Everything Happen for A Reason

Sometimes, it only needs something as small as one phone call to get things going, like the phone call that I got from Tomoko-san last week, telling me that she and her husband would go to Jakarta to join a conference.

"That's cool", I responded.
"Yeah! Well, actually there's something that I want to ask you."
"What is it?"
"I want to give my friend in Bandung a present, but it seems that we won't have the time to meet. Do you think it's possible to send it via postal service?"
"Of course. Why?"
I started wondering whether Tomoko-san thought that Indonesia still using medieval ways to deliver things - such as doves, or even owls :-) - and that the package would be too heavy for them to carry. But she replied, "I just afraid that if I go to post office to ask, the officer won't be able to understand my English..."
"You speak good English! I think you won't have problem there... but how about if I ask one of my friends there to help you? I think some of my undergrad friends are still in Jakarta now."
"Really? I will appreciate it."
"I'll let you know soon."
And the next minute I was digging through my closet, trying to find the phone list of my friends in Jakarta.

Basically, I believe that no news is good news, and as you can guess, I'm not often call my friends just to say hi - I always call for a reason. Well, sometimes I do want to talk to them with no particular purpose. At those times, usually I just try to find a reason (sometimes a far fetched one :-) ), and then call. So, if you think that I ever called you with a very lame excuse (like: my cat just dialed your number... :-) ), chances that at that very moment, I really wanted to talk to you :-).

And if my memory didn't fail me, the last time I talked with one of the gp96ers (that's how we call our class) was 3 years ago, and it looked like during these three years, I couldn't find an excuse (even a lame one :-) ) to call them. If you believe that everything happen for a reason, perhaps the reason why God sent Tomoko-san to call me was to give me a solid reason to call them again :-).

I found the phone list and started to dial the numbers. (The order of whom I called first basically based on who that I thought know Jakarta enough and could easily help Tomoko-san - so if you happened to be last in my list, it didn't mean that I hate you, okay? :-) ). First I called Ari, and his number told me that the phone couldn't be reached at that time. Well, may be he still trapped somewhere, so I continued with Ratna's number. This time it told me that the number was not in service. Hmm, did she change her number? I moved on to Bonggo's, and I heard the dial tone (finally!)... but nobody showed up at the other end :-).

I got a little bit worried that I could contact nobody that night. Well, I couldn't blame anyone, it's my own fault that I don't keep in touch with them. There's nothing else I could do, so I continued with Lisya's number. Again, I heard the dial tone, and while waiting for respond, I started thinking on what should I said if she'd already forgotten me. Lisya and I still send mails sometimes, but the last time we talked was about 6 years ago. Anyway, there wasn't much time to think, because soon somebody picked up on the other end. I opened my mouth to say 'hello', but Lisya's voice made me stop.
"What's up, Awan?"
I clean my ears regularly, so I was sure that it didn't play trick on me :-). But how could she know that it was me?
"Pardon?", I tried to make sure.
"It's you isn't it?"
"How could you know?"
"Well, not many people call me from Japanese number", she explained. " What's up?"
It looked like Lisya still remember that I almost never call only to say hi :-), so I could skip the chitchat and got down to business. I quickly tell her about Tomoko-san, and asked her whether she could help.
"No problem", she replied quickly. "Do you know where she will stay?"
"Kempinski Hotel."
"Lucky you! My office is just across the street. I can visit her on lunch time if she wants..."

And for the second time that night, I really thought that everything happen for a reason. May be the reason that I couldn't get to my other friends phone was that God knew that Lisya worked the closest to where Tomoko-san would stay, and that she's the best person to help her... (yeah, I know that it really sound that I was just fitting everything up, but who knows? :-) )

We had a small chitchat after Tomoko-san business settled, and Lisya told about some of our old friends that she had just talked to recently. Hmm, suddenly I felt lots of guilt for not keeping in touch with them... Now, it really looked like the real reason why God sent Tomoko-san to call me was to remind me of my old friends, and also to help me strengthen my relation with them again... Well, if I still couldn't do it this time, I hope He gives me more and more reasons (and lame excuses :-) ) to keep in touch with them again...

And, to all my friends, near, far, wherever you are (sorry for snatching lines from Titanic's theme song :-) ): I really miss you all...