LOVE WINARSIH
4. Families
Mr. Padmo; winarsih's father had died four years ago when the girl was seventeen. His father died after 3 years of struggling with his stroke. Their efforts were made to treat the father to be cured of the disease. Both medical and traditional medicine.
Every Monday of the second and fourth week, Winarsih took her father to the local hospital dozens of kilometers away from their village. Also various methods of traditional medicine recommended by the neighbors in the surrounding villages have been visited. But the result is nil. The father still lay helpless.
Day by day their hopes are diminishing. What they initially hoped Pak Padmo could be healthy fresh fit as ever, now they only hope the backbone of the family can sit moving their hands and spooning their own food to the mouth.
Long saw Mr. Padmo lying down, over time Winarsih just hope his father can smile welcome them every time they come home in the afternoon. His father's shady smile can definitely relieve his fatigue after a day of work under the hot sun, he thought at the time.
All the treatment of Mr. Padmo when it requires a cost that is not small. The savings they had set aside to bring Yanto to therapy in the city, slowly began to thin out. A patch of rice fields belonging to their family does not produce to the maximum because it is too often budgeted.
Winarsih and her mother are busy taking care of a sick Pak Padmo and Yanto who is not independent because of his Down syndrome. Until in the end little by little their family debt to rich middlemen was increasingly mountainous.
Bu Sumi had to give up their only source of income to Pak Harto, the richest middleman in Beringin Village. The remaining money from the sale of rice fields is even a little left and does not last more than four months in their wallets. Everything has been used up for Mr. Padmo's medical expenses and daily meal expenses.
After Mr. Padmo died, Ms. Sumi returned to work in the paddy field. But not as the owner anymore, but only as a daily worker who is called when the owner of the rice field needs energy.
Several times Winarsih saw his mother looking with a grim look at the rice field that used to belong to them. When asked if his mother regretted selling the rice field, the answer was always the same. His mother never regretted.
Even so, Ms. Sumi always said that the rice field was the result of her father's hard work. If indeed in the end they have to lose the rice field, Bu Sumi considers that their soul mate has the rice field only up there. Ms. Sumi will not regret if the rice field is not hers in the end.
Even so, Winarsih promised himself that one day he would return the rice field to his mother. The rice field was like a real child for both parents. They took care of and cultivated the land with great affection. Her parents' household started from that patch of rice field. Even the age of the rice field is older than the age of Yanto who was only fourteen years old.
******
After the departure of Mr. Padmo, now the Winarsih family only remains Mother and her sister who has Down Syndrome, Yanto.
Yanto who was born special with an excess of chromosomes also brings congenital heart disease. Doctors who examined Yanto in infancy said that Yanto's heart had two leaks. Until the beginning of Yanto's life, many times he was suspected of dying because he often kept turning blue. His weight is not like a child his age. The age of two years Yanto's weight at that time was only eight kilograms.
The limited funds and the lack of time that Winarsih's parents had to bring Yanto to the hospital in the city at that time, making them resigned to the fate of the youngest child.
But in fact, Yanto who is not thought to be long-lived, can even live almost normal until now. After all, the age of man is only God knows, right?
Although Yanto is a child with Down Syndrome, everyday Yanto works to take pay to peel cinnamon. Every morning cinnamon farmers deliver several baskets of cinnamon that must be cleaned with a knife.
The cinnamon is sorted and cleaned by villagers who want to take wages. One kilo of money cleaning cinnamon is a thousand rupiah. And the reward will be paid the next morning when the cleaned cinnamon is taken and the farmer delivers the new cinnamon.
Winarsih initially did not allow his sister to take part in cleaning cinnamon because she was worried that Yanto could be injured while using a knife.
But when he saw how diligent and diligent Yanto worked, Winarsih so urgently forbid it. Moreover, Yanto is often left alone at home, the teenager did not have friends until Winarsih felt that taking the payment of peeling cinnamon was good for his sister.
Yanto so has a busyness that he likes. And seeing the glint of pride in Yanto's eyes when giving his working wages to their mothers on weekends, Winarsih was very happy.
******
Already entering the fourth day Winarsih worked at the luxurious residence of the Hartono family. Within a few days he felt comfortable. All female employees who work there are on average almost middle-aged and considered quite friendly or at least ordinary to him. No one whispered or gawked in front of him like every time he shopped at one of the stalls in Beringin Village.
There was no one whose attitude was disturbing in that house. Well at least if a gardener or pool cleaner teases her, Winarsih just thinks it's a regular thing. Because even in his village, he often met with men who were idle. Winarsih no longer considers that part of the disorder.
The housekeeping assistants who worked inside Mr. Hartono's house numbered six. Three people including Winarsih, Mbah who is old and is the longest-working kitchen assistant, as well as another, middle-aged woman named Tina. Although suitable to be called mother, Tina insistent still want to be called Mbak by Winarsih. Maybe the recently widowed woman wanted to appear younger.
Everyday they take care of all the kitchen in the house. Including cooking food for all employees who work there.
Three other employees who served in the house were a teenage boy and two women who cleaned the entire room and took care of the clothes of the employers.
Since arriving at the house, Winarsih has never met with employees of the house cleaning and laundry. Winarsih room located on the left wing, very close to the kitchen and backyard bordering the swimming pool. From the door of his room, Winarsih can go to the kitchen just by crossing the small garden. It made him never enter the living room or family room.
The farthest distance Winarsih foot stepped inside the house was the dining room. It was also Winarsih entered the dining room only once when Tina was carefree and the woman bestowed her duties on Winarsih with the approval of Mbah. Winarsih cleaned up the former Hartono family meal when the table was empty.
The family habit of starting to eat together is when all food and eating utensils have been arranged. Ms. Amalia, the hostess did not like the maid who downstream added something to the table while she was eating with her family.
According to Mbah who has worked for a long time in the house, Ms. Amalia considers all conversations that occur at the dinner table are family secrets. Especially when Mr. Hartono has served as a Minister. Ms. Amalia is getting tougher about the rules.
Contrary to Bu Amalia who is so straight against the rules at home. Mr. Hartono is a figure who is famous for being relaxed and flexible. This includes attitudes towards helpers, gardeners and security personnel.
While Utomo, in these four days, the man had only once contacted Winarsih by phone the back room which is specifically intended for home employees.
Utomo says that he is very busy and often works overtime. As a new contract employee, he said he must be smart to take the hearts of his seniors in the office. Moreover, Utomo is just a man with a high school graduate who was accepted to work there through a relationship intermediary.
Utomo also said that next week he would enroll in a private university not far from his office. Winarsih was very happy to hear the voice of Utomo who was so happy and enthusiastic about what he was living now.
According to Winarsih, Utomo did not need to feel bad because he could not visit her too often to the house. Especially now. Winarsih is busy studying the science of cooking their favorite food from Mbah. Not willing to lie with himself, Winarsih admitted that he felt at home working in that house.
The reason is simple, in addition to the hefty salary, working at home is very little sweat. Winarsih at home even though it must linger in the kitchen because the kitchen part of the house was installed AC.
But Utomo's last words before ending his talk yesterday, ringing in Winarsih's ears. The man said he missed her and wanted to kiss her. Winarsih imagines her last kiss with Utomo. And then the incident in the former postal cottage back crossed his head.
******
Saturday in the second week after Winarsih two weeks of work at the Hartono family residence, they were busier than usual. Mbah said Mr Hartono would return from Kalimantan after almost a week of working visits there.
I don't know when to leave suddenly Mr. Hartono will go home, thought Winarsih. The form of Mr. Hartono was known Winarsih only from a photo on the dining room wall. The handsome-faced old man whose hair had whitened all of it did indeed look like a friendly person.
Tina who also works in the kitchen with Winarsih and Mbah, shopping for groceries on Saturday morning. After putting all her groceries on a large table where they used to mix vegetables, Tina went to meet Mbah who was sitting picking sprouts. The middle-aged woman was also the one who always put together all the needs presented on the table since starting breakfast, lunch or dinner.
While Mbah is now only in charge of arranging the menu, or occasionally cooking the favorite food of each family member.
Winarsih really liked the moments he chatted with Mbah who was over 70 years old. He always felt like he was talking to someone from his hometown.
Mbah has been working with the family since the marriage of Pak Hartono and Bu Amalia entered its fourth year.
So that in the house, it can be said that Mbah is a housekeeper with the highest level. He no longer needed to work in the kitchen.
“Tonight I returned from Kalimantan. Mother told me, cook as usual, Mbah. His favorite is Mr and Mr. Dean. Let's say that tonight the fathers met noisily not very big." Tina went into the kitchen to Mbah.
Not understanding what Tina was talking about, Winarsih's heart was moved curiously.
"Indeed, Mr. Hartono and his children often make noise, Ma'am?" ask Winarsih. His innocent mind has always considered a rich person who has been well-off does not need to fuss about anything else in his life.
"Regular. The rich man's problem. The businessman became a minister. His son who was asked to manage his father's business even became a lawyer. Success anyway. His fate is to be rich, is it Mbah? Selonjoran at home if indeed the destiny is rich, must be rich," said Tina asked Mbah for approval.
*"Not so, Tin. Ngotot* the tenan of your speech," replied Mbah with Javanese dialect that is still so thick.
"Mr .... Mtta ...." There was a voice of a man shouting the name Mbah from the direction in the house.
"That's Mr. De...." Tina's words were cut off. A man has been standing in the wicket of the connecting door between the central kitchen and the main kitchen.
Winarsih was half flabbergasted to see her employer's son from such a close distance. Dean's head was almost at the top of the door.
"Where, no one had appeared? That's Papa sitting down with his flower tea. Don't make late flower tea, I'll make a fuss ahead." Dean talked to Tina.
"I just got home from the market is still in order, sir," replied Tina, nodding lightly to show her pile of groceries.
"Keep you doing? Uh, new maid! What were you doing from earlier? Just looking at a work person? Have you been taught how to make papa flower tea?" dean asked half-stomped.
Winarsih.
"Well, you make it now. Instead of direct initiative make, even stand dumbly. How annoying! When you're done with the anter's tape ahead!" Dean's voice was so loud that it filled the entire kitchen. Winarsih. He had never been so violently yelled at by anyone.
Dean then hurriedly went past from the presence of the three kitchen section assistants who were still looking down not daring to look at him.
No situation is truly perfect in any part of the world. When Winarsih thought all the things she would live during her work at home would be smooth, now her little heart said something else.
Dean Danawira Hartono, his employer's son, seems to be a source of income while working there.
To Be Continued
