In Continuum.

The Suntan Club

The original Suntan Club was formed sometime in 2001 with the number of members at: One. It began with my friend Krishna Kusuma Dermawan's lone membership every recess or even after school sometimes, visiting the common location with a book or a textbook, and just sitting there under the baking hot sun with his shirt unbutton. As the days passed, the membership eventually increased in size all the way until the end of 2002 when the examinations started. I was part of the Suntan Club, and under the scorching heat of the sun, we had a lot of great talks and fun.

When the friends of Krishna found him missing one day during recess, we searched the school and turned it upside down for the location of the mysterious Indonesian. But of course, that search was to no avail, and we decided to follow him one day.

The common ritual before recess started. The class counted under their breathes with the ticking of the watches upon their wrists, synchronized with the ringing of the school bell. As the seconds ticked away one by one, Krishna started to pack up his books into a bag and was obvious that he was going somewhere for a while. So I signaled to Samuel right there and then, and the two of us crept behind him all the way down the corridor after the bell finally rang, and around the corner.

That same corridor led passed the multi-purpose hall, and at the end of it was an open balcony of sorts, which exists for no apparent reasons at all. That is a corner where nobody in the school ever visits, and as we came into the sun, there he was leaning against the wall with a book in his hand, shirt buttoned down and serenading in the sunlight. We thought him to be ridiculous at first, but when we sound the white-red difference in his upper-arm, we soon joined him in the Suntan Club, just lying there on the balcony every recess, talking about everything and at the same time, hoping to get a nice complexion without being nude at the same time.

That is the brief history of the Suntan Club, and five years later after the disband of the club, we were reunited again today, though not fo suntanning purposes this time, but still with lots of great talks and fun. After all, the club's existence never was for the complexion for me really, but for the private talks that we had during those times, and those times were some of the best times I've had with my friends in life.

Early this morning I received a message from Ben, telling me something about the change of plans to where we are meeting, which confused me because I was never told about meeting Krishna. It was dismissed as a dream of sorts and was only reminded of when I browsed through the inbox later on in the morning. It's been a while since I met the whole suntan club (Probably close to a year), and this was a great opportunity to do so. I actually wanted to stay in today and take good long, unmotivated naps today, but I couldn't skip on this chance to catch up on my friend who is leaving tonight at midnight for Australia again. Dragging myself out of bed, I made for the front door.

He was late, and awfully so, especially being the leader of the club. The other four of us - Alvin, Samuel, Ben and myself - were there early and decided to wait at Terra before he arrives. He was late for nearly two hours, but we killed time rather well but catching up between ourselves anyway. Because he just arrived two days ago, he didn't have credits in his phone card and thus, wasn't able to contact us even though he was dreadfully late at that time. But whatever it was, we still hung out for a while despite the need for Ben and Samuel to leave earlier(Ben for his company's function while Samuel to entertain his girlfriend).

The sun was nowhere to be found today, and replacing the clear blue skies were threatening rain clouds that discharged as we went upstairs to the viewing gallery at the third floor of Vivo City. I know, it isn't the best place to go for a gathering, but because Krishna has never been there himself, he wanted to check the place out. But it was okay without the sun, because despite of it, the club still held its activities in the basement of the mall where the food court was.

We caught up, friends who have not met each other in ages. Ben is still in the army waiting for his discharge in April, Samuel is still having problems with his girlfriend and still patching up with her once again, Alvin is still studying medicine and we happen to love House. Krishna came back two days ago from Australia and caught up with a few friends himself. Still enjoying his studies in Australia, and showed off a couple of Australian slangs like 'cheese', which kind of means 'cheers' for Londoners, or 'take care' in a more common language. He is still the same old Krishna, and in the corner of the food court we were back on that balcony in school, sweating our heads off and laughing at each other for whatever reasons there were.

The meeting was short-lived and we had to leave for each other's homes, but still it felt great to see that everybody was living their own lives their own unique way, and coming together to catch up on things. Meetings like this doesn't happen all that often for me, simply because Krishna is away most of the time and if the other four of us meet up, it is going to be rather strange either way. So I truly treasure these times out with them, reminiscing about the old times when studies and fun had a 50-50 importance in our lives. Those were great times, and probably one of the best times of my life. And however short-lived today's gathering was, a reminder that I actually had a life like that, is something I really appreciate amidst the life that I have right now.

Until six or twelve months later man, the Suntan Club shall rise again, and this time - like you said - I shall be your 'hero'. Take care of yourself down under, see you very soon my dear friend.