CORONAS
20. ARFI'S MISSING
Sunday, April 29, 2046 at nine in the morning. Brother Alma asked me about Arfi's whereabouts over the phone. He was surprised because later he could not contact Arfi and it was very difficult to meet him at his residence. I responded to Alma's question with the same answer. Arfi was indeed unreachable these few days. I don't know because of what. It's like just disappearing. If Brother Alma gets serious about contacting me because of this problem, I get worried about his whereabouts. Maybe something happened to him.
“I will check it again to his contract with my friend,” bargain me
“Friends? You still have friends besides Yuva?” Brother Alma asked with astonishment audible intonation from across the phone.
“There is only one person. It just so happened that we wanted to go out today. There is also one more friend. He's a new user,”. “He just put a caldier on his neck,” my connection is fast.
Then the situation on the phone became quiet. This grown woman who called me didn't say a word for a while. From that silence I could read what Alma had in mind. The existence of new caldier users does not make us happy because we get new friends. Quite the contrary. The new caldier user is the one who has bad luck. Deep inside we actually do not want anyone else to experience similar circumstances. Especially in these times. When the paradigm of people in caldier users has changed a lot.
“Ah, sorry. Suddenly I was silent. If there is any news about Arfi, immediately contact me yes,” said Kak Alma melt the silence.
I'm undertaking. Then I hung up the phone. Shortly before I put my phone in my pocket, two figures of Yuva came back to my mind. One is his figure who is always carefree, while one is his current figure. I can't interpret her figure at the moment. His face was almost expressionless.
But the shadow instantly cleared as I glanced at the wall clock that was still faithfully spelling seconds. “Wire! I can make Dawn and Krista wait,”, I said as I watched the hour hand show at half past ten. I grabbed my shoes off the shelf and put them on and hurried off.
The three of us were supposed to meet at the Parasamya Pendopo field ten o'clock this morning. We will go around the city together. Just to get rid of fatigue, and just to enjoy togetherness. Arriving at the promised place, Dawn attacked me with her scolding. I say sorry while smiling.
Time is always fast-moving when it is spent having fun. Play in the waterpark, taste various culinary, find a place to take pictures, until it ends in one of the modern shopping centers in the city. It was three o'clock at night. Unintentionally, my eyeball caught a familiar thing I saw hanging neatly in a small booth. My body moves on its own due to the incitement of the deepest memory to approach it. My hand immediately grabbed that thing. Still with the neat plastic package, I touched and I noticed the shape by twirling it. It was a knitted glove with Hitameong motif – favorite black cat character Yuva. Even just an object that is not very important to me can make my memory return to him. And that memory made me decide to just buy it.
Krista's voice cut through the memory as she called out to me from behind. I turned my gaze toward the source of the sound. Krista is still with her smile. While Dawn tapped her finger like an exhausted person waiting. And then it moved in a direction. The direction of my eyes immediately followed the direction of his index finger as if an invisible rope was pulling my eyeball. Game area. I nodded according. The Hitameong package I bought earlier I took it for granted because I didn't bring a bag. Then with them I spent time playing in the gaming area of this mall.
“Never has anyone managed to get that much coupon up to four times during these four consecutive days,” muttered a female attendant of arcade games to her colleague. I, who happened to be sitting not far from there, heard it.
“True, every time he exchanged his coupons, he could get up to five million. For a long time this place can go bankrupt if it is dry,” respond to an officer next to him.
“Kok he can be that lucky huh? Can you do that?”
“Maybe the machine is broken. We'd better have the technician check the machine.”
“Wait!” suddenly I interrupted the conversation of the two female officers. “What machine is connected with internet network?”
“Seems not. But if the settings are set with a computer,” replied one of the officers. “What's the reason?”
“Ah, no,” then I shuffled away to approach the crowd of people who saw a lucky person still playing it. In this day and age, any form of machine can always be connected with a computer to facilitate maintenance.
I burst into that not-so-dense crowd. I looked at the player, and then I saw the box-shaped machine standing upright. My eyes managed to catch something in the bottom corner of the machine. A star-shaped magnetic scanner is stuck there. With a small size and decorative design, of course people will not pay much attention to it. They must have just thought it was part of the machine itself.
My hand wanted to reach him quickly, but the brain gave the opposite command. I better not do it. Then I turned around to approach the two officers earlier and whispered to them. Not waiting any longer, one of them moved to follow my information. Seeing the results I just found, my mind was thrown back at Yuva. My hand started massaging my forehead.
“What's up, Eldan? You're not feeling well?” greet the soft sounds from the back.
I turned my head and found Krista and Dawn standing right behind with a slightly anxious look. “Ah, no. I just remembered something I forgot. Can you accompany me somewhere?” reply quibble.
Actually my mind is still attached to Yuva. He must still be around here somewhere. Or at most about a kilometer from here because it's the farthest distance that can be received by a magnetic scanner. But if indeed he is near here too, it is very difficult to find him in the crowd of visitors to this mall. So I decided to check the Arfi residence immediately.
