Persona
Short Story
He had a wooden rod with which he stirred the can long enough to irritate me. Then he closed it and sat at his table, scratching his patchy grey beard. "Ustaz,"* I said, "I am waiting to have a dip from your wonderful hands.". Without looking at me, he said," Just a little while more." With frustration, I asked," What's up? What's the science?" He said there was no science. "There is popular wisdom," he added. I almost yelled that I wanted a dip without popular wisdom. He answered disdainfully," That's obvious. You guys spoil quality by rushing the making." I fell silent, thinking. He was right, in a way. On a split-second mental scan, I cherished an underrating of the substance in question. A voice somewhere in my mind snickered: talk about quality for snuff! He surprised me by saying, "Is that what you are thinking about? snuff?" He looked at me directly after placing the rod on the table. "We