The Torch

My master knew his time was up soon. I didn’t know how to broach the subject. He kept his distance from me. This was nothing new, of course. But something felt off. Chun looked… looked…

Distressed.

I tried to ask what was wrong. At first, he did not answer. Something wouldn’t let me back down. Maybe I could tell.

I didn’t know how to broach the subject. Chun had always been a private person. I didn’t know much about him. I didn’t even know his real age or where he lived. So you can imagine my shock when I got a phone call early one morning.

“Hello?”

“Theo, how are you this morning? Did you just get up?”

I made a face. “Chun?” My brain took a while to catch up. “Is something wrong? Why are you calling me this early?” There was a pause on the other line.

“I have something to tell you.” His voice sounded so quiet.

“Chun? What’s wrong?” There was another pause. What was this?

“Chun? Are you still there? Hello? Hello?”

“Oh. I’m still here.”

“What’s going on, man?”

“We’ll talk later.” He hung up before I could say a word. I stared at my phone. What the hell was that?

----------

We met up for lunch in downtown Babylon. There weren’t many people around in the diner. We didn’t eat or drink. How was I going to broach this? I glanced up at him. Chun looked out the window. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. I opened my mouth, but paused. I didn’t know what to say.

“I don’t have long,” my mentor said.

“What?” I asked. He kept looking out the window.

“What… What are you talking about? What’s going on?” I asked. I didn’t like where this was heading. Should I start looking for a new job?

“It will be time to pass the torch in a few months,” Chun said. He slowly turned his head. His eyes looked so tired. His face was sullen and pale.

“Chun…” I said.

“I don’t have long to live,” he said.

I cocked my head. “How long?”

“About six months.”

“So what is it? Cancer?”

“Yeah…”

We sat silent. Chun looked like he was struggling to stay sitting up. It was then that I realized that I barely knew this man. We’ve been together for so long and we barely talked outside of work.

“So… what will happen to me?” I asked.

“You will take my position,” Chun said. My eyes widened.

“What?” I asked. I struggled to speak, but no words came out. I gave up and closed my mouth. We just sat there. Our food got cold.

And there it was.

My mentor was going to die. Was he getting treatment? Did he have any other family? Did he contact them? Where were they now?

There was so much I didn’t know about him.