A Fateful Meeting

As I was enjoying my coffee in a cafe, I realised there were many ways to identify a person's character with a few well-placed ideas. My example was of a youth that entered the cafe through the side door. The young man was welcomed by a waitress as soon as he walked through the door and he was directed to a seat four tables away from me.

Firstly, I saw the limp. He was staggering a little when he ascended the steps into the cafe. Then, I noticed his bandaged left knee where a few spots of dried blood had stained the rice coloured bandages. That lead me to conclude that the injury was recent especially how he winced when forced himself to exert upright. I mentally shed some pity for him whenever he had the painful look on his features. Speaking of which, he looked kind of familiar...

There was a dragon tattoo on his upper left arm. I noticed the Asian influence in the design. Since the colour was slightly faded, I gathered it to be five years old.Somehow, that particular tattoo reminded me of a certain person whose name and face I couldn't remember because of a brain lapse. My private thoughts was disturbed as I saw him staring at me. I was shocked and clumsily turned my gaze in another direction.

As a few moments had passed, I decided it was safe to turn back but instead he young man was walking towards me! Again I whirled my gaze to avoid him. Before that, I saw a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. It was unlit. I gathered he was either chewing on it or trying to quit smoking. Either way, he had a disreputable look because of it.

Furthermore, I bet he was a certain blooming model or fashion designer. I couldn't help myself to be mesmerized in his professional style of walking. It was definitely not of a cheap con artist! Anyway, I had enough of this tension where he won't stop staring at me so I decided to exit the cafe.

"Joice! I thought we would never see each other again!" The young man's voice loomed over me out of nowhere. Meanwhile, I tried to recompose my posture and turned to face him.

"Do I know you? I can't seem to recognise you," I replied carefully.

"My name starts with an 'A'," He flashed a playful wink as he gave a hint.

"Allen?!" The hint helped. I was so surprised that I couldn't manage any other words anymore. Allen was my childhood friend who had never bothered to dress properly. Of course I wouldn't have recognized him with all these flamboyant branded outfits.

"Glad you remembered me! I believe it had been three years since we had any contact! How are you?" Allen's eyes shimmered with excitement.

"Oh, I am still furthering my studies in Language and Literature. I have decided to be a playwright. As for you, I am sure things had been smooth in New York?" He left to pursue his dreams as a model and was lucky to be offered a permanent place to train in New York. Back then, we were still fresh graduates from high school.

"A playwright suits you perfectly, Karen. I had always admired how you write wonderful stories and the way you brought gold medals back home," He had the same old cheeky smile on him again as he continued. "You know, there were ups and downs during my training in New York. It was tough leaving aside the fact that I had yet to blend in... However, I had completed it successfully and I am working as a magazine model. Though, I tripped and broke my knee last month so they let me off as a temporary holiday to recover. I think it is pure fate we meet each other here."

"I agree..." I whispered softly. I had missed him so much.