CURTAINS OF THE PAST

GHALI AND TONI MEETING

**Can I see you Mr Antoni Zulherman?.

Ghali

A brief message from Ghali surprised Toni. The curiosity was so great back then.

Where should I meet you?.~ Toni reply to him quickly.

Tomorrow I'll share the location with you,.

"What else does he want to talk to me about?." Toni lays her tired body on the bed.

I never thought I'd fall in love so soon.~ His murmur while closing his eyes.

*****

The two handsome men were still silent in their respective positions. They stand parallel while holding both hands and folding them to their fields while staring at the open sea.

The roar of the waves was not even able to break the silence created between them.

The awkward atmosphere made both Ghali and Toni prestige to put out words.

Yes, that week Ghali finally brought Toni to the coastal area. He deliberately set his place on the edge of the suburban sea in order to be more free to convey whatever burdened him at that time.

"Is the sound of your heart beating as loud as the sound of the waves when you meet my brother?." Ghali begins the conversation with a surprising question for Toni.

"Are you hurting me?." Toni did not answer, but again threw a question that seemed to dismiss the insults of the man beside her.

"I love my brother so much, even more than myself. But when there are others who love him more than I love him, I will consider my selfishness to keep my brother." Ghali's voice sounded.

Toni glanced at him with an incomprehensible look. But he needed more explanation at the time.

"You mean?" Tanya Toni lowered her hands while turning her body ninety degrees to face Ghali.

"Me and my sister Iffatul Fadillah, one father but different mother. But he knew we were one mother, one father, and both of our parents had died after an accident that resulted in him losing his memory. And that's not the real story" Toni gaped at the beginning of Ghali's story.

"You mean Ghali?." He really didn't seem to believe hearing it all.

"I've lied to my own brother a lot, including to see you now sir." Ghali let out a deep sigh, as if to recall the most difficult time his brother had ever gone through.

"Arjuna was the husband who married her before the fateful incident befell them both. My sister had become a widow shortly after her wedding few hours.

Arjuna, the man who loved and treated Brother Iffah so preferentially lost so much blood that it was too late to be saved.

While my brother, he was lying in a coma and unable to let go of the man he loved so much for good.

Iffah didn't even know she had to cry over her husband's death." Ghali wiped his tears that escaped just like that on a thin layer of skin on his cheeks that were not too translucent.

I was even surprised when he pulled up his arm that I was holding and asked, who are you?." Ghali recalled the doctor's statement at the time about Iffah's condition.

*There is nothing to say in this case. The accident affected the mind of the patient. The patient will live a normal life, but he will lose his memory in his past. In medical science it is called amnesia.

Just a little pressure on your brother's mind can drive him crazy. He could have brain damage even to death.

We must destroy his past memories, if possible, take him to a place where he will no longer remember his past*.

Toni still does not believe Ghali's story.

"Sir Antoni, if possible, do not fall in love with my brother and do not make him fall in love with you..." Ghali asked politely.

But not the words of approval she heard, but the questioning gaze she saw from Toni's face.

"Because I'm afraid you'll get hurt someday, if Brother Iffah can remember his past back." Ghali answered an unspoken question from Toni's lips.

"By Allah, and by his will, I am willing to risk it Ghali." A smile from Ghali's lips heard the promise that had just been uttered from Toni's lips.

"Is that really sir?." Ghali seemed to confirm the confidence of the man before him at that time.

"God willing, Ghali. That's my promise to him." Toni looked up at the clear blue sky.

"I'm relieved sir, even I'm just as afraid of you. I was afraid that Brother Iffah would hate me for my mother's evil and outrageous deeds to him. All because of mom. I think the stepmother story is only in the fairy tale. But I even saw it myself. If the father was beside us, mother would treat Brother Iffah the same way towards me. But when the father left, Iffah was treated badly by the mother.

And stupidly me, I can't even do anything." Ghali glanced into his life in the past. The time when Iffah always suffered because of the cruelty of his mother.

"Where are your parents now?" Tanya Toni is increasingly curious about the story of Ghali and Iffah.

"Dad died a year before the wedding of Iffah and Arjuna. He died of a Hemorrhagic Stroke. And since father's death, mother has become increasingly fierce towards Iffah's sister.

And mother,..."

Ghali no longer continued his words. His mind wandered far into the past year.

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