FLOWER WARS

Chapters 1. Story Beginning.

Semarang, 1921.

Flowers peeked out from behind the mango tree behind the school, a bespectacled boy sitting on a long wooden bench on the edge of the garden.

Name's Jacob. Her hair is blonde and her skin is reddish white when exposed to sunlight. The boy was quiet and always struggled with shabby books that were thick not playing.

He's a new kid at Europeesche Lagere School. It doesn't seem too adaptable. Even Dutch children who attended school there were no familiar with it.

Nope. Flowers are not interested in the boy's physique. He only felt pity because Jacob did not seem to have any friends.

"What book did you read?" Flowers now sat beside Jacob, looking up at the book the boy was reading.

"Literair boek (Literary book)," answered Jacob, with his eloquent Dutch.

"You don't have any friends?" Flowers were dazzled with Jacob's clear blue eyes. Her facial skin was filled with adorable freckles.

"My friend mijn boek (my book)." Jacob held up his thick book which was already brownish in color; the old book.

"Your name is Jacob, huh?" asked Bunga, greeted by a nod of the boy's head. "Je weet mijn naam (You know my name)?" tanyanya returned with her native Dutch accent.

Jacob shook his head. The flower extended its hand asking to shake hands. The boy greeted him, and their two little hands were clinging to each other. "My name is Bunga. Do you know what flowers mean?"

Jacob nodded back. Flowers show her smile. "Bloem (flower)."

Jacob's lips formed the letter O while nodding. He noticed the chatty little girl beside him.

The face of au childish typical of indigenous children. Her bearing was cheerful and her smile sweet, displaying her gings. The skinny body was wrapped in indigenous traditional clothes that still felt foreign to Jacob's eyes.

Jacob arrived in this town three months ago. Assisted by his father who was appointed by the Governor General of the Dutch East Indies to serve as Assistant Resident in Semarang.

This country is a new atmosphere for him. So foreign, so strange. From the weather to the food, it took a long time for Jacob to adapt. Not infrequently he complains of stomach pain, heat and mosquito bites are very disturbing.

Jacob misses winter and snow. Where he could sit by the warm fireplace, read a book while enjoying a cup of hot chocolate.

Jacob put his shoulders. He doesn't know what to answer. Wanting to answer not at home, she was inexplicably afraid of offending the sweet girl beside her.

"You want to be my friend?" jacob asked with his thick Dutch accent. Again, for some reason, he trusted the native girl.

The flowers quickly. "Surely will!" girang said. Rarely were Blijvers' children; native Europeans, willing to befriend indigenous children. But Jacob seemed different. He was not arrogant, just a little quiet.

"Bedankt (Thank you)" said Jacob while commenting on a thin smile. "You want to borrow my book?" he gave her the book in his hand.

"really? Can you?" The eyes of the flower sparkle.

"But the language is Nederlandse." Jacob placed his book on the palm of the Flower.

"It's okay. All to learn."

"okay."

The flower opened the thick, shabby-looking book. So thick. De gekroonde, Michiel de Swaen. Sure, the title and author's name seem unfamiliar in the eyes of Flowers.

"Flower!"

A call forced the two children to turn to the origin of the voice. A middle-aged indigenous woman walked over. "Si Mbok nggolek'i kawit want, jebul ning kene (Mbok looking from earlier, it turns out here)."

Flowers hurriedly moved from his seat and bid farewell to Jacob. "Bedankt voor het boek (Thank you for the book)," he told Jacob as he walked away following the old brown woman.

"Don't get too familiar with the Blijvers. Your father will be angry." The woman, Mbok Pai; the maid of the Bunga family, warned her daughter.

"Then why did you send me here?" Critical interest throws questions at Mbok Pai.

"Si Mbok ora ngerti," said Mbok Pai, making Flowers pursed his lips.

***