later

I knew later can be used as comparative of late. However, only a few years back, when I started to read Ryan's posts on Boys Are Ugly But So Cute, I learned that it could also be used informally to express goodbye or farewell.

Nevertheless, I had been quite flabbergasted* when I opened André Aciman's novel Call Me By Your Name.



The opening reads:

"Later!" The word, the voice, the attitude.
    I'd never heard anyone use "later" to say goodbye before. It sounded harsh, curt, and dismissive, spoken with the veiled indifference of people who may not care to see or hear from you again.
    It is the first thing I remember about him, and I can hear it still today. Later!
    I shut my eyes, say the word, and I'm back in Italy, so many years ago, walking down the tree-lined driveway, watching him step out of the cab, billowy blue shirt, wide-open collar, sunglasses, straw hat, skin everywhere. suddenly he's shaking my hand, handing me his backpack, removing his suitcase from the trunk of the cab, asking if my father is home.
    This summer's houseguest. Another bore.
    Then, almost without thinking, and with his back already turned to the car, he waves the back of his free hand and utters a careless Later! to another passenger in the car who probably split the fare from the station. No name added, no jest to smooth out the ruffled leave-taking, nothing. His one-word send-off: brisk, bold, and blunted — take your pick, he couldn't be bothered which.
    You watch, I thought, this is how he'll say goodbye to us when time comes. With a gruff, slapdash Later!
    Meanwhile, we'd have to put up with him for six long weeks.
    I was thoroughly intimidated. The unapproachable sort.
    I could grow to like him, though. From rounded chin to rounded heel. Then within days, I would learn to hate him.
    This, the very person whose photo on the application form months earlier had leapt out with promises of instant affinities.

* A word I was taught by Mr.Mac.