Kosan Dwellers?

Meet Om Beautiful

I'm a little girl who is jolly. I have many friends, men and women.

But I don't like being able to see some of 'them'. They are nobody, let alone my friends.

I'm a little girl, not brave. It's just that I'm a child yet to know that those I see are not human.

And I am thankful that God created all the little children, including me, as innocent beings who thought that 'those' with strange faces were only human beings wearing masks.

***

That night, I was on my way home from my grandfather's house which was just different village from where I lived. I was six years old at the time.

I sat behind an old bicycle seat that my father was riding.

At that time the village road was still dark even though there were yellow light bulbs that lit from the terraces of the houses.

Large trees and unkempt tall grass still adorn the outskirts of the road to my house.

In the alley to my house, there are still many people's yards that contain banana trees, mango trees, coconut trees, and other large trees. His house was still rare, still far from one house to another because it was separated by the yard I mentioned earlier.

KYOTO, KYOOOOT.

Old bicycle sound. I sat piggybacking behind my father's waist so as not to fall. The road was quiet at that time even though it was still around 8-9 pm. If not, it was around 1997.

KYOTO, KYOOOOT.

The bike was kept by my father.

My house is getting closer. How many more meters will be there.

I sat down sideways in the back seat. Until I saw the man in white to cover his legs, long-haired, white-faced, with red eyes, sitting the hen squatting under the soursop tree.

She's staring.

I looked at him without any fear.

Because then again, I didn't know that there were beings in this world other than humans like me.

I noticed his form. He's exactly human. Very exactly, nothing different. Body's perfect. Face too. There are no torn faces or big mouths like the ones in the movies.

But the one that was strange, his face was really male. He has a broad and firm face. Didn't he say, a creature like her is a woman?

He sat down motionless. His eyes still glanced at me even though the bike my father was riding began to stay away from where he was silent.

My eyes still saw it until my father's bike completely away from him. And we got home.

"Sir, sir, there were people squatting under the tree at night?" I told my father straight away.

My father just smiled, not answering. And I don't understand what that smile means.

***

As I got older, my eyes were no longer able to see 'them'.

Or 'them' who don't want me to see anymore?

Whatever the reason, I am grateful. Because it would be troublesome if I grow up I can still see 'them'.

But the one that's still attached to me, I can still smell the scent and hear 'them'.

"Heh, the smell of flowers huh?" I said to my friends when we were playing at night.

A long time ago when I was a child, after Isya (about half eight o'clock in the night), the children played a lot outside. And the mothers sit around talking about a lot of things chattering.

It was beautiful at the time. Different from now. Children are busy with their gadgets, and mothers are engrossed in their soap operas.

"Hust, don't tell me. Later he'll be nongol," replied one of my friends somewhat in a whisper.

I was silent immediately.

Because back then, I was of Primary School age, already having a fear of 'them'.

Afraid that 'they' would suddenly appear while smiling giggling.

And the man in white who was squatting under the soursop tree that I was telling you about, I only found out when I was growing up, that he was KUNTILANAK.