it's time to come home
if i come home, will there be love?
In New York, I thought of you. Each time, I would call you. Each time, you picked up the phone. And then, we would listen to each other’s lives, just for a moment. It was always the same: laughter and music and parties, in different languages, in different parts of the world. Don’t pick up, I would say. Don’t call, you would say in return. And all we had was this, for a long time. Until one evening, when you moved across this silence, and reoriented the borders of our lives.
Come home, you said. I thought of New York, of this beautiful apartment that I’ve filled with music and books, wine and flowers, friends and lovers and parties, of life that could only exist because we had removed ourselves from each other’s lives. This is what I wanted to ask you: if I come home, is there still room for me? If I come home, will you be there? If I come home, will there be love? But I knew by then that it didn’t matter. There is love that has not vanished, that will never vanish, and it spilled into everything. It was enough for you to ask. It was always enough with you.
And now that I’m home, will you come home too?
You are reading an exclusive excerpt from the Imaginary City collection. Imaginary City: The Graphic Novel by Rain Chudori & Jasmine Kristanto will be out in your favourite bookshops on March 2022. It will also be available in preorder soon! Follow us on Instagram or head to our website for the latest updates.
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