Part 7: The Stains

"Sayang, I'm at the gas station, I'll call you later?"

He lowered the volume of his car's speakers. His one-hour long conversation over the speakers of his car stopped, his bluetooth disconnected and the sounds of drums and men screaming filed up the air of the gas station. Everyone was looking at the boy with a tie, a full suit, listening to death metal. He proceeds to take off his shades.

He was a boy nonetheless. His hair was messy. There were stains of chilli sauce on the right side of his lips, mustard on his chin. evaporated sugary water was evident on the passenger's seat. Nothing on his shirt though, he changed it on the car after he had the jumbo sized hot dog he bought just right after the toll booth.

This is not the story of the sauce nor the mustard. It's a tale of a a man, or boy (we'll confirm when he finally decides himself) who calls himself Leo. Well, everyone else calls him that, too, but he likes it when we acknowledge that he was the one who started the trend. Yes, he calls it a trend.

His phone rang again. He sighed.

"Yes sweetheart? Oh no.. I'm eating.." He said.

Technically, he wasn't lying. He was chewing off some leftover veggies from the hot dog.

He said his farewell to that brief chat and proceeded to the paying station with his mouth moving like its not supposed to. He swallowed the last piece of relish.

"Abang! Abang!" He heard a soft woman's voice from the background.

"You left your car keys on the roof!" He heard footsteps running towards him.

"...What..?" He immediately tapped on the right side of his pants.

"My keys!" he gasped.

It wouldn't be the first time he lost his keys somewhere compromising. He turned around with the biggest smile on his face.

The young lady just passed him. He caught her fruity scent.

"Baby, don't be so clumsy! You're lucky it fell down or I would've just gone to the restaurant and our car would be gone!" She said to the man lining up in front of him. He was obviously a bit older than she is.

Leo took out his phone and started fiddling with it like it's the last chance he's going to have holding that phone.

"Ah, young married couples, what a joy to see." He murmured to himself, covering up the embarrassment.

There he was, waiting for the small line to slowly become smaller. When the man in front of him finally paid, he started to panic. He remembered to panic.

"Where are my keys?!"

Yes. He's stuck in the gas station. Fortunately, he did lock his car. How he lost his keys going to the pay station from the petrol pump nobody knows. Not even me, and I'm writing this.

"Well, I'm late. Might as well skip the business presentation and go eat some nasi goreng." He uttered to himself as he put down the nozzle back in its place.

He went to one of the pump attendants and explained his situation. by some good luck, or bad, he forgot to pull the handbrake. His car could have rolled and smashed a car that was going to be filled up with air behind it.

"Could have.. Could have.." The scene played in Leo's head.

Leo was not really the type to let other people to get into trouble because of anything he did. Paranoid at some point, in fact. That's why he's alone on his way to another state on a weekday skipping class to give a business presentation to some company that made boxes. He's hoping to sell a blog.

So he, along with three other men, helped to push the car to the side, near to the shop of the gas station. Out of guilt, he went in and bought one big piece of chocolate bar with hazelnut. He didn't mind though. He loves chocolates. He quickly grabbed and left the money on the counter.

When he pushed the glass door he saw a dark figure with his two eyebrows converging into one. It was one of the pump attendant who helped him move his car. He looked at him and smiled. He was definitely not local. He couldn't tell if he was foreign, either. Leo asked why he was smiling. He told him in a very unfamiliar accent that he helped him.

"So what? Kenapa?" Leo asked.

He rubbed his index finger with his thumb in plain sight, expecting money. his eyelids split apart further.

Money was colourblind. It knows no diversity. It only knows greed and greed comes in every colour.

He stopped. He took a bite off his chocolate bar. With it still in hand he reached in his right pocket reaching for some paper change. A little dab of chocolate nougat stained his shirt. It got on the paper money as well. He was lucky he pulled out just a small denomination and some coins. He wanted to just give the coins but his conscience told him not to; he was just not that kind of person. He gave everything.

He did not see his wider smile when Leo turned back and walked towards the row of stalls.

Leo didn't think much of the situation. The man did help him move his car. He was doing extra work, so he deserves extra pay. It was a bonus for actually knowing the local language. He could do away with the accent though.

Leo finds himself on his way to the nasi goreng shop with the most people lining up. He wasn't too familiar with the area so popular opinion was the way to go.

His phone rang again.

"Jason? What do you want?" It was his third call in one hour.

"No, I'm in the middle of something.. Sorry I can't go see you"

He was technically in the middle of something. In a middle of a line to get chicken.

"How about the roof in two days?"

"Don't give me that. You know which roof." He stressed.

He put the phone down and wrote down everything in a notepad with a pen attached to it, secured with a chain, clearly teared from a perfect necklace.

He noticed that the line was long only because it was the only stalls selling rice. He kept writing.

The pen stopped and he returned the notepad from which it came. It was that glorious moment in time in the middle of that line of people waiting to be fed when realised something.

His keys were hanging from his belt loop.