K&K (Taste Features)
33. Imagery Dream
“How is the restaurant today?” ask Haikal.
“Quite crowded. And I'm glad to see visitors enjoying my piano game lately,”
“Er.. Kirana, when in Australia, what were you doing there? I mean you were there like you were living with those bulls, and now you're back in Indonesia with no family. If you want a story, you can tell about your true situation,” Haikal is careful in choosing questions.
Kirana bit her lips and lowered her head until her long, unraveled hair covered the right side of her face. Can he tell a painful past and hold it deep? then was born a figure miss Asian in a few years and returned to meet his family who now do not know where he is.
Can he share that sad sheet with the man he loves?
A few minutes of walking. Haikal understood the situation very well.
He clasped Kirana's left hand as he said, “If it's hard to tell right now don't tell me. I'll wait until you're really ready to tell me,” while his right hand is still driving.
***
Ms. Sita combed Citra's hair in front of the dressing table. That night, a plain face without makeup The image was clearly visible. Actually, without makeup even though her face looks more beautiful naturally.
Maybe a little pale without lipstick and eyeshadow. The face reminded Sita of her youth. Just like Citra. Bu Sita hopes that, as Citra gets older, her face remains beautiful and charming. Unlike his wrinkled self, it looks old far from its true age and gray. All of that was the factor of mind that had burdened him all this time.
“Mama hope you pass the casting yes dear,” said bu Sita combing the hair Citra slowly.
“Amiin. Thank you ma, have supported me all this time,” Citra said.
Ms. Sita smiled bitterly. Precisely all this time that supports survival is Citra, not himself. It seems to be a useless prank. In front of the mirror, Sita saw the face of Citra, which was growing into a beautiful young woman. The pain returned, when he imagined that his eldest daughter was still alive might be as beautiful as his sister.
Before Citra knew the look of her sad face, Ms. Sita immediately turned her head down and continued combing her daughter's hair.
“Mama will accompany you casting to the end. Even until the quarantine period later,” said bu Sita. The image smiles happily and assures.
***
Saturday morning, the ballroom of a luxury hotel in Bandung was busy casting stage I COSEAM and several journalists from various print and electronic media had begun to arrive.
The event is the largest model selection event in the country. So, it is a very hot topic that is being discussed by the print media, in particular.
Sarah's arrival with Adit was immediately invaded by local and foreign journalists from the COSEAM party in Bangkok and Singapore.
The young promoter and jury dazzled the eyes of the entire room. Beautiful, elegant, classy and make her worthy as the queen in the room. A famous designer from Indonesia had the honor of designing several costumes that Sarah wore during her jury.
Sarah lazily responded to the reporter, she simply threw a smile in response and waved her hand. Fortunately, the show began soon.
One by one, the participants began casting. Of the five judges, only Sarah has a big contribution in determining the innocence of these local models. The judging right is 40%, which means if he and one jury rejects a contestant, then the contestant will fail even if the other three accept it.
Citra got 125th and it was intermittent after a break. Mbak Moni and bu Sita have been hoping for anxiety when Citra's turn to casting which is only intermittent for no more than three minutes.
The image goes a little nervously, but he tries to concentrate to look the maximum. The four judges were reading his profile, while Sarah was busy playing with gadgets.
When one of the judges allowed Citra to walk on the catwalk, Sarah frowned in surprise. He then looked at the resumes of 125 participants. The girl was very similar to the woman he had seen.
The nose, hair, and skin color and face shape were very similar, making Sarah suddenly disliked the 125 participants. But, a girl named Citra has the talent to be a big model, in terms of physical that is very qualified and very photogenic. There was blood of a classy model flowing on that contestant.
The four jurors gave the perfect score to Citra, and they saw Sarah who had not pressed the jury button between red means reject or green means accept. With a little responsibility, Sarah pressed the green button to give the perfect value.
Hysterical image of joy. He shook the hands of the five judges with gratitude. He came out full of tears and was greeted by the manager and his mother.
“How?” askthem.
“Surely I escaped, Ma!” citra exclaimed in cheering as she hugged her mama and manager.
The three of them shouted in excitement and Sita gave thanks many times.
“That means Citra must leave mama alone,” Citra turned sad.
Of course he and thirty other participants had to leave Bandung to be quarantined for weeks and continue to be selected until leaving one of the best models to represent Indonesia.
“It's okay baby. This is all for the sake of your future as well,” bu Sita smiled encouragingly.
“Quietly, later aunt Sita let me take care,” bargain mbak Moni.
“Still well mbak,” Citra holds hands mbak Moni very closely. They are like brothers now.
“Already, already. Let's go home, aunty will cook a nice dinner to celebrate the success of Citra,” bu Sita interrupts them both.
***
“Finally finished also this early stage selection. Ugh my neck hurts so much,” complained the bespectacled and thin-moustached man one of the COSEAM judges.
He rubbed his neck slowly. Sarah did not talk much with the other judges, she was too haughty and reluctant to talk to the local jury for a few days of early stage selection because she felt she was special.
“How was your day in Bandung?” asked the glasses guy asking kindly to Sarah.
“Not bad,” answer briefly Sarah.
He felt that the jury named Anton was pretentious and close to him. He immediately cleaned up his things.
“I'll go first,” Sarah says goodbye to the other four judges. Adit's ready to wait for Sarah.
“Sobese really tuh people,” chirps mothers of former models of the 80s who are also judges.
“Yeah, because he's a guest judge who gets the right 40% assessment, feels himself too important so it's not important to respond to us.” said another jury.
“I read his resume, I think he is too arrogant because everywhere he is more junior in age and experience. Indeed he is international class, but too exaggerated his attitude.”
“Hmm.. if only Nadia Hutagalung be a judge here, would be nice,” said Anton.
“Of course, because you are heavy with him,” said the jury of mothers. And the other jury greeted with laughter.
****
“Allo my darl cousin. Um.. Haikal, you can't go to Bandung. It's been a weekend and I've been here a few days alone,” Sarah complained spoiled over the phone. Adit glanced from the rearview mirror for a moment, smiling wryly.
“Come on, you have no pity on this beautiful girl from France? Lonely and strange,” Sarah getting spoiled.
“You can vacation here, I just rented a villa for us a family vacation. Anyway you should come, I’ll call auntie,” click. Sarah turned off the phone. He smiled with satisfaction and cunning.
“Everything is ready?” ask Sarah to Adit.
“Yes,” Adit replied briefly in a cold tone.
***
