23 March, 2025: An Attempt at Jogging

set in Bandung, Indonesia

“Follow me. Keep up. This isn’t a walking contest. You can’t run anymore?”

“Bisa,” Father says, but he is pushing himself. He is only running because he wants to look good in front of Ipin. His actual calves feel like they are burning off of his legs. He is heaving more than breathing. He remembers how they made fun of him in his childhood days for his inability to cut the rice properly with his father’s sickle, and it gives him the energy to run forward.

“Bisa, bisa begitu,” Ipin says, jogging in place on the red granite of the track. He’s wearing a black cap, along with a black jogging suit. The suit is dark and covers most of Ipin’s sandy-coloured skin, just as the cap covers the thinning parts of his scalp. Ipin has a lanky and tall build, just like Father when he was a teen, but now he has a significant belly and fat on his legs. Ipin has the excuse of being a mechanic by trade who works every day at a garage, but still, if one takes a look at him, one would think he is nearing forty, not seventy.