Strange coincidence

1. One day as I was buying some cut fruits by a side road, a familiar face passed by. The fruit seller greeted him amiably and the man responded with a cheerful smile. He walked past us towards a row of food stalls nearby to have his lunch, I supposed.

2. I have seen him several times at the Tamil Muslim restaurant at the junction about 30 yards away from where the fruit seller parked his small truck. He wore long sleeves as usual and I fancied that he might be working as a clerk at one of the lawyers firms across the main road. I haven’t seen him for quite some time since the restaurant closed down months ago.

3. “That’s Dr Saaya,” the fruit seller remarked to me as if he realised that I was wondering about the identity of the man in his sixties whom I was following with my eyes.

“He’s a doctor?” I responded, quite amazed.

“You might have noticed his clinic across the main road.”

“Yes, of course,” I said, feeling quite embarrassed.

“He and Dr Rosli are the only Malay doctors in town,” he said as fruits and money changed hands.

4. Then I drove my wife for lunch at an eatery a short distance away along the main road. On the way my wife chewed her cut watermelon to the last piece. As usual the eatery was practically void of diners at lunch hour. On our arrival there was only one regular customer eating his meal.

5. As usual we settled at one of the inner tables. I sipped a bit of warm water and finished up my cut pineapple before eating my meal. As we were eating, another familiar face appeared. He was a regular who looked like a retired government servant in his sixties.

6. He turned up almost every time we ate out at the eatery for lunch. In spite of that we never had a chance to greet each other because he usually arrived later and settled himself at a front table and always faced outside. I am a slow eater and he was already done and went off before I finished my meal.

7. Then on one occasion he was already at his meal when my wife and I arrived at the eatery. As a gesture of politeness I nodded and smile at him. From then on when we met at the eatery there were at least exchanges of smiles. One day he was still eating at the time we were leaving, so I nodded at him and said, “Be seeing you.”

8. That remark had its effect I supposed, for on one particular day the unexpected happened. As he was leaving he turned and smiled at me and put his thumb up. I waved at him. Before leaving the eatery, out of curiosity I asked Tahir, the waiter who usually attended to us, “Do you know the person eating at the front table just now?”

“Dr Rosli,” he replied promptly. I was quite taken aback and the fruit seller’s words came to my mind.

“His clinic is just over there by the main road,” Tahir added gesturing his hand in the direction of the clinic and I thought I knew where it was. On the way home I was watchful and didn’t miss the doctor’s clinic. And then going 200 yards further I caught sight of Dr Saaya’s clinic as well.