MYS 30
Armed with a large yellow buoyancy balloon, I lay on it, where waves like ocean waves lulled me into looking at the blue sky with my eyes slightly closed. This is my little paradise. Peace. Own. And, enjoy.
For a moment, I can rest my head filled with anxiety. I'm worried that next year I will change schools even though there is Ana who is my best friend. I'm worried about how long I'll have to leave my bicycle at Budi's house to avoid bullying, whose perpetrators are difficult to track down. Specially worried about my grades even though I have worked hard and studied diligently. Still lost to Jono, the Caucasian goat. And why should there be him with a brain like a textbook in my class?
All my complaints can only be raised to God. I don't want to be labeled a lazy child when there's a problem, that's not the way that parents don't teach them directly. I have to learn to be independent. Must be able to.
"It's here, I've been looking for you since earlier, Anggi." cried Ana next to me.
"I'm tired of looking for you too." I sighed, annoyed when Anggi was interrupted relaxing.
"Hahahaaha... I was busy working on Stefie. It's funny I swear it's a child." giggled Ana.
In the next second Ana tells how she took Stefie to the water boom and forced her to be in front. Playing in the current pool where Stefie screams it's not clear why. The last one in the spilled bucket Ana disappeared to escape the wave pool and met me.
"I'm sorry Stefie." I half believe it. If Ana is already in a state of ignorance mode on then be Ana the devil.
"Besides... it's because of you. Why are you sitting in Jono and I's place? Do you know it feels like my ears are almost popping because of Stefie's chatter on the bus?"
"I'm sorry about that, Ann. I didn't mean to. Yesterday I was already sleepy, I was tired of using it." it was clear that I was the only one who responded with a small nod of Ana.
"Then come home with me, then," suggested Ana in a concerned tone.
"Alright."
But no later. On my way home, the bus had only been running for twenty minutes and I threw up. Suddenly Ana was shocked and went to sit with Stefie again. Jono, who flashed pitying eyes, had to sit next to me.
"You drink a lot of pool water, don't you?" Look at Jono who is massaging my shoulders with wind oil.
"That's Ana. It's really fun to kick me until I drown." defend me, who turns out to be the next victim of Ana's pranks.
"So don't stay away from me, so I can take care of it. I don't believe it. I'm the one who's in trouble." Jono grumbled continuing to massage his shoulders. Grease my temples with oil put on his jacket and put headphones on my head.
"Yeah sorry," said I don't know what else to say. Jon has been very good.
"Sleep now," he said again while handing me a strawberry-flavored Antimo which I drank immediately.
Soon I was asleep.
Yesterday's field trip was just a pre-battle relaxation, Final Semester Assessment.
After studying day and night and sacrificing badminton practice, I finally finished facing a series of exams. Even though there is still some remaining annoyed, annoyed because there is an answer that I believe is wrong.
"It's good. Smile continues to be like a frog," said Budi, who without permission showed his face in front of me.
"You don't know, do you feel like you've worked hard but it's still not what you expected?" I rambled half vent.
"Just get it easy."
"So since when did you use English as a second language? You're also used to doing things." investigate I suspect.
"You're still busy studying. I'm now Jono's bro. He's a regular customer of the eels I provoked." whispered Budi dramatically.
"Tch... in the end, it's money too."
"Money is also important to sustain life, time..." Budi defended not accepting it.
"Yeah, I know that too. Everyone knows it. You don't have to be so nervous, wearing your lips isn't sexy either." tease me. I swear Budi's lips that are looking like this... remind me of something that I don't deserve to mention. Fear of insulting and racism.
"Where are you going on holiday?" Instead, Budi doesn't accept that I'm a bully.
"Going home. If so," answer me.
"Do you have a village? Hahahahaha..." Budi laughed and walked away.
It's a child. Just knowing my story that every year I change schools, he said I don't have a hometown like that?
My heart hurts.
The shock was clearly illustrated when he found his father and mother at home at noon. Especially seeing them packing clothes, one in my father's backpack and the other in my mother's small suitcase.
"Mom...where are you going?" I asked choked up. Afraid that this will be my end in Prembun.
"Anggi...mom got the news that my grandfather's sister died. It's going to Bandung but Anggi can't come, is it okay?" light mother gently.
"How come?" I'm embarrassed.
"Earlier, my father called Ana's mother. Asking for help, did you take you there, didn't you? It's only for three days. Later, when we have school holidays, we will go home together, okay?" interrupted dad.
"Yeah...it's okay. It's just so sudden."
"His name is also dead, Anggi. How will anyone know." said the mother was still busy packing.
Replaced by silence enveloping the house, walking with the departure of father and mother. I sat alone in the room. Don't do anything, just stay still. Even if Ana doesn't come to pick me up later, I'll stay home. Alone.
Danu's grandfather, the only brother of Danar's grandfather, my mother's father. Has now died. As I recall, Danu's grandfather was a person who adhered to a healthy lifestyle, diligently exercising in the fields or just visiting cassava fields and rarely eating meat except for his domesticated chicken. Why?
When I was at Ana's house without me knowing I remained silent. Sit in the corner of the sofa. I feel very lost. The person who pampered me since I was little is gone. It was Grandpa Danu who always took me to the fields looking for grasshoppers, or to the small ditch beside the rice fields looking for hickeys, sometimes also to the Sunday morning market after returning from the dawn recitation.
Until finally, my father took me wherever he served. Making me a lost child, having no one to pamper me, no more fun looking for colorful grasshoppers or hickeys, which then die horribly after three days because I mess with the water.
"Are you crying?" Ana's voice from across the table made me lookup.
"Let me mourn, today," I said, a reflex of my right hand wiping two wet eyes. Tears of longing and loss. And I can't come to Bandung to just sprinkle flowers on the grave. I'm not considered family!
"My condolences, Anggi. I'll go to Edi's place if you look for it later," said Ana and left. Passed through the side door and disappeared behind the high walls of Jono's mansion.
-TBC-