Fire Sun

Secret Hill

The day is getting dimmer. Adit has repeatedly invited Gesna home but the girl is very stubborn and does not want to go home. Adit was really confused as to what to do. After drinking the yoghurt, they sat in the front garden.

"Yes, we're staying in the park, Non. Scraped Satpol PP later." 

Adit faced the girl who had been sitting cross-legged at the side. The girl still closed her eyes while enjoying the cold wind that was blowing towards them. "Lo Nyokap must also be worried that his daughter is not coming home."

"Bodo," muttered Gesna with a small snort.

Adit looked around. Park visitors are returning home. The watch is at half six. "C'ta, Gesna. Don't be a kid, though. Magrib, Non." 

Adit got up from his seat and stood up. "Gini deh, you to Bandung what is the intention?"

"Look at Gandhi." Gesna opened her eyes, looking at the green trees around her that were beginning to darken due to the twilight.

"Yes, back to the intention. You want to see Gandhi. Whatever happens," press Adit. "Maybe now he's up and looking for you."

"Gandhi has returned home." Gesna already knew that from the message the nanny had sent him. "Gue's lazy to mama's house."

"Continue?"

"Whatever, I don't want to go to my mom's house!" gesna. His jaw was tight, his face was really serious. Not today or when. He would not set foot in that house.

Adit kicked a small rock. Why is she in this mother and child problem? With a tired sigh, he invited Gesna to leave. "As far as you are, deh. Cabs, yuk." 

"Where?" Gesna wakes up and follows Adit. However, if left Adit, he will be difficult to think and do not know where to go.

"Udah, you relax in the bonfire, Non." Adit rushes the vehicle leaving Cisanguy Road. 

Beyond a doubt, Adit took him to Alun Alun Bandung. They arrived at the same time as Adzan magrib. "Not?" ask Adit after parking the motor.

"Where?" 

"Toilet" said Adit jail with shiny eyes and a smile that tried to tease.

Gesna held a fist in Adit's face. "Don't you dare pervert me. I'm benjutin!"

"It's still a stock of his stock." 

Adit walked followed by Gesna, down the edge of the field full of synthetic grass. The minaret of the mosque looks green and towering beautifully. Shooting lights illuminate the field, making a place this big not to be spooky at night. Even with the yellow lights standing around, this place looks romantic.

They stopped right in front of the building that read Bandung Grand Mosque. Adit hurried to open his shoes. "Not?"

"No," refused Gesna. 

Without forcing, Adit left her. Gesna was stunned to see that shadow drifting away. He sat in silence. I realized that something was empty. I don't know because of what.

***

"Addit!" pekik Gesna. "I told you I don't want to come here!" 

Adit doesn't care about Gesna's repulsion. He kept asking the security guard to open the gate and put the motor into Meilan's house. After the magrib, Adit secretly calls Gustav and asks for Meilan's home address.

Gesna still does not want to go down even though the motor has been turned off. Realizing that, Adit took a step first. Gesna's helmet is opened and the girl's hand is held tightly.  "Reverse to intention. Look at Gandhi, right?" press Adit while staring intently at Gesna.

"Gue doesn't want to jump!" 

"Gue can't make it back tonight to Jakarta, Gesna. All day we keep going. My back needs a fall, Non." 

Adit pulled his grip towards the terrace. Free hand presses the house bell. Without the need for Adit to press twice, the large carved door opened. An assistant immediately bowed as soon as he saw Gesna. 

Gesna. Although he rarely visited this house, the whole house still recognized. Their family photos are plastered in the living room. Photos full of falsehoods. The warmth is created to look perfect. If the fools are looking, surely judging their family is the perfect and warm family. So warm to cats.

"Gandhi's there, Mom?" ask Adit politely.

Assistant nodded. "There's in his room, Den." 

The middle-aged woman pointed to Gandhi's room with a thumb. The little boy's room was near a large, rotating staircase. 

Slowly Adit knocked and opened the door. The room with the whole white color was full of toys. He pulls Gesna in with him. 

In the bed in the middle of the room were Gandhi, Meilan and Ardi. The two men talked to Gandhi and told him to sleep. 

Gesna let go of his grasp and walked towards Gandhi.

"Well, it's Brother coming, '" said Ardi warmly as he patted Gandhi's feet gently. 

Gesna chose to go against the two men. He stretched out his arms and hugged Gandhi tightly. "Cheal fast, Dek. Be well, take care of your health. Sister Gesna can't stay here long."

Gesna's hand rubbed a small, sweaty head. Gandhi silently looked at Gesna. "Sir Gesna go home first, huh?"

"Sister.." call Gandhi and tighten his arms. 

Gesna tried to smile. He knew his sister was longing, and so was he but the situation did not allow Gesna to stay in this place for long. He's sick of being with people full of falsehoods.

As much as possible he opposes the taste that chokes the throat. For Gandhi and for the man who once made him feel devastated, he must not look defeated. And so, all the tightness and pain that slipped in the heart pressed it firmly.

"Adek Kak Gesna must be great. Remember yes, Deck. Don't cry. Don't eat carelessly. Don't let people go. Don't buy toys. There are many liars in this world so Gandhi had to be careful."

Gandhi nodded. 

Clearly, Gesna was insinuating two adults who were inside the room. "Remember, Deck. Don't easily trust the same people who say we love. Whoever it is."

"Jessica," Meilan's hiss began to hold back.

Gesna waved and kissed Gandhi's head before his hand pulled Meilan out of the room. Ardi and Adit rushed after the two of them.

"Don't teach your sister the no-no!" hardik Meilan did not accept.

Gesna ripples from Meilan's arm. The rubbing of the former grip that existed as if it was disgusting.

"Oh, huh?" gesna asked with a slanted smile. "So what is true? Which one of you?!"

"Jessica!" shout Meilan. The woman's body was again about to advance towards Gesna. However, Ardi was first blocked.

"So your talk!" Meilan pointed at Gesna's face furiously. "What do you want? From now on, always embarrassing!"

"Want me? Can Mama give it to you?" Gesna laughed full of irony while saying the word 'Mama' in the most unfamiliar tone. 

"You want me, this!" The girl grabbed the crystal vase from the table and slammed as hard as she could onto the floor. The vase clinked for a moment before it broke apart. Splitting into small, sharp pieces of glass.

"Look! Can the broken vase be whole again? Can't do it, can you? So don't force me to respect you too. Let alone respecting the traitor beside you."

"Jessica! Brash kid!" Meilan pushed Ardi's body away. His face was so angry. Ardi was still flinching. His hand held Meilan even though the woman was struggling to be released.

"Oh, indeed! I am so insolent. Since when have you ever taught me?" his ridicule immediately turned a step, walking away from the house after slamming the front door.

Adit who had been stunned to see the family drama then stammered clumsily. The sight should not be presented in front of a stranger like him. Considering that Gesna could be lost to where the girl wanted to be, she said goodbye to Meilan and Ardi then followed out.

Sure enough, Gesna is gone. The girl wasn't waiting for him. Adit rushes to turn on the motorbike and down the road around the house. It's already night time. The streets are starting to fall. Only one or two vehicles passed. 

About a hundred meters away, Adit found Gesna walking down a residential hill with a head down. His feet kicked at the pebbles.

"Dude..."

The girl still didn't care about her calling. Gesna just kept walking. Adit banged the motor and crossed the vehicle in front of Gesna. His hand restrained Gesna's arm before Gesna returned to walk. "Gesna, you can't be like that."

Gesna brushed Adit's hand off. "Not to talk to me. If you want to talk to the mosque."

"Oh my goodness, Gesna. The rock is lo?"

Gesna laughed softly as she looked at Adit with a look of disdain. "Stone? I'm stone?"

His index finger began to rise and push on Adit's chest wrapped in a jacket. "Lo doesn't know anything, Adit! You don't know what it's like to be me!"

This girl looked up for a moment to the sky while laughing. A very heartbreaking laugh. "Lo doesn't know, Dit," he repeated as he shook his head and walked back. 

"Geez..." Adit grabbed Gesna's hand again. Grip until his nails are poked.

"Lo doesn't know, Dit!" Gesna revolted and brooded, trying to remove the handle. He pushed Adit's shoulder. "Do you know, lo? When you and the people at school are taken in the report card with their parents or use a guardian or use a power of attorney. I'm not all of them! My parents didn't even get a power of attorney!"

Gesna's body shook. Chests up and down. His index and middle fingers rose into the air. "Two years. Two years, Dit! Two years Bang Gustav or Mamah Guntur who took my report card with a myriad of reasons to the teacher. You don't know, Dit! Because people like you will never lose it so I am!"

Gesna's teary eyes held back the rising anger. He squinted at a temple that felt heavy. "Lo doesn't know what it's like to have parents but to be an orphan, right?" whispered raucous.

Adit get off the original parked motorbike. Grasping both of Gesna's arms, asked the girl to look at him. "Yes, I don't know. I don't understand the problem like this, but you still have to go back home."

Gesna was about to walk again. Adit pulls Gesna's hand until the girl's body hits her chest. Adit's aura darkens. "Lo go with me, you also have to go back with me. Bang Gustavo you know me, and I hold that responsibility. I'm a man."

Adit went back to the bike and got closer to Gesna. "Good! Handholds. I won't repeat my request twice."

He then drove the bike towards Jakarta. Although tired, Adit must return Gesna. The night air in Bandung was cold and Adit pressed the gas deeper.

At half-twelve, they reached the top. Adit turned to one of the dark village streets. Down the gravel road uphill and winding on the runway that is only the size of the motor. The sound of the motor was sounding break apart desolate. 

Gesna looked around, there was nothing she could see except dark. Until arriving at a flat area, the motor stopped. Adit got down, walked towards the end and sat on the ground. The man waved Gesna while patting the ground beside her. 

Gesna's edging down. He opened his helmet and walked to Adit's place. This place is high, no matter what part. However, the sight before them was stunning. The light of the city shimmered from below while above, an old sky with rows of stars was visible. "Where are we?"

"Secret Hill" Adit answered while taking out a cigarette, lighting a fire and raising smoke in silence.

Gesna also kept silent, watching the lights of the city light up.

"Lo, why did you lose control again, anyway?" muttered Adit started to open the conversation. "I told you it wasn't good."

Gesna sighed. The air is very cold. He swiped both hands then pocketed them. "For cigarettes, Dit."

Adit. "This again. I said it's not good for girls."

Adit's cigarette box was forcibly pulled by Gesna. "Lo can smoke, I can't. It can't be, dong. Where's the justice?"

A small ruckus came out of Adit's lips. "You're talking about justice. Not mempan! Here's mine."

The cigarette box that Gesna was holding, she hid behind her back. "Please, Dit. I want to really smoke. So sleepy. Yea?"

The eyes that had turned as adorable as the kitten were staring at Adit, asking for tolerance. "Can, huh?"

Adit snorting. How could he refuse? "Yes, don't smoke too many cigarettes."

Gesna returned to take out the cigarette box he had just slipped. "Here, weigh it doang, Bang. I'll change later. I change," he said while taking a stick. "Borrow matches."

"No."

Adit's shoulder was hit by Gesna. "Yes, how is the story I can smoke if the cigarette is not alive? Borrow matches."

"Lo matchsticks alone on the ground," he sis Adit laughed.

Gesna hit Adit's arm again. "Geez, it's so funny!" He knocked out Adit's jacket pocket without a care and found a gas match there. "Borrow a stingy match. How do I borrow shares, borrow a house, borrow a deposit?"

"Yes, is it crazy that I want to guarantee so much you? I won't guarantee it either."

Gesna began to smile behind the cigarette that had been turned on. "Stingy people. The grave is narrow."

The girl fell silent again while staring at the lights in front.

"So, I'm let go," I'm Gesna after a long silence. "Gue was just as upset. His son was sick again, but still had time to stamp on the same madman."

Adit gave a quick glance. Gesna looked down, looking down at the ground.

"Sometimes, I think. Why do I have parents like them? Why don't they go all the way? Don't see me anymore."

"Hus," Adit scolded.

Gesna chuckled, but Adit could see the eyes were full of wounds. Gesna's smoking her cigarette again. "Gue sometimes envies Naraya and Riko. Her parents are far away, the funds are secure, freedom is full. It's so good to live like that."

"Where are Naraya's parents?" Adit knows where Riko and Miko's parents are, so he is curious about Naraya.

"Abu Dhabi" replied Gesna.

"Oh, huh? Work there?"

Gesna. "don't know. I don't know work, I don't know whether to be Sultan." The girl laughed again. "Naraya's house is big. His room was a basketball court."

"What are big-gede rooms made of? Tired is right."

Gesna hit Adit on the shoulder. "Yeah, that big room is done by itself. Why have so many helpers? Make gossip?"

Adit grimacing. His body is like a fist.

"By the way, you know which Naraya?" Gesna seemed to realize that Adit is not the type of person who knows a lot of the contents of the school.

"Know. The same with the time you damprat the Fiska, right?" reply Adit. He remembers what happened two months ago. Gesna, Naraya and one of their friends come to the cafeteria where the twelve-year-old seniors usually live. Not only that, they both also challenge Fiska, the twelfth-grade frontman who was formerly the secretary of OSIS and the cheerleading captain.

Gesna laughed and smoked another cigarette.  "Well, that's it."

Adit smile. For the size of an eleventh grade child, the incident was truly bold. Maybe Gesna doesn't know that she's already working with Naraya. It is also good for Naraya to hold a secret. "Great guts both. I knew it was a twelve-grade canteen, still a nyolot," decak Adit.

"Bodo is very." Gesna. "Take this rice together. If he had eaten the bell, I'd be scared."

"Jumping horse, dong?"

The girl laughed again. "The majesty of the Grandma Lampir was equated with the lumping horse. Poor lumping horse."

"Grandmother Lampir?" Adit chuckled while shaking his head. There is a parable of Gesna.

They then fell silent again. Only the smoke from each lip filled the air. Gesna turned off the cigarette and began to put his body on the ground, looking at the sky without a sound.

"If I say life is not fair. Do you agree?" gesna asked while putting her own hands as a pillow. "There are people whose lives are smooth from any side, while there are people who bleed every day to simply survive."

"Everyone has their own battle." Adit put the body. He who was sleepy, began to close his eyes.

"Yes, already. Then, tukeran battle. It's fun."

"But you can't if you become them and vice versa, not necessarily they can be lo."

"It's a compliment to me what else fell on me, anyway?" Gesna.

"Not both."

"Lo believe me if I say I want to shake Fiska's head with the canteen chair at that time? If Kak Adji and Kak Adjam are not misahin, I really override the chair."

Adit just mictured, indicating he heard Gesna's words.

"But I am aware. If make the article, then Bang Gustav will rampage. Because he's the only one I can rely on to attend school for this business. Bonyok mah not expected. Take a report card can not let alone take care of the problem of fighting that."

Adit coughed and laughed a little. "Lack of expertise is also a problem. Pay the complex security dong, tell me not to be your guardian."

"The problem is, the teachers know me. There is no security guard who deserves to be dressed for me as Meilan Lituhayu," said Gesna. "I can't break someone's teeth."

"So morning, you told me I had no brains because of broken teeth. Tonight, you said that you want to break someone's child's teeth. Not consistent with this." Adit felt his eyes getting heavier. He needs to rest.

"Non," call him. "Gue gurmens eyes jerk, yes. Thirty minutes, wake me up."

Gesna. "Yes. Sono sleeping. At most wake-up, the big motor you've lost."

Adit smiled again even though his eyes were glued. Gesna's words just sounded impossible. "Take aja. There's a GPS, right."

Gesna hit Adit again. "Dwelling, ogeb. Which I don't think should be told. I can take off the GPS."

"If you want to steal not the bike, my heart also." Adit took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Meilan Lituhayu, a familiar-sounding name. He'll be looking for information on the woman.

"Dirty. Unsullied. I slept there."

Adit smiled and began to empty his mind. It didn't take long, his consciousness was getting lost.

Gesna reopened the cigarette box and started the fire. If yesterday he had come alone, how would it have been, huh? Maybe his scooter will he stay and ask Gustav to take care of the return of the bike.

Gesna looked at the sky while glaring. Adit glimpsed at a glance. That guy's asleep. His breathing sounds regular.

If Adit wasn't around, maybe he could have been more brutal. His accumulation of disappointment was the same as mama was already at the highest level and ready to destroy anything. There is also a good thing with Adit. If not, maybe he and his mother had been hit and then he was cursed to be a stone.

Gesna played the cigarette, looking at the speck of coals at the base of the cigarette. The flames were as colorful as the lights he saw from this hill.

Gesna knew strangers were dangerous. However, not everyone understands that telling stories with strangers is sometimes very fun.

He can be free to tell stories without caring whether Adit will remain his friend or not. He doesn't mind Adit's assessment of him.

Adit is not Guntur, not Kak Adji, not Naraya or Asri and he will not bother if Adit lost respect after seeing how ugly he had been. It's good that Adit chose to leave, at least he didn't have to expend a lot of energy to drive the guy away.

Cigarettes, Secret Hill and Adit. Everything's foreign. But somehow it feels peaceful. A little bit of Gesna's burden felt reduced.

How can foreign things provide comfort?