The Blink is Dusk.
Aram Sick
The sun was shining that morning. Birds fly in trees and forest bushes. The roar of vehicles is heard non-stop on the highway. That morning, as usual Aram was preparing to search for second-hand goods. Need extra energy for work to become a scavenger. In addition to difficult to get a lot of numbers, there are also many other scavengers.
After eating the porridge rice and grilled cork fish he got from lifting the tajur in the swamps. Aram gets ready, checks his wagon tires, wands and plastic sacks are prepared. Everything was complete and he immediately stepped up. Verily Aram felt unwell, his stomach was like he wanted to vomit. The head feels dizzy and the view is cloudy. But he had to look for scrap, the rice mumps were still there, he thought.
"Areha, koyong set out to find secondhand goods. You take care of the sisters, don't play in the marshes and on the highway." Aram said, the warning was every day he said. Aram began to step pushing the wagon, frowning.
"Wuaakkkkk. Arakkkkkkk." Suddenly, Aram vomited several times, all of his stomach contents came out. He sat down crouched on the side of the wagon.
"Kumy." Areha approached her brother, Luran and Figan also approached.
"Koyong's sick, just take a break today. Or let Areha and Luran look for second-hand." Areha.
"Koyong is okay. Already, play. I'm going to go." Aram said, as he got up and walked his eyes twitched. The head grew dizzy and only five steps weakly and he sat back down. At Areha's suggestion he returned to their sack house. Aram rest, he lies weak. His eyes were sad and sad.
"Copek, Koyong will die." Luran said while crying. He remembered their mother who died of illness. Areha and Figan also cried sadly.
"Had, Koyong just caught a cold. Areha, grab our cans and oil lamps. Scratch my back." Aram comforted his brothers. He then fell face down so that Areha could poke behind him. When Aram fell face down he closed his eyes. Her tears melted, she was also afraid that she would die. How are his sisters and who will feed them.
"Oh my God, don't take my life before my brothers grow up." Such was the prayer of Aram without knowing his three younger brothers.
Aram's back looks red after being scraped. But the dizziness and bitter mouth kept him feeling. Aram was asleep until the new night woke up. His body was weak, he forced himself to take the sisters to the swamps to bathe and wash.
On the second day, Aram was still sick and getting worse. He can no longer walk. Eat without lust and drink unwillingly. Makes his body thinner and weaker. Areha took care of her brother, she compressed Aram's hot forehead. Now Areha is cooking and taking the sisters to the swamps. Aram can no longer.
The third and fourth days of Aram were still sick and getting worse. All day long he lay down and fell asleep. Areha felt sad and worried. There is no stopping crying every day. He doesn't understand how to help Aram. He can't carry Aram and he has no money. Just money in his savings, but how.
"Koyong, Areha just open savings, yes, to buy koyong medicine." Areha.
"You look at our rice, if it's just a little good you buy rice, Ha. Kasian Luran and Figan if you don't eat. Brother's fine, tomorrow the day after tomorrow will be healed." Said Aram. Areha opened her savings which contained a thousand dollars and two thousands. With a kitchen knife he tore his plastic savings. Once calculated the contents were only forty-three thousand.
"Koyong, it's only forty-three thousand." Areha.
"You take the brothers and sisters out to buy three kilos of rice, a packet of salt, a bath soap, and a gallon of drinking water. Just scramble the cart, get Luran's help and Figan pushes him." Aram said with his eyes closed. Areha went outside the wall by pushing an empty cart, inside was a gallon of drinking water.
An hour later, Areha followed Luran and Figan came home from shopping. How heavy pushing the wagon was for a thin-bodied small force like them. But they finally got to what they bought.
"Koyong, want a cup of tea." Figan said, offering. Aram shook his head, and asked Areha to cook the rice.
Three more days passed, and Aram grew worse. He no longer spoke, only remained silent and fell asleep. Areha became very sad, she thought about how to help the Big Brother. Recall him with the young man who gave the chicken to his older brother, Brother AF. Maybe he can help, Areha thought. They didn't know his name, just looking at the AF logo on the blue red shirt he was wearing.
"Luran, Figan, you take care of Koyong. I want to wait for that big brother AF, maybe he's passing by or stopping at a former sales person by the side of the road." Areha.
Luran and Figan nodded, Areha from morning to evening sat waiting in the construction of a former sales person by the side of the road. Every time a motorcycle passes he gets up. In case that brother AF is passing by. The second day was also so, even until the eve of the night he waited. But brother AF did not appear. Areha continued to cry every day. Makes his eyes swollen.
"Koyong will die, who else is our family." Areha's heart said while filling in there. The boy was only ten years old, really did not know what to do.
"In the meantime the rice is also gone, how do we eat if the koyong has not healed yet."
"Hu. hu. hu." The sound of Areha crying among the roar of passing motor vehicles.
...*****...
The Grandma.
*
A grandmother walks slowly under the scorching afternoon sun. He's down the highway somewhere. Clearly he was walking. When viewed from the long shadow of sunlight time shows around five o'clock in the afternoon.
From a distance of hundreds of meters he saw a vast green forest, with a sloping field ground. Surrounded by high walls, two meters high. Several flying birds passed, leaves seemed to sway in the wind.
From there, he saw the buildings of former sales people on the side of the road. In the heart of the grandmother would take shelter and rest for a while while waiting for the time of prayer magrib.
"Hu. hu. hu. hu." The crying of the girls is heard.
"Sister AF, why don't you pass. Koyong Areha is sick, come Brother." Said the child, his hands appear to be scraping the cement floor with small twigs.
"Grandmother, why are you crying here." Greet Grandma as she arrived inside the building. The boy looked up and saw a wise old grandmother.
"It's okay, Grandma." Areha replied as she continued to scavenge. His hands continued to scribble the floor.
"If it's okay to cry." Ask the grandma.
"I waited for Brother AF, but it's been three days not past." Answer Areha.
"He's your big brother, what he's working for and where." Ask the grandma. Areha was silent and shook her head. The grandmother looked at Areha deeply. His body was thin with dark skin. The clothes are very concerning and the wrong pair of flip-flops. But her hair she ponytails neatly.
"Where's your house, Grandson." Ask grandma again.
"There, replied Areha." His hand pointed to the forest. Every now and then he looked down the highway, but what he was waiting for was never there.
"Mom and dad where, at home." Ask the grandma.
"We no longer have a mother and a father, Grandma." Answer Areha. Areha's answer was like lightning in Grandma's ear. "Astagfirullah, said the grandmother's mouth sucked.
"So the grandson lives in preparation." Ask the grandma.
"I live with my two sisters and my sister. But my brother's been sick for more than a week. Areha was afraid that brother would die too, like mother." Areha said mixed with roaring cries. The grandmother touched her heart is not a reed. She was a woman who raised children. Very understanding of the situation of the girl in front of him. The grandmother's intention was to visit Areha's sick sister.
"Come on, try and help your sister." Bargaining the grandmother, Areha nodded and invited the grandmother to follow. Grandma felt iris while walking among the bushes. But he continued to follow Areha from behind.
...*****...
GRANDMA HELPED.
*
Grandma looked inside the wall from the collapsed hole. Looks tent walled plastic sacks roofed tarpaulin on the side of the wall. This is their home, said the grandmother.
"Oh my God, why is this situation you're putting on these children." The grandmother's heart.
He stepped following Areha, and looked into their sack house. There was a twelve-year-old boy. His body was very thin, and his skin was dark. His eyes were closed, and his movements weak.
"What do you feel, grandson." Ask the grandmother while holding Aram's forehead. Aram squirmed and his eyes opened slowly.
"Yamaaakk. Baakkkkkkkkkkkr. I'm sick, sorry I can't take care of my sisters." Aram said slowly and there were tears streaming down his eyelids. His grandmother's eyes began to glaze over.
"Koyongs. Wake up koyong, just koyong" said Areha half sobbing. Grandma saw the atmosphere, the sun was almost setting.
"Where's the midwife's house around here." Thought the grandma. He saw two boys near the chicken coop. They put their chickens in it. Two children silently watched the grandmother.
Grandma looked pensive, on her eyelids reflected the past. Her three sons also love raising chickens.
"Leban, quickly put the chicken in, after that we bathe in the river." Grandma in the past.
"Yes Mak." Little Laban said, he then put the chickens together with his two younger siblings, Zeta and Barda.
...*****...
GRANDMA AND MIDWIFE.
*
A grandmother carries a child on her back. He seemed so troubled and tired. In addition to his aged body, the burden of the child was also heavy for his size. He walked there yesterday looking for a practice midwife's house. Striking steps.
"Son, where's the midwife's house." Ask the grandmother of two teenage twin girls who just came home from the stall. Their same color hijab makes their twin faces completely indistinguishable, and more beautiful.
"It's not far from here, Grandma. Let us take you let grandma not stray. This complex road has many intersections." Said the teenage twin girl. Both of them felt sorry for the granny. Arriving near the wall they turn left.
"Mother midwife, someone's willing to seek treatment." Call one of the twins. Moments later, a grandmother came out, holding her granddaughter.
"Oh, let's go in, ma'am. Mother midwife again prayed magrib." The grandmother said from inside the house. He watched the grandmother carrying Aram.
"We're home, Grandma." Said the twins.
"Yes, thank you so much grandchildren." Grandma answered, the twin girls came home. The grandmother entered and was immediately guided into her room for treatment.
"Wait a minute, Mom, my son is praying, change." The grandmother said it was the mother of the midwife. After that, the grandmother of the mother-midwife's parents came in and told her there was a patient.
"What a pain his granddaughter, Grandma." Ask the mother midwife, she enters the room and begins to examine Aram's body.
"These adek have been treated here. Bawak's sick sister." Midwife's mother's story. The grandmother who did not know just mengakin.
"Aram Ma'am." Reply Aram is very weak. The mother midwife asked him to lie down, and the mother injected medicine needles in her left and right thighs. Aram was horrified and in pain two needles pierced almost simultaneously. Therefore, he could only feel it because his body was unusually weak.
"The medicine is taken regularly, the anti biotic is spent, and this is a vitamin pill. Everything is spent." Said mother midwife.
While the grandmother was worried, she did not have much money to pay. But he was forced to do it to treat Aram.
"Grandmother has been sick for a long time. So the cure is a lot. In addition, the grandchildren are malnourished. Later improved nutrition, eat lots of vegetables and animal side dishes." Obviously the midwife while putting down the medicine bag.
"Yes ma'am, how much is it." Ask the grandma.
"Just forty thousand, Grandma." Said the mother midwife followed by a smile. Grandma was relieved, she thought it would cost her over a hundred thousand.
...*****...
GRANDMA LEFT.
*
The next day, the grandmother sat outside the sack house. He was looking for information about the four brothers. He talked a lot with Areha, Luran and Figan. Sitting under the shade of the trees.
"How long has your Koyong been sick." Ask the grandma.
"Maybe two weeks ago." Answer Areha. The grandmother asked her third name, and the names of both parents. Keep finding out about their lives. So Grandma knows all their backgrounds. Grandma knew that they were Sekayu people because of the koyong call for older brother and kopek for older sister.
"Mr grandma will leave. Don't forget to give your koyong medicine." Said the grandmother.
"Yes Nek." Areha looked lethargic.
"What do we call grandma." Ask Figan.
"Call Grandma Miss." Answer grandma.
"Grandma don't go, stay with us. We have no family, be our grandmother." Luran.
Grandma was silent and thought hard. His heart was filled with a sense of unbearability. He wants to do something, but he has to. There was no way he could stay inside that sack-walled tent. But where he goes, he has no plan. Soon the money will run out too. What about his children. He has no home or job. Being with these kids will have a big responsibility. Or, this is my way of realizing the dream of my late husband, thought the grandmother.
"What fit, invite grandma to stay here." Asked the grandmother, she wanted to subtly refuse. So that the kids are not disappointed. Luran and Figan run into the sack house.
"Koyong, let grandma stay at our house." Said Figan.
"Take Koyong." Add Luran. Aram nodded weakly, he also thanked the grandmother for petrifyingly treating.
"Said koyong can Grandma. Our house will be raised. We make our own houses, Figan, Kopek and Koyong too." The plain Figan. He held the grandmother's hand. His eyes looked teary, begging. Figan was the fastest to get close to Grandma.
"These children need parental love. Can I let these orphans. God has opened my heart." Grandma thought wrong.
Grandma remembered her past. When four kids were their age. They were so happy, bathing together, eating together and playing together.
"Dinda, if kanda's successful. Kanda wants to create an orphanage for orphans." Stuck in Grandma's ear the words of her husband who aspires to care for orphans. Is this the path that God leads. Is this a message from my husband on his unrealized ideals.
"Mom, why daydream." Ask Areha.
"Ah, no." Answer the grandmother. But my grandmother was not sure about all that. He went to work and place, he could not think. How he cared for these four orphans, a war of thought ensued.
Even at noon, Grandma Cik prepared. He couldn't have stayed in that sack tent. So he said goodbye to Aram and his sisters. Araha and her two sisters cried. But Grandma didn't care. He stepped away and left the sack house. Everyone can't do anything.
"Da-da, Grandma's Miss." Areha, Luran and Figan stood at the mouth of the wall. From there he saw the departure of Grandma. Walk among the bushes towards the highway. Grandma looked at him at a glance, her heart was screaming. But his steps are still he is strong enough to leave.
"Step your heart Miss Rumi. It's tega!!!." Sounds as if they had been heard in his ears.
"Dinda, if you succeed later. Kanda wants to build an orphanage. That is the purpose of kanda and kanda devotion to this life, as a Muslim kanda does not want to be limited to ritual worship, must do something, must be passionate, and full of struggle." The voice of Grandma Cik's husband was heard among the roar of motorized vehicles on the highway as if accompanying his steps.
...*****...
"Koyong, Grandma's gone." Figan said he hoped Aram could stop him.
"She wasn't our grandmother, Figan. Anybody wants to live in a sack house like this chicken coop. We can't do anything about it. But he's a good man, has frothy cures for koyong. That's enough." Aram said weakly and hugged his youngest sister.
...*****...
Two days passed, the desolate atmosphere on the edge of the forest was broken by the screams of Luran and Figan playing. They're playing with the horses, chasing the chase. Aram sat leaning under a shady tree. The pedestal is made from a round wooden arrangement the size of an adult's hand. Take their playroom. It's like a living room in a house.
Aram took his medicine, and Areha came to bring him rice porridge. Aram has begun to heal even though his body is still weak. Four poor orphans, trying to live in the bitterness of life.
"Koyong, this is rice porridge. Spend it, let koyong get well soon." Areha.
"Figan, don't run in there. Lots of shard shards, you'll have your feet hurt." Luran warned her sister. Figan stopped and came back and headed for the toy cars.
"Koyong, let's play cars, make a long bridge." Take Figan. He hinted at tree branches for their making.
"Come on." Answer Luran. Without them noticing, a grandmother peeked at them from behind the wall.
"Assalamualaikum, Areha, Luran, Figan, where the grandkids are." A grandmother came in from the wall. He's got a black plastic bag. Hearing the call, Areha, Figan and Luran were shocked. They did not believe her and did not expect her to return.
"Grandeekkk." Shouted the three of them running around hugging the grandmother. Aram stood weakly on the auxiliary wooden stick, and leaned against the trunk of the tree. Her tears were dripping and smiling happily. Not only the arrival of the grandmother, but seeing her sisters happy like that made Aram moved.
Grandma Cik brought out souvenirs, bananas, fried foods, and snacks. The grandmother also bought five kilos of rice, and cooking herbs, soap and toothpaste along with a toothbrush. The grandmother asked them to eat souvenirs, but they had not eaten them. Busier to ask questions and talk and be around Grandma Cik.
It indicates that they do not need food. But what they need is the affection of the parents where they can lean and depend.
"Kanda, I'll realize kanda's ideals. I will fight and fight." The grandmother's heart.
Since then, Grandma has been living with them. In that sack house, there were now five people soundly asleep.
"Aram, when you're healthy, we'll wake up. Grandma help ya." Said the grandmother. Aram said Areha, Luran and Figan promised to help.
...*****...
Pak Hadi's smartphone rang that morning. He saw the incoming contact, Mr. Katara.
"What's the morning, Ra." Said Mr. Hadi. He then wore long pants to the office.
"This, you want to ask directly from you, between believing and not. Be yourself, or another Hadi." Said Mr. Katara.
"Ask what, Katara. Usually, never call work before work." Said Mr. Hadi not connected.
"It's not a job."Answer mr. Katara. He kept paying attention to the newspaper in his hand, occasionally drinking coffee.
"What's up." Said Mr. Hadi, he was sitting on the sofa chair in the middle of the house.
"This, I read from my subscription print media. It's true your in-laws are missing." Ask Mr. Katara.
Hearing that, Mr. Hadi was not a reed of his surprise. He never published the events of his disappearance. It was also just yesterday afternoon that she and sister-in-law reported to the police. How come this morning there's news.
"It's in print." Ask Mr. Hadi.
"Yes, I'll send you a photo of the newspaper." Said Mr. Katara. A few moments later the photo of the newspaper arrived on WhatsApp Pak Hadi. There are three photos, three print media in the city of Palembang.
"Two Successful Entrepreneurs in the Lost City of Palembang Do Not Know Where to Go"
"There was a family conflict, so their mother went missing for months now. Weirdhhh." Read Mr. Hadi on the title of the first page newspaper.
"Mom Doesn't School Can Take Care of Many Children. But the Learned and Rich Kids Don't Take Care of One Mother. The End Times!!!" phenomenon!!!"
Sumatera Kabar.-Mother is missing for a long time, her son does not know knowing. According to sources that cannot be mentioned. It turns out that the mother-in-law is a successful businessman in Palembang City and his son is a manager at a well-known bank. What irony and smell.
News South Sum.- Rich children use luxury cars but do not take care of one mother. The wealthy businessman's in-laws went missing months ago. Allegedly there is an element of intentional from his children."
"Aiisss. Know what those reporters are, how insolent they are." Maki Pak Hadi from the phone. Chests smoldering.
"This is from cyber and print media. Apero Fublic and Apero Fublic.com. I sent the script and the ling." Said Mr. Katara. Mr. Hadi read the news.
"Family Conflict: Parents Are Victims. Strange but real, parents are gone for months but kids turn on each other..." "How could this be leaked to the public, it's such a shame." Mr. Hadi seemed so upset and offended to read the headlines about the disappearance of his in-laws. Moreover, they mentioned the bachelor's degree.
"I suggest you close your social media account first." Said Mr. Katara. After that, Mr. Katara hung up the phone. Mr. Hadi sat on his bed. His wife, entered the room while holding Gaka who had just finished bathing. Mr. Hadi showed photos and news scrincut sent Mr. Katara.
"Yes. God." Juhusi was crying and tears were breaking.
...*****...
