Bony The Scooter

Ch.23 – Warmth of a Father

We are the right taste, at the wrong time”--Fiersa Besari

\=\=\=\=\=\=\=

I don't know what dream I had last night, I again felt the sensation of a dining table with the figure of a father, I allowed him to take the rice and soto that we had bought, I was invited to take, even though we only bought two packs, we joined them in one bowl, which was edible for three people.

“Ayok deck, add more names.” Dhewi's father offered me.

“Eh i.iya sir, thanks, this is enough for Akbar.” Without me knowing I answered an offer from Dhewi's father by mentioning my name.

“Owh, so you're Akbar? Sorry yes, it has been often repotinated with Dhewi, yesterday abis nganterin to

wulan place right?”

[degg] Suddenly I became nervous because Dhewi's father started to talk about it, I was very worried that if the next question was where Dhewi was staying after Wulan.

“Bar, what do you want to drink?” Arrived – arrived Dhewi offered me a drink, to divert Dhewi's father's conversation.

“Nice timing wie” Inner.

“What could wie.”

I answered Dhewi, who immediately went inside to get us some drinking water.

“Cih, nawarin drink to escape from his father's questions yaa.. pinter also nih kabak”

I rectified my assumption that Dhewi had thought that he would divert the question from his father.

“Eh, Akbar does not feel repotinated as Dhewi kok pak.”

With a heavy heart I finally answered the question from his father Dhewi, because it would be impolite if I also shifted the question.

“Means yesterday time to where your Wulan ride the vespa?”

“Eh, yes sir, we ride vespa there.”

“No strike in the middle of the road?”

“Alhamdulillah smoothly sir, not strike, not raining, not met the police hehehe.. just fit back to the rain, even then deket house Akbar.”

I began to calm down, because Dhewi's father did not ask about Dhewi staying where that night was.

“Hahaha, I have not boarded Vespa for a long time, I used to have a Vespa and it was my first motorbike, but now I do not know where, in the past I sold to Pak Lurah only 250 thousand Rupiah aja in the past.”

“Appaaaa?!!” I was shocked to hear that the price of Vespa was just that.

“Hahahaha... that was the old days of the bar, 250 thousand aja already got the rice fields two plots.”

“Hehehe, is that it sir?! What year was that, sir? Keep vespa series what you used to sell?”

“If not wrong early 60s father sold to Pak Lurahan, what vespa? If you do not remember wrong, Vespa series Lambetto in the 50s.. At that time I want to buy rice fields that deket same house, trus also let it be good later if you want to be divided for children – paternal children, well even though at that time his mother Dhewi just pregnant the first child, the first child, but I've prepared everything.”

I almost choked on my own breath when he mentioned the vespa series he sold, although he mispronounced it, but I'm sure he meant the Lambretta vespa of the 50s, which now costs tens of millions of Rupiah.

“A..What does Vespa Lambretta mean?” I asked him to confirm my guess.

“Naaah.it's lambretta, hahaha, I've forgotten..”.

“Bapak know lambretta price now?”

I asked, because I was disappointed to hear Lambretta sold for 250 thousand rupiah only.

“Hahaha, don't know, how much?”

“From what Akbar heard, the price of Lambretta can now be up to 50 millions, it also depends on the condition, the more original the vespanya, the more expensive the price.”

“Hahahaha...great...great...”.

“Good from where sir?”

I wonderingly asked him, for not understanding, the meaning of his words.

“Ya nice donk, meaning you have lost first already sold vespa, try now think, what price of rice fields you have from the sale of vespa?”

“Haiissh.. bener also yes sir. land price must be much more expensive now.”

I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard the explanation from Dhewi's father, I did prefer to talk with people who are more mature, because there must be benefits, than if only chatting with peers, who just joked about every topic of chatter.

This is also the reason why I am much more mature than my age – friends. Of course because of my frequent association with people – people who are much more mature.

“Hahaha.. not only that, from the results of rice fields also the same father of children – children can eat, can school, and other – others, try if the Vespa is not sold? Can't be shadow, right? That is what is called blessing, if we are sincere, giving up something for a better purpose, surely God will replace it with a better and of course from a direction that we never thought before.”

“Hayooh, real cool, what more chat? Ayok drink first tea”

Dhewi finally reappeared with three glasses of warm tea, after disappearing because of her father's question earlier.

“Hahaha, no deeh.” I answered Dhewi with a faint smile emerging from my lips.

The three of us chatted loudly and not infrequently also Dhewi's father slipped tips about life in the midst of our laughter.

It was not until the afternoon, and Dhewi's father preferred to chat with me rather than return to the base of Ojek, when usually after lunch, he will return there to just find extra food, then in the afternoon he went to the rice fields to take care of his plants.

“Father not to ojek base anymore? It's late afternoon.” Dhewi tried to remind her father.

“Huss, there is a great guest even left behind anyway, that's not polite you know.”

Dhewi's father replied with a friendly smile.

“Lagian later you also want to take Akbar road – way up vespa, that is also if Akbar does not mind.”

Dhewi's father looked at me and played his eyebrows.

“Hahahaha... Akbar also no event kok sir.”

I answered the invitation from Dhewi's father with an awkward smile that I forced to look sincere.

I allowed Dhewi's father to drive a Vespa, maybe he was also confused by the sensation of the right-engined motorbike, he said, while I was just sitting in the back seat piggybacking on Dhewi's father who took me around the village and told me where the rice fields and gardens were.

Until finally we stopped at the edge of a large expanse of land that planted young rice, and corn plants in other plots.

“This rice field, and also the corn over there belongs to Dhewi, and the one we just passed it belongs to his brother – Dhewi, justan Anton Saja who is already the father of love, because he has lived with his wife's children, while the unmarried, still the father takes care of his own rice field.”

Dhewi's father told me all this as if I would be his son-in-law. I felt very awkward with the treatment of Dhewi's father who seemed to regard me as his own son. And also probably because I've never felt this before from my own real father.

Although we had just met, but I felt very close to him, I finally told him all my gloomy past, including when Dhewi was staying at my house, and strangely his reaction was not as I and Dhewi feared, he understood our situation at that time. Or maybe he felt relieved because it turned out Dhewi was staying at my house which he had trusted.

“Hahaha, you are too young to enjoy this salt acid of life, maybe now you can only feel the bitterness of life, but I am sure someday you will understand the purpose of this father's words, he said, and already taste the sweetness of life.”

Dhewi's father just laughed as he patted me on the shoulder, after he finished hearing me tell him about my gloomy past.

We ended the trip this afternoon, taking him back to his house, which was there already blocked by Dhewi, Mbak Iis, and his mother.

I who had been offered to stop by again, could only refuse subtly, because the time was almost maghrib when I said goodbye to them.and sure enough, I felt the warmth of a family. Which makes me feel a little pain in this heart.

“Do not kapok yaa... when – when to stop by here again.!!”

Ma'am Iis waved her hand as I spurred Bony away from Dhewi's house.

Today's experience with Dhewi's father made me recall a little bit what it was like to have a figure I could call a father, frankly I felt a little envious seeing the warmth of their family, she said, where this warmth is a feeling that I have forgotten for a long time.

And without me realizing that there was a strange feeling in my heart, this feeling appeared at a very inappropriate time, especially with my one-semester agreement which now began to feel a bit burdensome to me.