Just yesterday, I awoke at 2, the cool and dark morning, still unbelieving that Bala was to leave in six hours. Procession towards the bathroom, then out, shivering at the zephyr...
At 3.40, after heading out of the convenience store with food, I took a cab to pick Harris and Jeffrey up, then Ais. My eyes on the meter- midnight charges, an extra fifty percent. At the back, Jeffrey whining about the cost, until he was told to 'shut up'. We were but twenty minutes from the airport, finally reaching at four plus. The rest of the lads arrived five minutes after.
Most of them sleepy, thus, the open cafe with its couches became a hotel. The rest of us, though at the mature age of fifteen, took rides on the baggage trolley, then stopped momentarily till the airport staff who saw, had left.
Five plus- near the time of Bala's arrival (6.00 a.m.), some, including I, went to the viewing gallery, to see the planes take-off and land. Bala arrived, thereby making us rush down. He was being himself, yet the eyes, prominent of sadness. We were taking pictures, all of us still in disbelief at Bala leaving. A last hug from Bala. I was in the state of apathy, or perhaps too tired to feel.
An hour, give or take the minutes, past, his mother urged him to hurry- both his grandfathers, maternal and paternal, wanted to talk to him. The mocking gaze at his little brother.
Finally, the time came for him to step through the gates- that moment I felt something within, indistinct; vague. Tearful eyes for some. Ais, Lauren and I, got up to the viewing gallery once again, to see his plane in flight, away to a distant land. At half journey, the tears welled in my eyes, Bala was gone; no more irritating singing of 'Guns and Roses' at my ear, which I'll miss; no more conversing with him; no more laughing at his 'ZERO's' for most of his Accounting Tests; no more crapping around.
Reality had finally caught up with me... Bala, my kinsman(I regard him one), was gone. Albeit, he returns, like time, the feeling of closeness, cannot return...