The Scars

The doctor climbed out of his sports car. Taking off his sunglasses, he sauntered toward me in a dashing movement. I examined my surrounding to make sure that it was me he headed to. He was only a few meters away from me in few seconds.    

    

"Doctor..." I greeted him.    

    

"I hope I come at the right time. Are you busy?"    

    

"No. It seems there is a serious issue that you come here all the way.    

    

"There's an important matter I need to tell you."    

    

"Alright… I also have something to talk to you."    

    

"Great! Let's get in the car." He spun around.    

    

"Wait!" His questioning face turned to me. "May I know your name, doctor? We haven't introduced each other."    

    

"I am Rio Donovan. Can we go now?" I followed him who strode to his car in a rush. Shortly, he pulled up the door open and let me slid inside.    

    

The car glided through the asphalt road. With the roof opened, the wind rippled in my ear, played my long hair. I sometimes had to fix my messy hair. Once in a while, I took a glance at the windshield that reflected the street and anything behind.    

    

Doctor Donovan’s face on the rearview mirror I glimpsed at focused on the path the car went through. I was not good at calculating but I bet it had been almost a half-hour since we departed; the destination was still out of reach. I did not aim at asking where we were going. My heart had trust in him that this person would never do any harm to me.    

    

My intuition was right. The car turned to one of the classic restaurants about an hour from the school. From its size, shape, and design, I could say that the restaurant was magnificent. The visitors as I guessed were those people who could afford the high price for each food portion. I was astounded to read the menu and its price list. It was something I could not pay for no matter how hard I worked days and nights.    

    

"What would you like to order, Miss?" The waitress impatiently waiting while watching me flip the book of the menu. I cleared my throat, figuring out what I had to choose. It was not that I did not fancy the food they offered, but the price made me stunned.    

    

"Would you wait a second?' I asked hesitantly.    

    

"Sure. Take your time." It was the doctor who responded. I bowed. "I want beef steak, vegetable pie with tuna, chicken and chorizo pasta, salad, mushroom soup, black bean soup, croissants, sugarless apple juice, and tomato juice." He ordered a lot of food. I was not even familiar with the food he mentioned. The names of the dishes were too bizarre to me, like the cuisines from other planets. Could he eat them all? "Have you decided?"    

    

"Yes. Do you have fried rice?" I innocently inquired the waitress.    

    

"Sure. Here it is." She pointed to the list of Indonesian food in the book in my hand. The menu’s book was too thick with many lists of food there so that it was not easy to find the words: special fried rice with salmon, fried rice with chicken flake, and still many others. "This one, fried rice with scrambled egg," I appointed.    

    

"That's all?" The doctor asked in disbelief.    

    

"Yes. What is it the issue you want to talk to me?" He reached into his pocket. A white envelope was held in his hand.    

    

"This is from Reno." He pushed the envelope on the table toward me.    

    

"What is it?"    

    

"You'll find out if you open it." With my trembling hand, I unsealed the envelope. My eyes widened. It was a pendant along with a letter which was neatly written by hand. It was unmistakably Reno's handwriting. "Read the letter at home. You may need privacy. Let's eat." That waitress only needed few minutes to get back with our orders. The food had been served before us. He took a fork and stirred that salad. Then, he stuck the fork into the salad and put it into his mouth. "You can enjoy the mushroom soup or black bean soup first as an appetizer."    

    

"But, I just..."    

    

"I ordered this food for you. I just ordered salad and juice for me."    

    

"I can't devour all of these." Abruptly, my mother’s face arose on my mind. What did she have for lunch? Had she had lunch? Did she have something to eat?    

    

"You can eat what you like."    

    

How could I pick one among that flavorful food? I finally selected the food which was in a unique look on a brown plate with its dark hue. It was my first time tasting this food. I admitted that it was the best food I've ever tried. The doctor informed me it was beef steak. However, I could not savor the food fully. I was thinking if my mother had had her lunch.    

    

"Reno was an introverted person." I stopped eating. "He never had a friend before he met you and Vera. My sister, his mother, had to leave her when he was still a three-month-old baby." His word broke my heart. It was as if I was the one who suffered in his story. "My brother in law married a woman one month after her funeral. That woman had been pregnant even before they got married. In other words, she was his mistress. But, I kept this secret from Reno. Baby Reno grew up to be a smart yet unfortunate child. His stepmother treated him badly. I knew that since I was the only one he shared his story with. He always locked himself in his world." He inhaled before he went on. I've heard of this part. Still, I was waiting for his next sentences. "It changed when you came to his life. It is only you and Vera who regarded him as a friend. On his behalf, I thank you for being there for him. At least, you acknowledge his existence."    

    

I lost the words. At this point, no vocabulary listed in the dictionary I could employ to describe how I felt. Despite already hearing this story from Kevin, it touched my heart the same way.    

    

"Reno's life is so heartbreaking." I could say no more than that comment.    

    

"Sorry to tell you this."    

    

"That's ok.    

    

"Finish your lunch."    

    

"Doctor..." He lifted his chin and looked at me wondering what came out of my mouth next. "Have you ever been to...? I mean you probably have done something, like saving people's life."    

    

"I am a doctor."    

    

"It happened several years ago. You might have forgotten the incident that night when you barged into the shed and rescued a girl. But, the girl whom you have saved will forever remember you though at that time she had no idea what his hero's name was until destiny brought her to meet her hero." He put his fork next to the plate.    

    

"How do you know that? I once became one of the volunteers on a charity mission organized by one of the non-profit organizations. That night I heard someone begging for help inside the shed in the suburban area when I was on my way back to our shelter."    

    

"That was me." I cut him off.    

    

"You? It is unbelievable. What a small world!"    

    

"Thank you. I have owed you for my whole life."    

    

"Don't mention it."    

    

I closed the topic about that tragedy. I didn't have to reveal what occurred to me in the shed. That would stab me more. Most importantly, I had met my hero.    

    

The time took longer than I had predicted. It lasted two hours later. After paying for the bill, we checked out of that restaurant. Doctor Donovan drove me home. She handed me a paper bag before I slid out of his car. My eyes got bigger to peep through the opened bag. It was some packages of food. I rejected them because I had been indebted to him a lot. He did not care about my refusal. It was for my mother, he reasoned. After thanking him, I was home with a paper bag in my hand.    

    

The story shared by the doctor about Reno in the restaurant still lingered on my mind even until the next day. I could not even concentrate on doing my routine in the morning. My mother had to remind me twice or three times about my work. Thankfully, she did not figure out what happened to me.    

    

Being done with my daily task, I left for school. I still lacked the focus that I did not fathom what Vera was talking about. In my ear, she was mumbling about something. It was only when I stood facing the announcement board; I realized that my picture was stuck there. I was not alone. I did not know how the girl in the picture which was me walked hand in hand with an adult man. That was unmistakably doctor Rio Donovan. In reality, we were not that intimate. Who had edited the picture?