Still waiting for you

Dani, the boy.

"Father to Allah... You're such a good-looking guy, anyway,"

I'm not worried about playing when I see Dani's appearance now. He wears a navy long hem with black peci and black sheath, his skin clean, his face radiant. It was different from the last time I saw him. The Junior High boy who always looks shabby after school, because he had to walk so far while trying tissue to patch his daily needs. In a small boarding house in an alley, she lives with her grandmother, call her wak ijah. They are not native to Jakarta. They came from unfortunate with the aim to be closer to the child wak ijah or mother of the Dani.

That afternoon, the stray cat I used to feed in front of the house fence, snatched my favorite fried mujaer fish without permission. He ran into a small alley with a mouth that clamped my half-fried mujaer fish. I chased after him not because I wanted to take my favorite food scraps in the mouth of the mpus, but wanted to teach this stray cat a lesson so as not to dare to steal again.

Instead of finding the stray cat, I accidentally saw a crowd of mothers clamping their noses while cursing and nagging.

"That's it, if you have a child whose job is not real, where can nurse his sick mother. It's just a prickly nose."

"Yes yes, it is. It's the mother of sickness where there's money. Different, lah, same striped nose. The money was a wad, sticky until the morning even he jabanin" the painful throws were heard in the ocean. My age, who had just stepped on the number seventeen, did not understand the direction of their conversation at all. I who was not used to greeting the crowd chose to hide behind a large barrel of trash.

I was just about to step out of my hiding place, after I made sure the horde of mothers were gone.

I took a long breath. While squatting behind the trash, I minimized the air intake for the life stock on my lungs. This is all because the wild cats that have been given the heart are greedy to ask for the heart.

When I decided to stop chasing the stray cat and go home, my steps stopped as my tail caught the oddity in the little boarding house I was passing by.

An old woman tried to reach for the plastic glass on the table with great difficulty. His body that was on the floor was not free to move, his mouth was pulled to the right and shook.

"So soon, Grandma, let me get it." I ran up to him when I found out the door to the boarding house was unlocked. I helped him drink and then filled him to put him in the chair.

"Grandma lives alone here?" He shook his head, it meant that there were other family members living here. I swept a glance, there was no sign of any other occupants in this house. Are they working and leaving this old lady alone?, why not leave it to the neighbors or hire an elderly nanny to wait for her while they work.

And where the empathy of the mothers nyiyir earlier, instead of helping, they actually have the ability to throw blasphemy.

"Hey, that's so handsome huh. Until the bengong that, see Dani" I reply to the reprimand of Nature with a grin.

"Would you like to come with me to a meeting or eat first?" Nature asked me again.

"Meeting?, Who's the same?, Where?"

Nature did not answer, instead smiling sweetly in response to my series of questions.

I who was not told anything about the mission of this trip was getting irritated. There is so much I do not know about Muhammad Alamshah.

"Such a style, anyway, the language" I glanced at him cynically.

"Where?, won't you come?. Just walk, walk."

I'm shaking.

"I'm here, I'm not a laper either. Eat it waiting for you to finish... Okay, call it a meeting." I rolled my lazy eyeball when I said the last sentence. Nature laughed at my expression. Sure enough, fill up where, anyway, his laugh. Can be unlimited.

"OK if that's it. Dani, get my future wife, yeah,"

Nature throws an ignorant look at me while gently patting Dani on the shoulder.

"OK Bang Alam, Ready" she clasped five fingers on the forehead of the sign of respect.

🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻

Dani told me how he got to this place. But he did not want to answer, since when and how can this prostitution place become a complete njai village with a mosque that is so magnificent.

Dani also told me that her mother had quit her illegal job. What makes me haru from the length of Dani's story is, where he managed to reach his identity which was almost washed away by the swift currents of despair. He was adrift after the death of Wak Ijah. He felt he had no purpose in life.

"Perhaps, during my care for uwak, I was too busy. School, tissue sales, homework assignments, cooking, washing and ****other whining. Until I never heard anyone talk about mom. A week after Uwak's departure, I was determined to see my mother. I want to get her out of that illegal place. But, no matter how hard I assure you, that life will be fine without his ill-gotten money. Mother was not a little afraid. He was already enjoying his illicit glitter. I finally gave up, continued my own life and continued to strive to pray for my mother to be touched by my direction. But, the neighbor's words that never could greet my ears when there was uwak, everything became clear, how disgusted they were with me and uwak, because they knew the work of mother. Since the death of uwak. I no longer take money from my mother. But they casually said that, what I had, was all haram. In fact, the things I accidentally touched will be re-washed by them"

My heart breaks hearing it. What right do they have to judge Dani that way. If Dani is given a choice, wants to be born by whom, and wants to have a series of life stories like what. He would choose a perfect life with no gap, be born by a special mother, and have a great father. But this world is not a fairy tale. The fate present never made an offer, not even they were in the mood to say hello. Destiny will come to meet us who feel capable of living it, whether we accept it or not, he does not care. So, whoever it is, with good or bad destiny. They should not judge us. For it is not they who choose, but destiny itself.

"So because of that, you left that boarding house?" I asked Dani who never continued the story. His gaze was straight forward, seeing small children who were engrossed in playing hide and seek.

"Obviously, because of mom. So, uh,... "

Dani's sentence was cut off just like that, by the arrival of the Amar bag who looked riled up and rushed.

"Amenaa, you must return now, you are well, same Nature. You can't explain anything right now. Assalamu'alaikum."

"Wa'alaikumsalam" I just saw the back of the Amar bang getting away. Leaving behind a myriad of questions entrenched in my head. What's the matter exactly?.