
Three Italian women - the Lena clerk, walking hand in hand with the interpreter in crocodile captivity. While in the middle of the line, Emma was talking to Axel. While at the very back row, there were Lena and Sujatmiko, who seemed to be quietly relaxing enjoying the warm weather which made them start sweating.
They passed the path of the right-left crocodile pond, with a concrete fence one meter and a half high. Their view was hindered from seeing crocodiles from this point.
They paused on the porch as four men dressed in safety dipped raw crocodile skin into various chemical solutions.
Mr. Daniel has always been the operational head of the cement tub, inside there is a sheet of crocodile skin complete with protrusions and distinctive motifs. The skin was submerged in a chemical solution.
"It should wear hand shirts. Otherwise, our skin can peel off" said Mr. Daniel, who has been wearing yellow rubber gloves.
Everyone has also been wearing rubber boots since many areas are wet. Mr. Daniel showed me a table of chemical solutions in the corner. There are 15 types of chemicals.
The Italian publicist, speaking in front of Lena's employees, was explaining everything Mr. Daniel said. Lena's employees were so enthusiastic and leaned over a little shoulder, looking into the tub filled with hard liquid.
Then Mr. Daniel raised the skin of a crocodile whose color had turned blue. He said the process was not final, there are still some more solutions that need to be used by the skin to bathe.
"The function of this solution is to relax crocodile skin, clean fine scales, clean the skin from meat. Most of the ingredients are formic acid. If exposed to human skin, the skin can blister. Its own function is to soften the skin. Even 'bones can also be like sponges, '" said Mr. Daniel, who is nicknamed Lena and Emma.
They shifted to the corner of the foyer, where eight people were treading on skin that looked muddy. Mr. Daniel goes back to explaining . "Usually we use the machine, but the machine is in service. By trampling then the chemicals work effectively. After that, it is then aerated to dry. No need to be dried in direct sunlight, because it can actually make the skin harden."
Lena and Emma walked side by side through a row of crocodile skin that was being sloped in the open with a zinc roof.
Lena and Emma nodded as the head of operations told me that this captive company produces 2500 crocodiles per year. That means there are about 6 crocodiles per day skinned.
The women grimaced as the man told him there were crocodile meat mules, some of which were supplied for satay house subscriptions.
The head of operations also explained that this captivity has been around for two decades. They also have other businesses, namely fish and chicken farms, which later to be used as crocodile feed.
...****************...
A day in captivity makes Lena exhausted. He had just prayed magrib with his eyelids willing to close continuously. The initial intention is just lying down and has not had time to remove the mucus. However, he actually overslept and now it was midnight, did not feel like he had been sleeping seven hours.
Wash your face and ablution, Lena rushed to pray Isya, to relieve the grief because of the longing for the husband. He who used to depend on every single thing spele to David, or just ask opinions and whine at will, now had to be far apart.
Just as he finished praying for David's health, his phone rang out. There are 35 call records. Lena replied to chat :
- Ma'af mama overslept since magrib prayer. Papa, are you home? Don't forget dinner, even if you're not. Mama Kangen Pangen Pengamakan May Papa's business in the office quickly settle down, well-
There was not yet a minute, Lena immediately received a reply:
- Oh, Mama overslept, keep dreaming Papa? This is Papa just coming home from the dinner bar with Grandpa. Cold sleeping alone, no one hugged and the bolster was not as warm as Mama. So kangen!😘-
Lena smiled to herself. It's been four months of marriage, but her heart is always pounding and so embarrassed every time she reads a chat from David for her. She felt like she was the most loved, needed and valued woman.
Longing struck his heart, which was already so craving the embrace of the husband. Some very empty nights without a caress and a firm hug from David's chest in bed made the woman want to quickly return home to Italy - which is now the home that makes her feel at home and feel safe there.
The woman turned on the unlit balcony lamp, and was glued to a dark shadow behind the windowpanes. Lena flicked the curtains and peeked out. Instantly his eyes were shocked, beside the window was a man sitting curled up. His heart was almost dislodged, he thought the appearance of a demon.
Lena rubs her eyes with her heart racing. The man looked up and Lena's eyes almost popped out. Not a bit more surprised, Lena backed down when she saw there was Niko who also looked shocked.
Niko's lips smiled and approached the door. Lena froze as Niko pointed at the balcony lock with her index finger and asked to open the door.
"Len, open!" Niko with beaming eyes while tapping on the glass.
The woman refused, shaking her head. Fear slipped into the soul once it knew it was one in the morning and was approached by the ex in his room. Her phone kept ringing, Lena glanced at a call she knew was David. Lena looked at Niko again, she advanced to near the balcony trembling like a ghost sighting, making sure the door was locked. Hazel's eyes continued to be riveted, she and Niko were separated by the glass.
"I miss it, open it! The pain held back even longer! Open Len," Niko's impatient whimper seemed demanding. The burly palm clung to the glass and the teary eyes made Lena even more frightened.
"No, I'm David's wife. This is my sin. Satan can plunge us in the frame of beauty, loh. I'm scared." Lena squeezes the mukena.
"I really love you, Mita. I'm serious, nothing's gonna happen to you, so open up quickly."
Lena froze thinking the young man had been busy approaching Emma. Now he's meeting the fact that it's all wrong.
"Honey open. Thought, okay. All this time I tried to grow stronger, and put my feelings aside and become your friend. Turns out I can't stop thinking about you, Len!"
A feeling of compassion seeped into Lena's heart. Niko used to be nice to him anyway. The door lock was rotated and shifted a kilan wide and saw Niko's red eyes with wet eyelids.
"Don't open it again" Lena said quickly as Niko held onto the door. "Don't go in, stay there."
Niko nodded. "Let me hold your hand, please."
"No, I can't."
"I miss, Lena!" Niko was unbearable.
"Where did you get in here?" Lena took Niko's mind off. He looked behind the curtains, seen between the balconies of the rooms no one connected.
"I climbed .... "
"This crazy 20th floor! You can fall and danger! What if you have anything?"
"Let's be good." Niko grimaced forward slowly so that Lena did not notice.
"You're good? I don't know you anymore." Lena scratched her head. "Iko, don't remember how I left you alone in Qatar. Didn't even pity you before you came home and we had a fight back then at my house, did we? I told you I gave up on you."
"Then what, Len? You are still the first person to make me fall in love. We talked every afternoon while I was still living in Bali.
Then we haven't come to an agreement is that when you leave me then you promise not to get in touch with anyone else before I find your replacement! You've married someone else."
You are a kind man, I believe and for a responsible man like you there is always a woman who is much better than me! One day you will realize that you deserve better than I have forsaken you! I left because I didn't see my heart going back to you completely"
"But what you're doing is causing internal injuries here." Niko hissed, sat down and looked at the beautiful tiny legs by pressing on the chest that felt there was a big hole. "To this day, it's still the only thing that haunts me."
Then the pregnant woman sat still wearing mukena. For a moment he looked at the bowed Niko.
"I understand your heartache more than you can imagine. One day you'll realize that you haven't thought of me all day, that's the moment that sets you free the most, like being released from prison. I'm looking forward to that, Nik?"
"But, Len, we're very compatible, very concerned about relationships. We both...invest in it, sacrifice for our relationship, compromise and work for and base our lives around!
Our time together was some of the best in my life. We encourage each other to be better people.
We instill each other deeply into our lives, and we're both very happy about it."
Niko continued to explain all her beliefs and Lena paused for a moment, looking at Niko in confusion.
"Sorry, this conversation is too far away, I'm married." Lena looked down and saw her stomach. There is a fruit of love there that further strengthens the invisible rope to the figure of David that he did not find in Niko.
"I can give you a lot of money." Niko grimaced and gazed deeply into the hazel eyes that had a flat face.
"No matter how much money you give me won't be able to take my feelings away from David. It's deeper than money."
This was how Niko felt, when she was left out after being in a relationship, it felt like the soul inside had been stripped away. "I miss you, Mita. I'm kangen! I miss you, sweetie."
Lena's heart throbbed, moved, but couldn't go any further and had to fend for herself by not being inedible with Niko's words. "I think you miss a part of yourself. You are in the future, more than anything else.
Looks like you have the whole life that was ever built when we were together. You imagine how the two of us will grow old together and settle down. When our unsaved relationship, your future-we, it goes away and dies.
You must feel the pain alone. It is not easy to let go of our beautiful dreams. It also depends on how intense the effort we release.
Stop asking yourself if you can't forget me and love someone else again. Starting from the beginning, Nik, with a little practice, loneliness will turn into solitude. Remember the wonderful things about YOU and I'm ready to help you?
You as a whole, until your dreams are fragmented and shared with others - women who I think are very typical - surpass me.
Sometimes we have to get through pain. I had hoped for you and ended up disappointed when you were with Marsha, lying to me. My feelings have changed since the moment you rode a camel with Marsha. My heart died from pain. The hope of our future instantly disappeared," the woman said with a sharp look into Niko's teary eyes, as if not accepting her words.
Lena remembers her feelings of jealousy in the desert seeing Niko covering Marsha's legs in a white shirt that was revealed as Marsha climbed onto the back to the camel.
The pain caused him to lose respect. She thinks too confidently of her relationship with Niko and ends up bitter, leaving behind a deep trauma every time Niko sees her. She doesn't trust Niko anymore.
"Sir, your wounded heart will bring forth defense, then as if to speak, 'You just got hurt and won't let you fall in love again. NO.'
But Nik, I don't want you to drag things on alone. Our soul mate was enough until your fight with Mas David in the Qatar mes that morning when Marsha showed me the diamond ring." Lena smiled bitterly.
Niko shifted the glass door quickly and a cold gaze, hands smothering Lena's mouth from the sudden scream.
Just this time Lena knew the power Niko had. She was grieving on both of her wrists that were held back by one hand belonging to Niko.
By all sorts of means, Lena intended to make a ruckus as they passed through the living room overlooking Axel's closed room. However, Niko kept away from any access to the commotion until Lena was successfully brought to the nightlife.
The pregnant woman could not struggle after trying to get up from the sofa to intend to leave. Two large men, holding her outside the door, and carrying Lena sat back down. Niko smiled like she won the lottery.
Still hard to accept Lena's brain, with the attitude of the former. Lena gripped the edge of the sofa, she only wore a rayon nightgown whose top had been covered in a coat, whether belonging to whom, which was covered by Niko.
Niko said this black coat was for her?
"You're wasting money by going here and who are those two people, Niko?" Lena pulls a glass filled with liquor that will touch Niko's lips. "Why are you touching this bastard!"
Niko pursed the lips and took the bottle *****.
Lena grabbed the bottle and hid it behind her back. "Why are you keeping quiet?"
"You don't want to be with me, after all" Niko said in a child-like voice. "Lena Paramita's. It's hard to persuade you!"
Lena gaping, where Niko who used to be always mature and scary because the rules are too straight. Now a kanakan and wayward, but there is another figure that Lena does not recognize in her, scary and foreign.
"Let me call Brother. You've been over." Lena fingered Niko's pants pocket, but her wrists ached with Niko's hand until she grimaced. "Sick, Niko!"
"Your hands are dangerous and you're touch-touch, huh?" Niko reduced the distance of their faces.
Lena moved away until her back pressed the bottle behind her. The burly hands frightened Lena while walking down her waist, and the bottle of drink had moved into Niko's hands.
The man downed the liquor directly from the bottle making Lena confused because his two hands were held by Niko so that he could not block Niko who seemed to force a drink even though Niko was uncomfortable with the taste.
"Silver will definitely be mad at you," said Lena with a pursed lip. She guessed her brother would be sad when he walked away from Niko because of Niko's attitude.
Lena's eyes widened, her hands wriggling, pushing the tip of the bottle against her lips. Niko is crazy!
"Drink," Niko growled, unable to resist her wrath as Lena continued to defend David.
"Emhhh-no! Huk! Uhuuk!" Lena vomited up the liquid and pushed the bitter drink with her tongue. However, the bottle's powerful thrust left Lena's tightly clenched teeth open. She cried with disappointment at the sight of the newly encountered demon Niko's eyes. Never expecting, Niko has a cruel side, knowing she is pregnant but forcing her to swallow for a few gulps.
Lena sits hunched over, crying as Niko shuts up by squeezing the bottle without touching Lena again. Lena began to numb as the door opened from the outside and saw four foreign men enter and stand in front of Niko who seemed to be speaking, but Lena could no longer hear clearly.
Yang Lena knows, she sees Niko's face near.