Idylls

I was over at the Clinic for my medical check-up when curiosity overwhelmed my habitual silence and so i asked:

-Dokter, dokter dah berapa lama ada dekat sini?
-You think?
-Long time? As long as i can remember
-25 years
-Okay, that's a long time.
-Yep
-Funny you should ask. Sometimes when someone i know crosses the street, i can't recall his or her name but i can remember what ails him or her or what was the problem with his or her mother or father.
-Okay, you've been here wayy too long (which of course, i didn't say out loud).

I've been going to the Doctor since, forever. Hell, my whole family has been his patients since time immemorial. My family, my aunts and uncles to the Grandmaster. We've all been his patients. Twenty freakin five years. That is how long he's been around the place. In a way he has become a permanent fixture of the place and honest to God, i kinda like that idea. Open up a small practice somewhere, maybe here and stay there until you become a part of the landscape or like the Doctor, to have old age misplace the names of the people who had been my frequent clients but to still have remembered what i represented them for. Oh to dream that life would pass slowly in this day and age!