LOVE WINARSIH

42. Midnight Guests

Winarsih was still silent as Bu Sumi dragged her hand into the house. He had no idea since when his mother had heard the conversation with Utomo outside.

"Have you eaten?" asked Sumi while walking into the kitchen.

"Already Ma'am," replied Winarsih following his mother.

"What enough? Not a laper anymore?" ask Sumi again. The old woman's hand was busy rummaging through a broken plastic bucket filled with raw cassava.

"You want to fry cassava? There's just this. I haven't been to the market to shop."

Ms. Sumi had not turned her head towards Winarsih who had been sitting on a wooden chair that was leaning against the wall.

"You Mum...." Winarsih's voice choked.

Ms. Sumi cleaned the cassava and placed it next to a simple gas stove connected to a green gas cylinder.

In silence Bu Sumi fried two cassava fruits and placed them in front of Winarsih a while later.

Winarsih directly picked up a piece of cassava and started blowing it. Her tears are expanding.

"The guy knows?" ask Sumi.

Winarsih.

"You've talked?" ask Sumi again.

Winarsih shook her head again while putting cassava in her mouth.

"Tomorrow early in the morning we leave for Jakarta," said Bu Sumi.

"Winar is afraid, ma'am" Winarsih said.

"Fear what? Afraid she won't admit it? It's okay if he doesn't admit it. The mother will bear the life of her child. I just want to hear from her directly." Ms. Sumi took a cassava and blew it for Winarsih.

"Winar is afraid, ma'am, Winar doesn't want to. Winar won't bother Mr. Dean's family." Winarsih was crying again.

"Mom just wants to know. What kind of man is the father of your son. He should know. And I have to see him. This time you have to beat up mom."

"Eat a lot. If you are in the laper you will not be able to sleep. When you are done, sleep in the room. Not in front of the tv. Lots of mosquitoes." Ms. Sumi got up from the chair and left her son who was still chewing cassava with a sob.

*******

Mbah was making breakfast on the dinner table the next day.

"Good morning Mbah," said Mr. Hartono who came to the dinner table before Ms. Amalia.

Dean had been sitting across from Mr. Hartono in silence while applying butter to his bread.

"Good Morning Sir.... Yesterday night did not eat at home apparently," Mbah told Pak Hartono.

"Yes, the event at the ministry until night."

"Kemarin Winarsih cook gulai favorite fish father. But because you did not go home, so I shared it with the employees" said Mbah.

"Well, what a pity. But later I can ask him again," replied Mr. Hartono who had sat down and began to see the side dishes on the table.

"Winarsih has permission to return to his village, sir," replied Mbah.

"Why Mbah? Is his family sick?" ask Mr. Hartono again.

"What's up Mbah?" ask Ms. Amalia who just arrived at the dinner table.

"Winarsih is no longer working.... There is a sudden business so you have to go back to the village," Mbah said with a look towards Bu Amalia.

Ms. Amalia sat next to her husband while thinking.

"It's a shame, but the food is delicious. I liked. But yes, I will find someone new again. The room is empty, right?" mother asked Amalia while giving a glass of orange juice to her husband.

"Don't start looking for someone new Ma first" Dean said suddenly.

"Why?" asked Ms. Amalia who was quite surprised by the words of Dean who had been silent since.

"No need," replied Dean again with his frowning forehead.

"Dean left first Ma, Pa" said Dean then rose to kiss Bu Amalia's cheek and left the new bread bitten a little.

Mr. Hartono and Ms. Amalia saw Dean until the man's back disappeared on the wall.

The husbands looked at each other.

"Kok tumben he cares about the employees in this house," muttered Mr. Hartono again turned his eyes back to the plate.

"Yes, ask not to find someone new first. I think he wants to help in the kitchen," continued Ms. Amalia.

*******

"Sir, this afternoon we have a meeting with a client. They asked to meet outside. How's it? Can you?" Ryan Dean's secretary walked into his superior's room with a package in his hand.

"No need outside Yan, here is his meeting. The cave again males to the outside. Lu reschedule. Can you?"

"could. I'll call you later. This Trus has a gift from Misty Ma'am. I think it was lunch. There's a message sir's pasted outside." Ryan lifted the parcel up to put it on his superior table.

"Eits, no! Make you aja. If you don't want to, talk to someone else. It's up to who." Dean shook his hand as if to throw Ryan away.

"Okay, you read. What's?" Dean was still writing something down on his tablet screen.

"It says 'Don't Forget to Eat Ya Darling. From Disty Your Love.' That's it, sir," Ryan reported.

"Okay, throw it away" Dean ordered to look at Ryan with a raised eyebrow.

"Ready Sir." Ryan turned around to leave.

"Eh Yan. wait-wait" called Dean again.

"Yes sir?"

"Someone wants the cave to ask. For example, this is not a story about a cave. But the cave-temen" Dean said hesitantly.

"Okay, sir Dean-why?" Ryan smiled in response to his superior who seemed to be venting but on behalf of others.

"The cave minister said it, had revealed that he was dear to a woman. But the woman still left him. What's the reason?" asked Dean who now had a plain face.

"Yes that woman means no taste at all" Ryan said.

"But the cave was sure that the woman also had a taste for gu-" Dean cut quickly and then stopped.

"Now this is the story of the father or the father himself?" ryan asked, getting more ticklish.

"Have you gone. Throw it away." Dean's face went back flat and turned his gaze toward the tablet.

As Ryan closed the door of his room, Dean let out a heavy and long sigh. He turned his chair against the wide window glass that featured views of the skyscrapers.

"Where the hell are you Win? I want to meet-" Dean stopped. His mind re-enacted the memories he had missed with Winarsih. "I wish God would send you near me again" Dean murmured as he looked out the window with a sad look.

*******

Winarsih and Bu Sumi were greeted by heavy rain when they set foot in the Kampung Rambutan Terminal.

Time showed almost midnight. Along the way to Jakarta, Winarsih repeatedly persuaded his mother to abandon the intention to come to the residence of Pak Hartono.

But Ms. Sumi just tightened her face and did not touch her son's words.

By riding a bajaj they huddle in it with a state of almost drenched.

Thank goodness Yanto did not participate at that time, because the teenager wanted to be entrusted to Pakde's house. Ms. Sumi promised not to linger in Jakarta and would soon return to pick up her youngest child.

"Mom, it's midnight. The family may have gone to sleep. Tomorrow we come again" said Winarsih.

"No Win, tomorrow must be different again what you want to do. It could be that mother's intentions also start to change because of your persuasion. Besides pity Yanto if mom linger away," sergeant Bu Sumi stared at the street in front of them.

The firm words of Ms. Sumi could no longer be answered by Winarsih. He just stayed in the bajaj that brought them almost to the family residence.

When the bajai pulled them over the sidewalk a few steps away from the gate, the rain had not stopped.

Without an umbrella and a coat, Ms. Sumi held Winarsih who looked like she wanted to run away at any moment from the place.

"Sir! Sir!" call Bu Sumi knocking on the fence to be heard from the security guard not far from them.

A security guard Winarsih identified as Rojak turned to wear an umbrella and approached them.

"Who's looking for Ma?" ask Rojak.

Winarsih hid behind her mother's body until she escaped Rojak's observation.

"I'm looking for Mr. Hartono. Wanna meet. There is an important business," said Ms. Sumi while occasionally rubbing her face that had been soaked.

"Sir Hartono is not there, has not returned" replied Rojak.

"Yes ma'am, tomorrow only" Winarsih said from behind her mother's body.

"No, I'll wait. It's okay to stand here" replied Sumi.

"Sir, this is Winarsih who has worked here. We can wait for Mr Hartono?" ask Sumi again to Rojak.

"Huh? Wharsih?" Rojak slightly tiptoed to look Winarsih out.

"Oh my goodness Win! Why didn't you say that from earlier? Let's go in first. I opened the fence." Rojak opened the hook and started pushing the fence.

"Let's go in-eh this is Mr. Hartono's car. I open the fence first. Winarsih and I wait in the post." Half-running Rojak pushed the fence wide open.

The view of Winarsih and her mother is now pounded on a black Vellfire that drove into the courtyard and stopped on the terrace of the lobby.

Rojak hastily closed the fence and went running towards Mr. Hartono's car.

From a distance, Irman appeared to go down first to open the middle door of the car. Mr. Hartono and his assistant Fika then appear in a batik suit that looks very expensive.

Winarsih and Bu Sumi stood shivering at the security guard post, waiting for Rojak who was talking to his master.

"Win, called Father!" shouted Rojak who half ran over to them.

"Yes is there! You are called Father" repeated Rojak again.

Winarsih and her mother looked at each other. His heart was now pounding irregularly. His lips had turned blue from the cold and his hands had not stopped shaking.

The To Be Continued.....