Karma

Hi! The name's Karma, but usually I was called K. So my job, in this world, is to make sure everyone receive what they deserve. Not exactly a walk in the park really, considering how complex the relationship between each and one human being.

Right now, I am floating above a young woman - a beautiful one, with elaborate flaming red curls and cute freckles across her face. She is on her way to meet her bestfriend, the one she has not seen for seven years. They are sort of drifting apart on their junior year in college. Now he has just came back from his semester abroad for his postgraduates, and her book tour has conveniently done at the same day he reached their hometown so they decided to meet.

To catch up on life.

To resolve misunderstanding.

To rekindle old love.

...Or at least that is what she is thinking right now. But my duty is to give her what she deserves.

Which is no fun.

You see, she thought she has some kind of romantic feeling towards him. Also, she thought he might be feeling the same way. The thing is, she was the one who start the misunderstanding back then, seven years ago. She was placing him as her safety net in almost all along her romantic relationship with others. So her karma is - not to spoil anything - to hear him telling the dreamy, fairy tale-esque story on how he met his fiancee. Must be a big slap on her face.


----

I was on my way to meet my best friend since first day of college, when the freshmen were assembled in the sport hall for the opening of orientation week. He was standing right beside me and introduced himself. His bubbly, carefree personality quickly caught me, and the next thing I knew we were eating lunch together at the cafeteria almost everyday. We chatted, laughed, and studied together. It felt so great to have someone who had your back, no matter what.

I had to admit that the reason of we grew apart was my selfishness. As I knew he always had my back, I began to take him for granted. He was kind, mature, and reliable; I was foolish, careless, and vain. Not a good combination. So one day in our sophomore year, I was telling him how I fell for his frat brother and whether he was willing to set me up with him. Which was not the first time I asked him for that kind of help. He just could not take it anymore, he went and we drifted apart. Each day, every single day since then, I cannot stop thinking how foolish I was not to realize his feeling to me and mine to him.

And there he was. Already sit on a table for two in a small tea shop on the corner of the street. And there it was. The gleam. A gleam in his eyes every time I meet him. The gleam of love and wonder, as in the eyes of new dads when they hold their babies for the first time. Then he smiled at me.


And I came to a halt. There was something different. There was something missing.

The butterfly.

The tingling, warm, light feeling in my stomach every time I meet him.

It's not there anymore. Not that I wasn't glad to see him, especially after all this time. But still, it was so bizarre not to feel that way anymore.

"Hi, how's life?" he stood up, pulled me into quick embrace, pulled my chair out, and smiled as he sat again.

"Same old, how's yours?" I asked, a bit unsure of how should I deal with the lost butterfly.

He just raised his left eyebrows as if to say "well, you know", and smiled.

Then he began to ask me about my book tour, which I answered less enthusiastic than usual as I was still wondering about the lost butterfly.

Naturally, he noticed the change.

"Are you alright?"

I shook my head a bit and tried to give him a convincing smile, "yeah, I'm good. How about you? Tell me everything new!" I tried to push the case of lost butterfly away. I missed him, after all, we had not had proper conversation for seven years.

"Ah, I won't bore you with the tale of my courses and essays and thesis and whatever," he chuckled and hesitated a bit, "but I have a news I want to tell you."

He smiled.

Still, nothing. Which was weird. It was the smile that had been haunting my dreams these past few weeks as the anticipation of meeting him was growing.

He fidgeted a little and took an unusually deep breath.

"So, what I have been wanting to tell you is that," he looked into my eyes, "I am engaged!"

Oh.

What.

That was unexpected.

Another unexpected thing was, I felt nothing. I mean, I was happy for him, but I did not feel sad or whatever. And I was genuinely happy.

So I just smiled and told him, with all the sincerity,

"That's marvelous! When is the day?"

----

I think that is the lesson for her. I have seen her mind and I know that what the girl needs is a lesson. I know karma is also a lesson, but sometimes a slap on the face is not necessarily the component for every lesson. The necessary component is realization. And I think perhaps this time, the karma will not be a slap on the face.



Because sometimes, you are not in love. You are only enjoying company of the others, and feel sort of afraid to see them gone. You don't want to be alone, therefore you keep others for company. But it does not necessarily equal to romantic companionship. Hence, that is the lesson, I guess. Not the one I expect to teach her, but even Karma does not know everything.