if you stay, I will stay, even though the town’s not what it used to be

Lately, she often found herself in the same situation. As a newcomer, locals--and maybe not even locals, but thought of themselves as ones--asked her the same questions, they made her compare.

It was apples and oranges. But she went on anyway.

"It's more laid back here," she said. "I could never feel comfortable wearing relatively skimpy outfits in the city. And sandals in restaurants."

Or,

"Yeah, back then it took me an hour to go to work, on a good day," she snorted. "Now it only takes ten minutes."

And as the people made remarks like,

"Nothing good is left there, you have to escape here, huh?"

Or,

"You'll love it here. Everybody knows everybody. You know how stuck up Jakartans can be?"

She laughed and nodded, but her heart was chipped a little each time. No one should talk bad about her home.

*I'll have better days, and you'll see me on my better days.