I'm with you, Mr. Teacher

Bad News

Just a day Sandalwood did not go to school, it felt very empty. Moreover, he felt like a coward who ran away from reality. But really, Sandalwood is not avoiding bad talk about it that is sure to spread in school. He just needs time to calm down before returning to the activity as usual. All day Sandalwood tries to busy themselves with cleaning the house. Understandably, before occupied by his family, the house they contracted was empty for several months.

Hajir pensively on the terrace. It's the third night he's in that house, in the middle of a haunting story of failure. He has just released his wife to return to work taking care of his Wedding Organizer, after a day working as Finance Manager at one of the leading retail companies. This fact made Hajir's heart wrench. Although Sukma did not mind working alone for a while, Hajir should not let his wife be the backbone of the family. He thought hard so that as soon as possible he could earn an income. But what kind of work? Open a business, where is the capital from?

If you think about it, Sukma's income from work and business is indeed quite decent. But all of that is far from enough to put their lives back in their original position. Nevertheless, Sukma is grateful, at least they still have a grip. At least can finance the school until completion and preparation for college entrance later. She also plans to raise capital to build any business that her husband can run, so as not to feel this slump for too long.

One thing Hajir should be grateful for, his wife and son turned out to be stronger than he thought. The strength they showed was incredible. In fact, they seem to be recovering. In order to appreciate their acceptance efforts, Hajir tried hard to get up. Although the guilt of having failed as the head of the household continued to swell up in his chest, he should not linger showing his displeasure.

"Dana wants to get Papa somewhere."

Hajir was a little jolted. I don't know since when Cendana filled the empty seat next to him. He hurriedly rubbed his face, instead of dispelling Sandana found his pair of eyes were glazed over.

"Where?"

Instead of answering, Cendana got up from her seat and pulled her papa's hand to stand. Sandalwood turned around for a moment to lock the door. After that, he wrapped his hands in Papa's arms, then took him to walk side by side down the hallways of their new residential complex.

"Papa know, this is one of Sandalwood's dreams from long ago."

"What?" Hajir was less able to catch his daughter's intentions.

"Like this. Walk while holding Papa's hand. Enjoy the smell of the night, as well as the light of the moon and stars up there." For a moment Cendana looked up while tightening her hand circle on Papa's arm. Although the moon and stars he was referring to were not visible, but his heart was very calm at this moment.

At once Hajir's heart was shaken by acute novelty. It turned out to be that simple to be able to make his daughter happy, not work crazy to forget time and ignore everything.

Along the way, as far as Sandalwood took him, Hajir was mostly silent. She was ashamed of herself, finding her daughter now trying to lift her from the valley of adversity. Where are you as a man and father?

Their slow steps stopped after arriving at the compound's mosque courtyard.

"We pray here, yuk, Pa."

Hajir just nodded. Both are then ready to take ablution.

They pray only both. The Isha prayer congregation had dispersed a while before they arrived.

At the end of the prayer, Hajir was unable to stem his tears. Let him look even weaker in his daughter's eyes this time. He tried to remember what he had done so far, until God handed down His punishment. Her heart ached after failing to find a warm memory with her family. There is solely a solid routine of pursuing worldly glitter. His back grew more and more violently shaken as Cakka's shadow flashed filled his head. It felt like not once had he behaved warmly as a father in front of the child.

Sandalwood stroked his papa's back, calming him down.

Feeling the touch of Sandalwood, Hajir immediately turned his head and held his daughter. Real tight.

"I'm sorry Papa!" he said on the sidelines sobs.

Sandalwood replied to his papa with tears that were also abundant.

"I'm sorry Papa!" please Hajir once again after their arms have been broken.

"Stop apologizing, Pa. Most importantly now, Papa should remain optimistic. Don't look messed up and desperate anymore."

Hajir nodded faintly while shrinking his tears.

"When you need peace, there is no place quieter than a mosque. Prostrate. Because in life that does not escape this problem, we do need a pause, to simply remember what is wrong, or set the next step."

Hajir gasped at the words of his adult daughter. He just did not know, that the sentence Cendana got from one of his teachers.

Cendana certainly still remembers, where he first heard the sentence. Now, the shadow of the man who had said it immediately sipped his heart space. That simple sentence has just—again—brings a miracle in Cendana. The tangling and all the complexity that weighed on his head all this time collapsed slowly. Both corners of his lips lifted up together, after realizing the great change that Jati had brought about in his life in the simplest way. Now Sandalwood knows what to do.

***

Yes, more or less that was the sentence that he would say before Jati in a moment. After going through a long contemplation and want to brush aside the ego, Cendana will do what he should do. For the sake of not first Jati arrived at the road full of memories, he left very early in the morning. Even before the perfect morning shows its form. Not enough days to go to school. Starting today Cendana is determined to address all the problems that come with a more mature way.

For the sake of not saying wrong, Cendana took the exercise. I don't know how many times he repeated it, talking to the air that still contains the distinctive aroma of the morning of Semarang City.

Sandalwood ended his training session by removing a roll of paper from his sling bag, the future draft paper of the teak gift. Before going to bed last night, Cendana had written a lot of dreams on the paper, until it was completely full. But the last dream remains the same as the first dream.

I just want to be next to the person I care about!

With full confidence, Cendana will show it to Teak, as proof that he began to dare to build the city of the future in his head.

Sandalwood rolled back the paper and returned it to the bag carefully. His hand turned to unzip the front pocket of his bag, then took out a small mirror from there. The girl in the gray white uniform smiled and was a little incredulous looking at her reflection inside the mirror. In addition to her well-painted hair, she also wore thin makeup for the morning.

After returning the mirror to its original place, Cendana deliberately paced to ward off the nervous who attacked nonstop. Sometimes his gaze leads to the end of the road there, hoping Jati quickly appears with her bike.

Seconds with an increasingly dense restless content rolling for minutes. Some minutes since Cendana arrived on the road. Nevertheless, Teak has not yet appeared. Sandalwood glanced at his watch again. The road that had been quiet, now began to be crowded and then-pass two and four-wheeled vehicles. Teak should have arrived since. Or maybe today he didn't come in?

Bored sandalwood pacing. The girl was now only silent on her footing. Still waiting, even though he knew it would be in vain. It's eight o'clock now. That is, the teaching and learning process is already underway. Fix, Teak is not in today.

What's up, huh? Or maybe it hurts again? Sandalwood suddenly worried. He stepped up to his bike while reaching into his bag, looking for a cell phone. He no longer goes to school. It's too late anyway. To be able to enter, must definitely go through a series of plays first. He just wants to go home. But before leaving the place, he wanted to call Ranum to confirm Jati's whereabouts.

When his phone screen turned on, Cendana only realized, he had not activated his network connection since yesterday. He deliberately turned it off to avoid an invasion of questions from anyone who spoke about the condition of his family. Sandalwood was too lazy to respond to it.

Sure enough, when his network was connected, his phone instantly vibrated violently. Notifications from WA. As expected, a lot of people ask this. Sandalwoods know, they are the average culprit of gossip at school.

Among a pile of unopened chat rooms, Cendana found Ranum's name, with more than 50 unread messages. How can that be so much? sandalwood. Feeling something was wrong, he opened it.

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Ranum: Piu

Ranum: Piu

Ranum: Piu

Ranum: Mr. Jati is out of school!

Ranum: Piu

Ange: Woe ....

Ranum: How come your number can't be reached?

Ange: Woe ....

Ranum: Piu

Ranum: Piu

Runum: CENDAAAAAA!!!

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***