It was a calm Saturday evening. The girl sat down in a chair by the bed, reading a book. She was Sylvia who came to visit her best friend, Luthfi.At the moment, Luthfi was awake and lying on the bed.
“It seems that no guy asks you to go out tonight. You should try to diet, you know.” It was Luthfi’s voice that broke the silence.
Sylvia closed her book, but not bothered to get it off her hand. She looked annoyed obviously.
“Well, I don’t need anyone to ask me to go out. Without anyone else’s help, look, I’m already out, coming to this hospital to make my sick friend a company.”
“That’s one good point. And thanks.” Luthfi replied in short sentence. After all, he doesn’t have many words to express his gladness that his best friend came to visit him.
That seemed to be the end of conversation between the two. Sylvia had come to visit Luthfi with genuine intention. However, she was drowned in the book she brought along almost all the time. The girl wasn’t a book lover nor someone whose hobby was reading books. It was simply a book she gazed upon her room mate’s bookshelf. She took it without strong intention but ended up reading it in enjoyment. And it was a coincidence that she was reading a book while accompanying the sick friend.
Luthfi himself had been spending three days being hospitalized. He was doubly-fevered. That was a silly term, because he had typhoid fever and dengue fever. Both were the ones which got him hospitalized. But the fever had been cooling down. He was hopefully in recovery phase.
He never heard that most of the food in his university cafeteria contained Salmonella typhii in more than normal amount. But it wasn’t his fault completely. The Microbiology students who conducted the research didn’t widely publish their research findings. Even most of the students of the same university, Bandung Institute of Technology, didn’t know about the research findings. However, they were the ones who consumed the food in cafeteria.
And it was a coincidence that Sylvia was one of the students who conducted the research, who preferred having meals in Salman Cafeteria, which was not included in the research.
The silence took nearly an hour of time. As Sylvia suddenly closed her book and put it on a desk, she started staring at Luthfi with one weird way of staring.
“Hey, why are you staring at me like that? It’s scary, you know!” Luthfi found himself uncomfortable to be stared at like that. But not scared, actually.
“Nothing,” she continued, “I just read in that book that the distance between Pluto and Earth is about five light-hours. Which means, if someone on Earth is observing Pluto using his telescope, the image of Pluto he is currently observing is Pluto back five hours ago.” Sylvia was still staring at Luthfi, even without a blink.
And Luthfi smiled. That kind of smile was hardly ever expressed. Yes, Luthfi himself was the kind of person who rarely smiled.
“I already knew that. But, would you stop staring at me that way? I’ve told you it’s scary.” His face started blushing.
“Oh sorry. I just got so excited about this. Well, don’t you think it’s just wonderful?”
“What?”
“That Pluto, the image of the past five hours…”
“Well…”
“And us.”
“Us?”
There started another silence. But not so long, that Sylvia began to explain, but at the same time, began to stare at Luthfi in the weird way she did just before.
“I mean, that you are there lying on the bed. And I am here sitting down near the bed side. Imagine if I’m here and you’re in Pluto.”
“Well, this is just a coincidence, I guess. But your words are just too much.” And Luthfi blushed too much.
“Hey, don’t make a face as if I’m saying something romantic to you. Cos I’m not. That the light travels the distance between us in almost no time, well, if it’s a coincidence, it is one wonderful coincidence.”
“Your words are making me dizzy. I think I’m going to sleep now. Thanks for coming, by the way.”
“What a coincidence! I myself did think about going home just now.” Sylvia stood up and put her book inside her bag. She put on her jacket and left for home after saying farewell to Luthfi.
“Hey, watch out for the mosquitoes and the Salmonellas, they’re everywhere,” said Luthfi as his best friend’s hand reached for the door knob.
“I know, I will. Thanks,” said Sylvia without even turning around.
Outside the door, she smiled. She knew she could not resist it any longer. Sylvia was the kind of person who smiled a lot, but that smile was no usual smile she usually expressed.
And it was just a coincidence that the moment Sylvia out of Luthfi’s room, he did smile once more, but rather different smile that he did moment ago. He could not resist to smile, just like his best friend.
Both faces went blushed as they smiled, even in separate places, almost to the color of Bandung night sky. Far beyond them, Pluto floated in the middle of vacuum, five light-hours away.
And everything was coincidence, perhaps.
