THE END OF OUR STORY

Family Secrets (3)

In the afternoon on the side terrace, Ratih sat alone while peeling the fruit that had become his habit every afternoon. The cloud saw his mother alone and sat there. They sat side by side with only a small table where Ratih kept a plate of fruit that had been peeled and cut.

Clouds decided she would ask her mother, but she was confused about where to start. The clouds sat still, but in his mind went back and forth various question sentences.

Finally Clouds managed to gather all the courage he had to start asking Ratih, his mother.

“Bu, since Mom married dad, I know all the employees who work with dad?”

Ratih stopped his hand peeling, somewhat confused as to why the Cloud suddenly asked that, but still answered normally. “Oh, yes dong.”

“Everything?”

“Ya can be spelled out all.”

“If dad's coworker?”

“Hmm .. if co-workers are not all yes, Wan. There are also those I don't know.”

“Oooh. That's her secretary?” The clouds hesitated a little when they asked.

“If his secretary is dad, yes I would know, Wan. Even like his own brother,” replied Ratih without understanding the direction of the Cloud question.

“Oh yes? Is Mom still in touch with them?” The clouds tried to shake off his nervousness by picking up pieces of fruit from the plate next to him.

“Laaah, your father's secretary from the beginning until his retirement was only four people, Wan. They're your father's average long time. I know all the news too. Some quit work because they have children, some are with husbands, some last it almost stopped because their children no one helped ngasuh. In fact they used to also like to help Mom, kok.”

The silent cloud only chewed softly on the fruit in its mouth. The coach began to wonder.

“Why? You want to work at the office apparently?”

The clouds tried to laugh normally at his mother's question. “Now, Bu.”

The clouds fell silent again, thinking of the next question he should ask.

“I was instantly asked if dad married again with his secretary? Did I just shoot, did you know mama Aurora and know how she is now? Or I just ask about the photo?”

Feeling that there was no right question, the cloud turned to ask something else.

“Since marriage, how the hell do you trust your father?”

Ratih turned to the Clouds, again astonished at his son's question, but still he answered as if it was a normal question.

“Your father is the person responsible, not only through talk but also there is evidence. Your father has always been honest and open with Mom, any issue.”

Cloud directly cut, “Mom is absolutely sure?”

Train laugh lightly. “Yes yes, Wan .. So your mother and father can both continue until now. You will see for yourself that we are still durable.”

Pause for a while, Ratih could not bear to ask his astonishment.

“Why, Wan? You were in office business, it was about the secretary, and now it's Mom to trust or not to dad.

Wh why? You have a wife, right? Your candidate is a secretary? Do you have plans to get married?”

Ratih's long question was not immediately answered by the Cloud. She felt sorry for herself hearing her mother's line of questions.

“Kok silent?” I heard a question from Ratih.

In silence the Clouds weighed for a while and finally decided to be reckless, no matter what.

“Iya, Ms... there is a candidate,” replied Awan then turned his gaze down. His heart feels sad.

Ratih could not hide his surprise and was happy to hear the Cloud's short answer.

“Ha? Seriously you Wan, is there a candidate?” Ratih asked in a voice almost shouting his happy horn.

The clouds smiled outside, but slashed inside his heart saw his mother's expression. The clouds tried to cover his heart and just nodded affirming Ratih's question.

Suddenly Ratih stopped smiling, then shut up.

With an anxious but curious look on his face, Ratih slowly asked with a low volume of voice while touching Cloud's arm, “With bule, Wan? Meet in Netherlands?”

His tone sounded worried.

The clouds could not help but laugh at the expression of his mother who was so anxious. “Not, Bu .. not bule, but yes meet again right in the Netherlands.”

Ratih immediately exhaled a sigh of relief at the Cloud's reply.

“Oh, Indonesian,” he said then smiled happily at Awan.

Seeing his mother's response, Cloud also smiled even though his heart was still troubled.

“Then, what's his name, Wan? Which guy? Jakarta too? Where does he live? Work, Wan? Where does it work? How old?”

A long series of questions slid quickly from the mouth of Ratih as he impatiently wanted to know what kind of wife-to-be Cloud would introduce.

“This is the case for his art, Wan,” said Ratih is still impatient.

“You were alone. Until this age there are no signs of getting married, have a boyfriend also enggak.”

Ratih took a pause and then resumed, “Mother to suspect loh, Wan .. lest you were a girl or did not want to marry, that is.”

Ratih's lips formed a frown, considering how worried he was about seeing the Clouds who had no partner until he was almost thirty.

The clouds smiled even though they felt sad to see his mother who looked very happy when she heard he already had a partner. The cloud did not know what his mother would feel and said if it turned out that all was false hope. The joy of his mother certainly will not be impregnable and even turned into heartache because disappointed if the great hope of seeing Clouds get married turned out to be aground.

Determined to find an immediate answer so that everything does not drag on and make it worse, the Clouds solidify his heart and begin to issue questions to lure his mother.

“Mmm .. but, Ma'am ..” Clouds stopped briefly rubbing his nape then continued, “He was from childhood never met his father. What do you think about Mom?”

Rather surprised, Ratih answered quickly. “Why, Wan? His father died when he was a child? Or was her mother left?”

The clouds lowered their heads for a moment and then turned towards Ratih. “Says she's her mother left behind.”

Ratih's changed expression showed a sad and concerned look on his face. “Aduh, if that even pity him, Wan. The child should get a really good partner and love him.”

Silence was between the two of them. Each one is busy with his thoughts. Cloud thought about his next move, while Ratih thought about how concerned his future son-in-law's life was. Trainly chewed slowly the fruit that had been cut, Clouds sat tensely by folding his hands.

Cloud's eyes closed for a moment, then began to let out his voice again.

“Mmm ...,” there is doubt present so Cloud feels the need to pray before continuing his sentence. “Yes Allah, strengthen me.”

“Mmm, I know Miss Mirna?” Cloud's voice sounded slightly stuck in his throat.

Mirna looks confused. “Bu Mirna? Miss Mirna who, Wan?”

His mother's question made the clouds hesitated again.

“Don't Mom really know nothing?”

“Mmm, I know there's a dad's coworker whose name is Miss Mirna?” The clouds were anxious for his mother's answer.

“Friends of work dad? How do you think you never heard of anyone named Mirna ya ... or Mother may not know?” Ratih was seen creaking his forehead thinking about remembering Mirna's name among her husband's coworkers.

The clouds changed his question despite growing doubt. “If father's secretary?”

Still with a confused look of face thinking, Ratih instead asked again, “Secretary? Mirna ..?”

The question hangs because Ratih again tries to remember the name Mirna.

“Nno, Wan.”

The deg! Instantly the clouds felt his body go limp.

Just now that the Clouds were trying to master the emotional and physical changes of his body, suddenly Ratih spoke again with a satisfied sounding tone knowing something.

“Oooh .. You mean deck Asih, Wan?” Train smile.

This time the clouds looked confused. But not long because he suddenly remembered that Aurora had said the full name of her mother, Mirna Asih.

“Oh yes, Mom. Ms. Mirna Asih,” said Awan confirmed the answer to her mother's question.

Ratih's voice sounded happy. “Ooh, if that's yes I know dong. She called him Asih, not Mirna. That's why I was confused.”

His mother's explanation actually makes the heart of the cloud beat very fast and his breath feels hunting because it is driven by curiosity.

“What's wrong with Asih deck?” Ratih is still unable to capture what the relationship is with Asih, her husband's former secretary.

Having managed to control himself and regulate his breathing, Awan answered his mother slowly in a slow speech.

“The wife who Awan said earlier, her daughter was Mirna Asih, Bu.”

The clouds prepared themselves to hear whatever his mother said and steeled their hearts with the reaction he might receive.

“Ha?? The clouds?? You serious??” Train yells while holding the hand of Clouds leaning on the handle of the chair across the table.

Seeing his mother's reaction, Awan's heart shrunk and feared that his suspicions about who Aurora was. Although he was trying to be ready, but now he felt very insecure.

The clouds were silent, not daring to answer his mother's question.

Train became impatient. With the facial expression still full of shock, Ratih again confirmed everything to the Clouds.

“Seriously, Wan? Candidate you mean that his son dek Asih?”

Ratih asked as he shook Cloud's hand, but Cloud remained unreacted, he still shook.

“Mom's Wawab, Wan .. Mom didn't hear wrong, did she?” Ratih's tone of voice started to sound frustrated.

The clouds did not dare look at his mother and just looked down, even deeper and deeper. While nodding slowly, Awan replied in a soft voice, “Iya, Bu.”