SULIVANS

Crannies

“Friday there is dinner company.”

Someone knocked on the door, making the middle-aged woman move the phone she was holding onto her right shoulder, keeping her phone from falling over while she took care of the documents with the help of a tilted head.

“The address will be sent after this. As usual, we meet in front of the restaurant, then enter together.”

The pile of paper on his right side was lifted and then handed over to the female employee who entered to retrieve it.

“Mother Zalva?”

The woman gasped at the typical call the husband made to her when angry.

He may feel neglected.

His words were not immediately answered because his wife was sorting and piling some documents of new tutoring students who were about to be submitted to his employees earlier.

“Iya, Father Zalva.”

The conversation between the husband and wife was then interrupted after the husband was called by someone to take care of something.

That makes the anger move on the wife.

Zalva's mother clenched her hands to hear a woman tickle her ear across the phone.

The same voice as the woman who came to the house last night took her husband's overtime file.

Her appearance at that time which remained fresh with a fragrant perfume even though working until night made Zalva's mother suspicious.

But suspicion was soon dismissed to refocus on his unfinished homework.

The suspicion was raised again and increased when today she again heard the voice on her husband's phone, telling him to come closer to check on something.

A voice that seemed to know where he was across the phone.

The voice that sounded so clear that it could imagine the expression on the face annoying the woman when she said it.

With such clear sound quality, she concluded two possibilities were going on in her husband's office.

First, her husband called in loudspeaker mode.

Second, the woman was deliberately loud so that her voice was heard by the person across the phone.

She probably wouldn't suspect that her husband was ignoring her to finish their conversation.

But the husband even made their conversation stop in the middle of the road and said he wanted to type the rest of the conversation through whatsapp messages.

All the unusual deeds of her husband that have been done recently appear one by one.

Often overtime and come home late, ignoring the message, to the foreign perfume that smelled from his shirt.

Although he had expected this situation might happen, still he wanted to maintain the integrity of the family of this business marriage.

She and her husband did not marry because they liked each other.

Even the Zalva were born from accident; outside of their future plans.

Their household had indeed been this cold ever since they first stood up.

The internal problems that only the three of them knew did not greatly affect their careers.

She and her husband remained present as a couple in various personal and corporate business events of the husband, also present as Zalva's parents at various school events.

She was willing to never go with her husband to a company dinner held every year.

She was willing to become a slave overnight during her husband's big family event in the new year.

He is also willing to take care of business while watching the growth and development of the child.

All of this was done to keep the household going.

Then came another person who was about to burst out leaving a gap in this sturdy looking household.

What if later this gap was revealed; then it affected the households that were painstakingly built and maintained?

He had predicted this incident long ago to establish a business as a solution.

Although this tutoring business is not perfect to be her protection asset because it is built on behalf of her husband.

She still has to figure out how to turn the name around secretly without the knowledge of her husband and his entrenched relationship everywhere.

Ring rings...

The ringing of the cable phone shifted his mind.

The secretary then came in carrying a small cardboard box and put it on the table.

The sender is math maple teacher Zalva, who last week met and invited him to invest in his lodging business.

He did not accept the teacher's offer at the time, saying he would think about it if he got the right offer.

The offer was then sent to him through his secretary.

"Send a cardboard loaf of bread to his address. Tell me I'm satisfied with the prize."

The secretary came out after receiving an office card.

Zalva's mother stared at the contents of the cardboard in the form of three sheets of paper with a smile.

He was satisfied that this paper could support one of the assets of self-protection when the household cracked; namely Zalva.

Zalva's mother stuffed the paper into her tote bag, impatient to give it to the child.

But when this paper was given, Zalva instead made it go black because standing scattered it.

Wasting the effort he built with great difficulty.

"A maths exam next month? Are you not aware of your actions?!"

Zalva ignored his vibrating phone on the table, displaying a call from one of the contacts named Rio.

"Mother wouldn't have done it if your grades hadn't gone down and shamed your mother's name as the head of the maths tutoring!"

The phone vibrates at the table then winks off after displaying a missed call twice.

"Do you know how hard it is to get this?!"

The mother ruffled her waist and shouted with her fiery eyes.

"Mom never even forbid you to go out at night and do useless things with your ugly bike!"

He approached the boy and slapped him hard.

"Then without knowing the shame you refuse to do something this easy! While I'm trying to do everything I can do!"

Zalva who was still standing upright despite staggering with the first slap started to waver with a second slap on his right cheek.

"You're not sane!"

Zalva felt her cheeks pulsating by the touch of her mother.

The pulsation moved to his chest that felt tight.

"Mom's request is not much! I'm just asking you to be the best"

"Did I ever ask mommy?"

Zalva stepped back, anticipating the mother's hand preparing to slap her again.

"I've obeyed mother's orders of being a well-behaved disciple and maintained a parallel rank one during these five years-"

The mother stepped forward, replying to the babbling of her child with a loud scream.

"That's your duty because I'm kind enough to support you"

"Benevolent?!"

Zalva yelled in protest to compensate for the mother's shrill voice piercing the wall of her heart.

"Mother doesn't even care about my sickly body and nosebleeds in order to achieve what I call duty!"

The mother was silent and her breathing began to hunt.

"Do you know what I got out of that obligation?"

The screen of the phone that was dead again flashes, displaying a call from another contact named Doki.

"Mother don't even know how many of my friends turned enemies in order to reach that rank?!"

Zalva raised his hand, pressing his index finger on the chest.

"After enduring all the torture to be the good son that my mother liked, my mother told me to be the bad boy who did the heinous deed just to get the perfect score?"

The long words spoken fieryly made Zalva's eyes feel hot.

"How far will the mother go to act for her own satisfaction?"

Zalva moved closer to the chair, putting his weight on the chair.

"How much torture should I face?!"

Zalva grabbed his jacket hanging on the back of the chair, grasping it firmly to prevent tears from coming out.

"Do you want to make me a monster?!"

Zalva grabbed the keys of his bike and sauntered out without looking back, letting his tears down his face.

Leaving her phone flashing again elicits a message from a contact named Doki.

Come quickly! Rio was beaten to the point of almost fainting because oreo knows our plan!