1972.
Two kids, standing side by side, in front of our old wooden houses.
We didn’t know each other long. He moved away when we were in Year 5. Just like that, gone.
No goodbye party, no exchange of numbers pun (mana ada handphone masa tu kan, line phone pun xde, just a phone booth for the entire kampong).
Try explaining that to a kid today. “We lost touch” used to mean something real. Not “unfollowed,” not “left on read.”
But after that, we still saw each other in school. But it wasn’t the same. Some friendships need proximity to survive, especially those days.
40 years later, we met again.
No plan, no reunion committee, no Facebook group that tracked us both down. Just life, doing what life does, circling back when you least expect it.
Same faces, but now with more lines, less hair, more stories to tell.
And somehow, within minutes, it was like no time had passed at all.
“Lend me some hair”
“OK, but it’s all white!”
Forty years apart, and that’s the joke that came out. Not “how have you been,” not “what do you do now.” Just two grown men, straight back to ribbing each other like we were still kids in front of the old wooden houses.
Two grown men, remembering two little boys who had no idea what life had in store for them.
It got me thinking.
Some people come into our life for a chapter, not the whole book. And that’s okay. You don’t need 40 years of constant contact to call someone your friend.
You only need a shared childhood, a few kampung memories, and the willingness to pick up where you left off.
We didn’t talk about what we’ve achieved. We talked about who used to steal rambutan from whose tree.
About the same drain we used to catch ikan puyu in.
About teachers we were scared of.
Not a single word about job titles. Not one mention of what car anyone drives now. Funny how the things that actually mattered turned out to be the small ones.
Childhood memories don’t fade. They just wait for the right reunion to resurface.
P/S - Who’s that one friend from your childhood you still think about? 👇
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