Avril Lavigne’s Here is How to Not Growing Up music video covered with a flannel with different color from last week, and blue jeans with the same converse. He started to read the poem. It was also plain but there was honesty when he read the poem. There was something inside him which wanted to be shown.

            Now, this is our-I-do-not-know-how-many-times we meet. He is still consistent with his style. We have started to talk to each other after he said that he has a library near this place and everybody could come. I went there. I knew several things about him. He is an introvert part time writer. I always remember when he said that he is a man who sells the words. “Because this world is too big to be sold, so I sell the words.” That was the first time I saw his smile.  He continued “Moreover, based on a survey, a person who writes is less depressed than they who don’t.” I saw an irony when he said that. However, he might be right. Just because he is introvert does not mean he is unhappy.

He only lives with his grandfather who is a journalist. His parent got an accident when he was five. Before me, he never had a close friend. However, he always tells me about a girl he adores so much. A beautiful girl who is elder than us—we are in the same age—who is very cheerful. He says to me “Her smile, I think, is the biggest gravitation on this earth.” He smiles, for the second time. My heart skipped a bit when he says it. May be because of his smile or may be because of something else. May be because I am surprised that he could love someone, or may be because I am surprised that he loves someone else.