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Collecting Puzzle Pieces

Renjana Kanya's

January is getting older. Rain increasingly clings with the earth and causes flooding to expand. I'm back to my usual routine. Chasing events and strict deadlines to provide actual and reliable information. Forgetting for a moment the affairs of the heart, though I can not deny if it is still often carried away by dreams.

Heh, Araz, the man has completely disappeared for two weeks since the unilateral cancellation of the date. I honestly don't really care about her date. It's just that I'm waiting for the man's confession about his relationship with Arez.

Even since the last time Damar met Arez three years ago, no more news has been heard. Arez seems to be missing. Or intentionally hiding themselves. No one knows for sure about the man's existence.

There are so many things I want to tell you. There are many things I want to share with him. There was also a pile of regret for refusing her invitation to meet three years ago. As Damar said, I should not regret now for my deliberate mistakes. But Arez still has a place in my heart. For he is the one who taught me to live.

Huufftt. Has my fear of the past few days really happened? In the past Araz and Arez have been involved in fights or whatever, to make Arez seriously injured. Then die?

Nope, no. I can't imagine Arez being gone forever. The man was always confident like Chairil Anwar who would live another thousand years. It can't be, is he just a character who just stopped by in the drama of my life?

If it wasn't exactly the story I imagined about them, Arez should still be able to be contacted or at least tell me. The man never found any trace of him. If I'm the reason he left, at least he can tell Damar.

Huufftt.... What exactly happened between the two of them? Araz who can give an answer, now I don't know where. Even the tip of his nose was invisible. Before getting to know each other, he often played to Mas Hanung's place almost once a week.

"His, bengong mulu. Asked by Mas Hanung." Vina nudged my arm. Pulling my consciousness back into the meeting room that was suddenly mute.

"Jeez Kanya, you have been daydreaming during meetings. Falling in love?" sindir Mas Hanung I only returned a whimper. "So how, you want to?"

"What Mas?" many confused.

It felt like deja vu when Mas Hanung asked so. Reminds me of the moment that brought me back home and met... Araz, for the first time. Why did calling her name become so annoying now?

"Only Gayatri! Oh, my God, this is really a kid. So how, you want not this weekend to Bandung attend the invitation of the president? There was an inauguration of the event attended directly by him."

"Why me, Mas?"

I asked Mas Hanung back instead of answering the man's question. Although he looked annoyed he still answered by holding back his annoyance. That was the reaction I was waiting for.

"Why did you do it during a nearly 30-minute meeting?"

"Well, it was Mas Hanung who said I was daydreaming."

"My wonder, lo abis leave could be slow gini anyway. It was so often daydream when invited to a meeting. Where the hell do you think you are?"

The anger of Mas Hanung that I had not heard for a long time, was now smoothly spewing from his mouth. I was a reporter at first and often made mistakes. But Mas Hanung's anger was always storied. As per the mistake made by his men. And I'm the guy who used to make him angry on purpose.

Sometimes I miss the moment that makes me smarter through the anger conveyed by Mas Hanung. He often tells the truth when he is angry. He often shares knowledge and experience. That's why I often provoke his anger so that the man tells a lot of stories. It was all a sign of his attention.

Like at the moment. I only put on an innocent face in the face of his anger, even though some of the boardroom residents had shown expressions of fear. Because I know, Mas Hanung isn't really angry.

"It was Mas Hanung who asked me to leave, but no longer needed rest. So gini' right, my mind was dull because of the delay in rest," said I made Vina who sat next to me nudged my arm.

"Truly lo it, Him. After a meeting in my room. And still tomorrow Saturday you leave for Bandung to cover the presidential event. I don't want to hear any excuses from you!" mas Hanung's orders were firmly.

I smiled before replying, "Ready, Boss. Do it!" like soldiers ready for war.

***

Mas Hanung was playing a puzzle when I entered his room. The man looked serious about putting together small puzzle pieces. Maybe 100 or 150 pieces. He just turned to me for a moment and asked me to help him.

"Mas Hanung asked me to come here just to help you put together the puzzle?" I just sit in front of him and start putting together a plain white puzzle without the picture. "This is L's toy in the Death Note series, Mas. Gosh."

"Bawel, just help me why? I finished the deadline, right?" mas Hanung asked again as he glanced at the tiny clock on his desk.

"That's what always says that deadlines are a dead price for journalists." Fortunately, before the meeting, I had already sent my script to the editor.

"It's good that way. At least your mind is still express if told to write the news."

"Trus, you know, until Snow White has a child."

"Where can he be, he's dead."

"Well, conspiracy theorists."

"Sometimes, we need to know conspiracy theories so that our lives are not monotonous. How the hell lo. Young people are not interested in the same mystery. Life is too many mysteries to know and reveal, yes."

I smiled in response to Mas Hanung's statement. It was already like the leader of a cult of heretics recruiting new members. Who is not interested in mystery. I am even now solving the mystery of Mas Hanung's disappearance. Ah yes, right too. Why was it previously unthinkable to ask Mas Hanung?

"There's something more mysterious actually, Mas. Mas Hanung wants to know?"

"What's emang?" tanya Mas Hanung ate the bait I threw.

"There's a guy who says he skipped a date for fifteen minutes before he left. That's how he said without news like a murderer. What do you think Mas Hanung is?"

Instead of answering, Mas Hanung laughed in response to my statement and question. The man even held his stomach as his laughter broke. Wonder, did he not realize if it was related to his friend? Or maybe they have been in cahoots since the beginning and cooperate with each other?

I can easily be suspicious if I have bad thoughts. Even my analytical power increased sharply. Like Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot, a figure written by Agatha Christie when solving mystery cases.

"Sometimes the mind without basis is easily misled. Do not compare with Sherlock Holmes who is easily suspicious of others because it has a motive and the results of his analysis can not be wrong," said Mas Hanung as if reading my mind despite liking two different detective figures. That's because he admired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle more than Agatha Christie.

"Who would not have thought that if he had previously left a strange puzzle. Say you want to make people fall in love, but say it without news. So what? Find her? Even if he's not because of a miss, but because he has a debt to pay."

"Geez Kanya, your prestige is very high anyway. What's so hard about me if you really miss him?"

"Don't you know, Mas Hanung knows who I've been calling from earlier?"

"Who else would it be if it wasn't Araz, right?"

My face was hot when Mas Hanung openly mentioned the name of his friend. Even my body became stiff and hard to move. My hand was floating in the air while grasping the puzzle piece. Mas Hanung looked at me while laughing.

"Lo's still too fast to be able to extract information from me in a sneaky way. At least you have to meet corrupt politicians or officials who like to tickle. Do you know how they can trust you if you're not a dangerous person? Find out first the person's favorite. You can trap them and tell their lives unsuspecting. That's how to herd the smoothest people."

"Well, here we're playing Mas Hanung's favorite toy. How come Mas Hanung wasn't caught?"

"I told you that you are still too early to pry information in a sneaky way. Gini deh, if our Araz is like a puzzle, there is a part of him that is scattered. Like this."

Mas Hanung turned the puzzle neatly arranged to make it fall apart again. While I can only gawk considering that arranging it is not easy and takes a lot of time. While Mas Hanung ruined it for not a minute. Even just a split second.

"Kesel lo, same me too. Abi has not been able to play a puzzle that is as small as this. That's why I call you here."

"Why was it destroyed again? Holy jeez!"

"Well, I want to be like Araz in a puzzle, yeah. How the hell lo. So gini, this box is Araz. His physique, his form, whatever it is people call him. And you know this?" Mas Hanung picked up the puzzle piece and pointed it at me. I just shook my head in response. "That's Araz's soul. Dissociated. Not too heavy with the shape. And you know what that means?"

This time Mas Hanung pointed towards the pieces of the puzzle in my grasp. He took my hand and opened my palm face up. With dramatic movements he rained down on other pieces of the puzzle.

"You're the only one who can put Araz's soul together to make it whole again."

"Udah was like Voldemort's soul divided." I commented that I was still upset because Mas Hanung ruined the work that we had worked so hard to put together.

"Std... It is forbidden to mention "You Know Who" here. I don't want to die because of avada kedavra's spell. Back to Araz, basically half of Araz's soul has been entrusted with lo. So, if you can unite with Araz, his soul will be back in one piece."

"Don't you know, what in the past I almost killed Araz and transferred half his soul to me? Anyway, why me?"

"Tomorrow Saturday you have to go to Bandung. I don't think I have any reason to point you out?"

"Yes there must be, but..."

"Who knows you have an interest in Bandung?" said Mas Hanung interrupting my unfinished sentence. "If I told you all the klu, what's so good about mystery? That's also if you're really curious about Araz why he disappeared."

The corner of my lips developed in response to Mas Hanung's statement. I didn't think the man was so attentive to me.

"Don't forget the treat! It's good to be free" commented Mas Hanung again when I decided to leave the room still with a fluffy smile.

"Yes, I brought you some nutmeg from Bandung."

"Not go back!"

My laughter widened in response to Mas Hanung's words.