CURTAINS OF THE PAST

AFTER DIFFICULTIES THERE WILL BE EASE

it was almost midnight then, they were still sitting hugging on the balcony in front of their room.

iffah's eyes were so Jelly looked at the stars scattered over the sky. His back was left leaning against Toni's burly chest.

"Darling..." Call Iffah spoiled.

"Hmmm..." Toni's vow further tightened her deck into Iffah's stomach.

"I don't want to know, you have to take me back to the cardboard house. I'm glad to know them" Pinta Iffah grumbled a little.

"Dear, you don't have to worry. God willing, next time I'll take you back there." Toni's pledge to her beautiful wife. He was so happy to see Rona on his wife's reddened face.

Iffah was so happy to hear Toni's promise. He seemed to be thinking about something, but he also looked doubtful.

"Honey.." Call Iffah trying to convey what made him think.

"Yes dear." Toni hid his face in the neck of his wife.

" May I ask Him one thing?" Ask Iffah a little.

" What do you want to ask Him for, hmm?" Tony questioned his wife.

" I'd like to ask for a little baby that will fill the days of both of us, may it?" Toni slightly gasped at Ifah's request. "Why are you surprised like that?" Iffah asked as she felt Toni's body shake.

"Are you sure of your request, baby?" Tony asked a little doubtfully. There was something that made her feel scared at that moment.

Toni's memory goes back to Milka's critical times. His little daughter who was lying weak due to leukemia caused by genetic factors derived from his grandfather and his father.

He doesn't want Iffah to feel what Kamelia felt when she lost Milka, and he doesn't want to feel lost for the umpteenth time either.

The pain had not disappeared completely from his heart, he was just trying to look stern in front of his family and people who loved him.

"Why not dear? I'm even very sure of my request." Iffah addressed her husband's doubts with great conviction. "I'm sorry" he swished again so suddenly.

Toni gasped when she heard Iffah's apology. "M-sorry?"

"I know the reason you don't want to have offspring, but you believe it doesn't? That the magic really exists." Iffah tried to convince Toni. "And I know that this is a very difficult decision for us."

I have suffered a lot for them. Kamelia, Milka and even Kemil.

I don't think we need kids to be happy. Papa and Mama don't have children, but they're happy too. I'm not asking you to have children, honey.

So you don't have to worry about it. With you by my side, it has made me feel so much happiness." Toni's eyes seemed to be glazed over conveying something that wasn't really in her heart.

"You lied." Ketus Iffah while rising from the arms of Toni. "Until when are you gonna keep running, honey?" Iffah's voice sounded hoarse.

Toni got up from her seat. He looked wounded seeing the stubbornness of Iffah's head when it defended his argument.

"I'm speaking the truth, baby. I just try not to have any more grief in my heart. I thought I could live like Papa. But even being myself, I can't. Just by looking at the pain in the people I care about, without feeling how the pain itself."

Iffah clasped Toni's fingers. She was trying to give her husband energy.

"Lukaemia for people like us is very much feared. Then what about the disease of poverty felt by the people of cardboard houses? A disease that continues to strike them until death. What are expected of them? Your help? Help from the government?" Firmly Iffah with tears that began to pool in her eye pelupuk.

"Trouble to face, baby. Not to be shunned, to be avoided, and not even to be feared. Believe me. Innama'al Usri Yusro, actually after the difficulty there will be ease." Said Iffah increasingly tightened his hand grip on Toni.

"Astaghfirullahaladzim, forgive me dear. Your words made me realize that I was wrong all along. I feel like I'm not god. I've always lived in the shadows of fear, and anxiety." Toni is filled with guilt.

"You believe, don't you?" Tanya Iffah stared intently at Toni's eyes full of enormous expectations from her. Toni nodded slowly. "You're gonna help me with my treatment, aren't you?" Ask Iffah again. And Toni nodded again with certainty.

"Thank you, dear" said Iffah as she scattered herself back into her husband's arms.

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