Liz Nadia's

Mystery of the Lost People

It's the second day Liz Nadiah repairs her parents' estate. Almost seventy percent of the house has been successfully cleaned. A worn foam mattress that he slept with last night, he sunbaked on a wooden bench in front of the yard, shortly after the sun had poked from behind his hideout.

No neighbors came to help him. Because the position of the house is quite remote .. a little far from other residents.

The black trouser suit combined with a jumbo tunic that was almost touching the ankle, became Liz Nadiah's fashion today. Not to forget, pashmina coksu patterned zigzag, close the slick part of her hair. Her tiny legs are just slippers. Very homely.

After dzuhur, he decided to go to the market which was located quite far away. Passing at least one other village bounded by two rice fields. As per his initial intention, buy some items he needed.

It should have been taken by motorcycle or as low as a paddle bike, but what is the power ... Liz Nadiah doesn't have both.

The eyes of the hijab girl were relentlessly sweeping through the rows of houses lined with people thronging the edge of the paved road she was now treading. The houses looked better than they had seen last time, before he left the village a few years ago. Maybe the economy in the village, now more advanced, Liz Nadiah thought.

But what makes it wonder ... why is there not a single resident who knows him? Are they all new? Then where are the old residents who used to occupy the village?

Pretty weird!

While still dissolving into the various assumptions in his head with a frown, a breezy sound managed to break the question bubble in Liz Nadiah's head.

"You're the new guy in this village, son?"

Liz Nadiah turned to the direction the voice came from.

A skinny grandfather. Maybe whoever saw it would not be sure, if the grandfather still had flesh in his body. Estimated age may be equivalent to 60 years or maybe. It emerged from the back of a tree with a few dry logs in its shoulders.

"Umm .. i-"

"Who did you buy?" The grandfather silenced the sentence that Liz Nadiah had just been about to utter.

The girl's forehead shriveled inside. "I mean Grandpa?"

"Yes. Which house are you currently in?" His voice sounded helpless.

"Umm .. I occupy my own house, Kek," replied Liz Nadiah still with a pain not understanding.

"But Grandpa just saw you here."

The astonished face of Liz Nadiah has not faded. He was still trying to digest the grandfather's sentence, about 'occupy which house'.

Not yet exhausted his sense, now his eyes and thought, began to be forced to work to digest other parts.

Not yet saying the final sentence of the grandfather, Liz Nadiah continued to try to dig the truth of what was in his head at this time.

I think I recognize this grandfather?

"Why do you see Grandpa like that, son?"

Until the minute drags him to remember. "Grandfather Panca?" Liz Nadiah's parasol turned into a shock.

Grandpa was surprised too. "You know Grandpa's name?"

Both hands of Liz Nadiah are now raised, holding the shoulders of the figure of the grandfather. "So this is Grandpa Panca?!"

Grandfather nodded, which meant justifying Liz Nadiah's conjecture. "Yes, Son. But how do you know Grandpa's name?"

Without answering, Liz Nadiah grabbed the firewood that Grandpa named Panca was carrying, and then he just appeared to the ground. Then not immediately, hugged the old body tightly. Tears have been shed adorning her delicate cheeks. "It's me Nadiah, Cake. Liz Nadia."

"Liz Nadiah?" Grandfather muttered in a rhythm of thinking. "Liz's daughter Galuh Aisyah and Shada Yasin?" tanyanya after successfully remembering the two stanzas of the name.

"Yes, God. You're alive, son?!"

"Yes, Cake."

And in the end, the market is not so visited by Liz Nadiah today. He decided to come with Grandpa Panca to his residence.

"Grandfather why is it so good?" Sitting on a bale of bamboo in the house .. ahh no, even the dwelling is not worthy to be called a house. So appalling. The wooden rooms that covered all the parts, already seen reot, almost collapsed. Even the sunlight freely penetrated into it, as some parts were in a hollow state.

With a white green stainless striped cup, containing warm tea in his hand, Grandpa Panca sat next to Liz Nadiah. "Grandfather lost it all, son." His gaze seemed to be glaring at his hardest times.

Accompanied by the expression in hurt feelings, Grandpa Panca started to tell him everything. About him, about most of the population that suddenly disappeared .. guise distribution of labor by a party. But until now there is no news or news. Who then also swallowed his wife and son.

Most surprising, is about new people with various races, who always come every year, replacing the population who never returned.

From start to finish, nothing was acceptable to Liz Nadiah. Too weird.

"Maybe they really work Abroad, Miss?"

Grandpa Panca shook her head. "No! It's just manipulation."

"Want?!"

"Grandfather doesn't know either, Liz. Too many riddles going on in this village." Grandpa Panca paused for a moment his sentence. The sip of tea that may no longer be warm, slowly. Then back to the story. "But one that Grandpa believed in ...." Grandpa Panca's eyes look bright. "They're not all alive anymore."

Liz Nadiah jumped. "I mean Grandpa?"

The roof of the ceiling of the house with irregular tiles, stared at by Grandpa Panca amid a flush of bitterness.

"Grandfather once found a pile of red earth in the middle of the forest, on the hill there." Shut up a few jokes.

"Then?" Liz Nadiah was a little impatient from being too curious.

"The forest was always natural with a stretch of weeds under the large trees, which crept almost all over it. But that mound of land .. made Grandpa curious. Grandpa dug it up, using only a piece of wood that Grandpa's tip made tapered."

Liz Nadiah is still waiting.

Taking a breath, Grandpa Panca then resumed his story.

....

Not even one meter deep, the loose soil that Grandpa Panca dug, had reached a base that could no longer be dug. Not in the form of large stones, rocks, let alone treasure, the land that has formed the vacancy. Even fresh blood still flowed sweetly from the body parts of the corpses. It is clear, if both men were ill-fated, not long buried.

Panca's old dashing grandfather was, clearly shocked, his entire body trembling. He recognized both bodies. They are Rosman and Hidayat. Two villagers were reported missing three days earlier.

Not because he had the heart, nor as despicable as the man who had hoarded the bodies, but the fear that was very, very, he made him decide to throw the land back to its origin. He ran away from the place before anyone could see.

That's the summary of Grandpa Panca's explanation, which clearly makes Liz Nadiah flabbergasted instead of clumsy.

Closing his mouth in disbelief, not a single word came out as a comment from Liz Nadiah's lips.

And that fact makes him no longer sure .. if his mother is alive.

...••••...