Old friends are like wine

Friday, 11:30pm. I turn the corner and there you are, clutching a green Heineken bag full of marking, eyes tired from lack of sleep. We have been friends for over fifteen years now. I smile when I see you.

“I was just messaging you. Wanted to come up to give you back your money.”

As I reach for my wallet and take out $110, you tell me that you’ve been awake since 3am and that you have marked non-stop to 6pm, stopping only for breakfast and lunch.

“No wonder you’re so tired,” I say sympathetically, “Where are you heading to?”

“Back home,” you say, and I say, “I’ll walk you,” and we both start walking to the train station, talking along the way.

“I have a pain in my mouth,” you say, “I think it is a wisdom tooth, but it can’t be ‘cos there is no more space for it.” You stick your index finger into your mouth, poking at your gum and say, “Air yis sore air..” You stop in the middle of the pavement with your finger in your mouth so you can feel the sore spot better.

I think for a moment, and say, “It doesn’t matter than you don’t have space you know. Have you taken an X-ray?” You say, “No? It doesn’t matter? Oh dear! I hope it isn’t a wisdom tooth..”

We look at each other, and immediately we say together, “No, no, we don’t mean that. We hope it is only a wisdom tooth. What else can it be?”

We walk a bit in silence. “You have dental woes, you know?” I say to you.

“No lah, I’ve only had a root canal.”

“A root canal! Whatever! People who have had root canals are like people who given birth.”

“Erm. I think there are more people who have given birth.”

We smile, laughing away the tiredness of a week.