Peter, Peter

 One recent evening at the Indonesian Specialty Coffee Cafe, I meet Peter passing by on his bicycle. I am surprised, because the last time I saw Peter, some months ago, he was leaving Bali forever. He said. And indeed, I had seen his Facebook posts from The Netherlands. Nonetheless, here he is, big as day. Or evening, rather. 

"Hey, Peter! I always pictured forever being a longer period of time." 

He turns this over in his mind, thinking first of English, I suspect. Peter does speak English, but haltingly. 

"Oh! Ha ha. Yes, I thought so too. But, you know, there's nothing there. Holland, I mean. Nothing there. Oh, beautiful houses, beautiful buildings for sure. But the women? Nah. They won't have me." 

"So you came back to Bali for the women?"

"You could say that. Well, one woman, pretty much. You see, I'm going to try to get back together with my ex-girlfriend."

"Ah." 

"But, you see, there are problems. I mean, we got along very well. Very well. We talked very easy, you know. We just ... what do you say? Clicked?"

"Yes."

"But there were problems."

"You mentioned this."

It does not surprise me to hear that there were problems. I have always known Peter as a problematic sort of guy. And so has everyone else. That's the Dutch for you, people always say. That's the stereotype anyway. Problematic, complainers, fussy. And pelit, which means cheap.

"Well--" I begin. 

"Here's the thing," Peter says. "I mean to say, for one thing, she is kind of significantly younger than me." 

"Younger? How much younger? Twenty years?" I suppose this comes to mind because my own girlfriend is nineteen years younger than I. 

"Oh, ha ha, no." Peter laughs. "That's not young."

"My goodness, how old is this girl, Peter." 

"Twenty-seven." 

Peter, I must note here, is seventy-two.

I do some quick math in my head.

"That is a bit of an age difference," I comment. 

"Ya," Peter agrees. But that's not all. There's more. I mean, there are some problems. I will tell you the whole story when I see you next, ya? It's a long story. We need more time."

We don't make a date or anything, but I know it will not be long before I see Peter again, for when Peter is in Bali, he just happens to show up at whatever cafe I happen to be in on any given day. I don't think he pedals back and forth looking for me, but on the other hand I can't prove that he doesn't. Heck, on this very evening he has shown up when he wasn't even supposed to be in the country!