Just over five minutes, the two walked out of the tobacco shop with two small wooden boxes of cigars, each containing fifty individuals of wrapped tobacco, compact and nicely packaged. The wooden boxes felt light and hollow, which made the cigars feel cheap but not to Cay’s disliking.
He pried the two staples that kept it shut and took a cigar out, lighting it with the lighter he bought from Rome. Smoking it reminded him of movies where powerful or charismatic characters smoked their own cigars taken from the drawer under their desks, the only difference was that they had thicker and authentic-looking cigars. Or cigars should not have a fixed look, which were portrayed only on the screen. Nevertheless, cigars tasted better than the usual filtered cigarettes with their expensive pricing and really limited pleasure. As the cigar burnt ever slowly between his fingers, Judas was just staring at the gentlemen clubs with a transfixed look. The look derived from any sort of sexual thoughts, not from what Cay knew about Judas, but rather it was a look of aching curiosity, the temptation of the forbidden fruit for young men like them.
They were leaning on the wall on the China town’s side of the pavement, they could see people passing the alleyways with their eyes briefly but obvious to others that they were passing them just to “look” at the prostitutes. The men’s eyes, loner or accompanied my someone, had a teasingly disgusting look. When it came to manhood, young or old, they all had a instinctual part within their minds that would activate upon visual arousal --- Lust. The place was not solely to appeal to male customers, males with well-toned body stationed behind glass doors or walking into clubs as seen earlier, their faces would be suitable for modeling or starring in films, if not for their unfortunate fate (or have they been enjoying the life that they were living?).
As he contemplated the biological and silly behavior of men and women, it did not stop Cay from doing the same. It was only natural to stare at pretty objects. Their clad and attractive appearances, the women with their smooth, silky bodies and the men with their muscular features and strong overall. Their skin glistered even in the dark under the cheap LED lighting, the thought of their pleasant smell of dry sweat produced during work hours would likely to excite anyone who came close to these objects of guilty pleasures.
“Would you like to try it?”, Judas asked out of the blue, probably noticing Cay’s stare.
“Sorry, what?”, Cay’s eyes suddenly reverted to his companion, surprised.
“Since we’re in Amsterdam, why not try one out?”507Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrGTQhmX0v3
“I’m not sure. I’m definitely curious, yes, but it doesn’t feel the same.”
“How does it not feel the same?”
Cay gave Judas’s sentence a good minute of consideration before continuing.507Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvQe4W7ZJNC
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“Never mind, let’s go have a look first.”507Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxtaUCGOb03
“Sure.”507Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEuXBq3S5Vk
507Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvycvG6SVIL
Cay stubbed the cigar, which took nearly ten minutes to finish at a length that was only considered bare minimal. They walked along the stony pavement with people passing by and walking along. The lamplights glowing due to chilly condensation in the air and pedestrians had their scarfs ready in case the temperature lowered. The two walked in silence amidst the lively cloud, their hair brushing through the opposite breeze as neon lights above them illuminated in a way that it was hard to ignore.
*
What has been the hardest thing to earn since the born of humanity? Out of everything: friendship, respect, and love (at least the perceivable side of love) are intangible status quo that could be earned through physical and mental effort. However, trust was the obsolete treasure to own, but easy to lose sight of.
Although it could have been built with the effort aforementioned, it had the idea of trust reflected an individual’s own value that would eventually earn the amount of trust he or she deserved. One could not, and possibly not have the authority, to just push the wheel and wait for it to roll endlessly. It required physical exertion of the entire body to move and the mental fortitude to consistently push, but most importantly the idea of the how the wheel should be shaped.507Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMfgmvKf8Fu
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For example, a sentence that Marcel Proust wrote “A second visit made to her was perhaps more important.” In the book In Search Of Lost Time was a good way to explain. The effort to build the relationship would be all but nothing if not for the idea of “A second visit”, the thought of forming a solidified connection required the spark of the ingenious human mind has been born for that very the purpose. Because by revisiting, it would “perhaps” be “more important” for the visitor, he or she would know one could possibly not be enough if the person met has not fully-acquainted him or herself to the former. Hence, the idea was what stood out the most amongst the other required components to make the “important” not fruitless.
As mentioned earlier, trust is also the most treasured possession that could be lost in a second’s notice. A crowd of people would lose trust in their leader because his perceived idea of “for the people” could not generate the trust they once had in him or her, most likely because the idea had changed or contracted impurities (e.g. corruption). Another instance was that a lover’s betrayal had been perceived as the worst form of destruction in trust, it was a knife that severed all ideas from the significant other, only that way would the latter lose all the trust in their other-half. To say “I love her, therefore I must have an idea to win it” was only when a friend or acquainting individual would have at the start, it was pure and simple; the idea of how to make a wheel move required the simple understanding of the shape and the motion that drove it forward, it was undiluted and unmistakable.
How ironic were humans! They had the idea of building the most ambitious dreams at a very young age but were shattered bits by bits with every age grown into and tired down by the own surroundings they built. They walked at the start but only gained a small momentum in life, just like as their trust followed suit. The expanse of trust only wearied down to narrowed dreams and the rest were left to gather dust, the jobs they maintained only failed their trust in their initial dream to conquer the universe. To say humans were a fragile species would not justify enough, they brought the whole disaster down on themselves consequently.
Therefore, what drove the wheel towards as intended had not only been the physical and mental effort but the idea of the wheel as well. Humans were conflicted and therefore attempt to enhance the idea by adding more features to ease themselves, only to cause more problems afterwards and shattered the entire idea of the original shape. They were not only a pitiful existence, but an existence that brought forth destruction of a simple but monumental idea.
Only the pain of losing an extremely rare possession would one know how to appreciate what once belonged to. However, it had been too late nonetheless.
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