100 Days of Being a Widow

Husband's marriage

The overcast sky enveloped this banana city. The temperature dropped almost 16 degrees Celsius!

Rain accompanied by wind makes all kinds of human activities delayed. Many choose to stay silent in their respective homes, especially BMKG when it has informed that the rain will fall accompanied by strong winds.

Melati was stunned to see the weather outside, but she felt that her current feelings were more terrible than the weather. Malik hasn't been home for a week. The house that Malik prepared specifically for Melati so that he felt calm without interference from the people around the boarding school.

He did not try to contact her husband, but strangely, Malik was not trying to contact his wife. For a moment, Melati's heart rippled. He certainly kept the answer to his own question. Trying to avoid it, he was not able to. That fact he had to face.

"Ning.. ustad came"

Said one of the servants.

Melati was stunned then spontaneously got up from her seat. When she turned around, she saw her husband standing in front of her. His eyes are soft and cannot hide his feelings.

Melati approached her husband. Standing in front of her, looking closely at her husband's eyes that began to sink.

"Has it all happened, Mom?"

jasmine asked her husband.

Without an answer, Malik looked down. A moment later, Melati fell in Malik's arms and cried together in an embrace.

"I am guilty, sir. Not you".

Melati lirih.

"Don't blame each other, baby. Consider this the will of God, even though we never want it!"

Malik stared fixedly at the round eyes of the wife. The eye is always excited when learning new things, always ready for education, and never complains with how he feels.

Melati herded Malik's steps towards the bed, clutching her husband tightly there, evaporating the longing that was colonized the day before.

#POV Malik's

It's like I don't have myself. I can't refuse something I refuse to do. The sense of filial piety to parents requires my feelings to give up. It demands love to sacrifice, sacrifice everything, including happiness.

A week I left her, Melati, my wife who had learned to love me, accepted her condition to marry. I know he was wrong about marriage, about his future orientation. However, I also know how he tried to improve himself, receiving advice that sometimes tends to corner him.

He has taken various supplements to stimulate fertility, drank pre-pregnancy milk, checked with a doctor, only God is still testing his patience. But this is where I know who my wife really is.

Melati is a persistent person. He really meant it if he wanted something. He will fight for the one he loves very much. A thousand nights I hear each do'a in a third of the night. His cries and the long do'a-do'a that he often spoke secretly. Until one night, he asked me to talk. His eyes could not cover the sadness, even though he was wrapped in a smile on the corner of his lips.

Stammering, he said something,

"Mas, Abi and Umi came to the house..."

he said very cleanly. His voice was like trembling and stifling. I can barely comment .

"la...then...?"

I said with doubt.

That time, his eyes could no longer stem the tears that had accumulated. But he was still trying to smile. I haven't answered yet, he cut it.

"By Allah I have loved you. But, it seems that God wants to uproot the favor!"

He began to be unable to continue with his words. So did I, who seemed confused about what to say, do what, and then ask myself,

" where is my integrity as a husband, if I can't promise my wife that I will always be with her?!"

"I will always love you..."

My words were then pushed aside by Melati.

"Don't let me hope, mas. Because I'm sure this phrase is unraveling because you don't know what it's like to share!"

The sentence from Melati as if to punch in the chest. He then got up and went back to the bed. As for me, I can only be silent in the shaf of the priest, but always be a makmum for other happiness.

***

The next day were the most painful days for Melati. I know it. I feel that. When Umi often held me back to come home Melati. There's just something Umi did to hold me back. Until one day, Abi and Umi invited me to propose an Ustadzah I knew as Tiya. An administrator of Abi's boarding school. Astiya or Tiya, not strangers to my family, we are already familiar with each other. However, I never thought he would be a thorn for Melati.

To be honest, I know that Tiya has wanted to be my wife since our first meeting on the bench of Tsanawiyah Madrasah. His father, who is a pesantren, certainly makes the intensity of our family meetings very routine. Every Friday night, Astiya helps her mother prepare a meal for the congregation at my home. In fact, Tiya himself once expressed his feelings directly to me, when we accidentally entered the MTQ race and got the same coach. However, there was one thing that I did not like about her, and instead it appeared when I was still a newlywed with Melati. I often looked at Tiya's cynical gaze at Melati. Though clearly, Melati is not the usurper of her love Tiya. In fact, when Melati never got pregnant, Tiya was the one who spread gossip and poisoned the thoughts of the people around the cottage. But, whatever the power, he has the shrewdness to attract the attention of Umi and Abi, and his strategy works.

The wedding was arranged without my consent. Penghulu has been present on the spot, and Tiya has been berias. He even sat next to Umi.

"Sorry, this time it's too much!. I haven't asked my wife for permission!"

I replied when Abi said that the ruler was ready for my marriage to Tiya.

The heated debate between me and Abi finally broke out. A debate I've never had in my entire life. This debate was heard by Umi who for life never saw me not obey them.

"so...le...you've been poisoned by that woman!!!!"

Mom screamed as she looked at Abi with a breath of anger at me.

"Umi.please let me choose what is best for my family, I still struggle with my wife. Not the wrong jasmine. But I chose to survive!!"

A slap landed on my cheek. Abi did it. It was the first time I felt this slap.

Furthermore, I only watched Umi faint.

***

In helplessness, I accepted Tiya as my wife.

"give me a grandchild...!"

That's the only line that's patched up, beating my promise to Melati.

Seriate....