The Frost Heart

Jack, the scavenger

Jack, a 17-year-old man in a jakung, half-gray hair and shabby, dirty clothes, was scavenging for trash in a dumpster in search of something to sell. He is the umpteenth of the few scavengers in the city. He usually looks for garbage in front of the school during the day. At that time it was school time.

Not a few students who came home and once saw him with a strange look. In their gazes, they were like asking, "is the scavenger stupid? Why not look for junk in TPA? What can I look for at the school gate?"

Indeed, in front of the school there is not much useful garbage to sell. In the trash box in front of the school gate, only some trash could be sold. It would be useful if he went to the TPA, where the trash mixed into one and definitely a lot of useful trash to sell rather than in the trash boxes outside the school gates.

"Sir, still busy looking for trash?" A security guard asked Jack. The security guard did not wear his uniform and only wore a white tank top. She had seen Jack every day, but never had a conversation with him and that day she intended to chat with him.

"Yes, um..." Jack answered the trash.

"Aren't you tired of the day like this?" Ask the security guard again.

"No, I have to work for my life."

"Working for your life?"

"Yes, I have to make my own living and make money to be able to eat for today."

"Wait on! Sorry, the deck I asked like this, I'm kind of curious about you. Do you have parents?"

Jack shook his head, "I don't have parents, I don't even know my parents' faces. I was left in an orphanage and spent my childhood there..."

"Oh, sorry..." The security guard apologized.

"So, you've apologized before and why are you apologizing again?" Jack smiled thinly.

The security guard scratched his non-itchy head and smiled shyly.

"It's our first time talking, right? I don't know your name yet. My name is Asep, your name?" Ask the security guard while holding his hand.

"Jack, Jack Zitman..." Jack welcomed the security guard's hand.

"Zitmann? An unusual name for an Indonesian name. It's more like a superhero name."

"A lot of people talk like that. The name comes from the paper that lived in my baby basket with me when I was abandoned at the orphanage. Maybe it's the name my parents gave me." Obviously Jack. "How do I call you? Mr Asep? or Om Asep?"

"Call me Om only. I'm too old to call you sir." Om Asep laughs.

Then Jack stopped scavenging for trash and sat down in front of the school gate. Then the guard sat down next to him.

"By the way, I'm curious as to why you're scavenging for trash here. Well it's nothing, I'm happy if there's a scavenger scavenging plastic trash in front of the gate. It reduces the burden of my work as a gatekeeper, but I wonder why you scavenged the trash here? In TPA is a suitable place to look for plastic garbage."

The security guard was curious about the young man because he often saw him always in front of the gate. He is also a little suspicious if Jack has a bit of malicious intent towards his school as well as himself.

"Actually I have another reason. Well, it's hard to mention it..."

Jack played his hand and looked agitated when questioned like that.

"Just calm down, I'm a good listener. That's what my tongkrongan friends say. After all we are both men, must have a little similar to each other, such as problems, points of view, and others..." The security guard smiled meaningfully.

"Well, actually my reason is because of one person from this school. She's a student who went to school here..."

"Wait!" The security guard interrupted Jack's words.

"Don't tell me more. I understand it now. Ho ho ho, it's like a forbidden love novel. A young man from the lower classes who loves a princess from the royal family. Having been helped by the young man, the princess also loved the young man and eventually formed a circle of love between them. But the princess's family didn't approve of her and there was a conflict between loving her or forgetting her."

"He he he, what a beautiful story. But that's not how I relate to her..."

"Well, what do you keep on like? Is he your best friend?"

"I don't know his name and he doesn't know mine either. He is nothing to me now. You could say I just like him..." .

"Oh, so weird. But, young blood is really hot, well. The impossible is still being broken through strongly. You like him and want him to pay back, right? Then...Fight, young man!!!"

"All right, thank you..."

Then the security guard looked at his watch and he was a little surprised to see it.

"I also have to hurry. It would be embarrassing for me to see so many people as scavengers..."

"Wait, Jack boy!!!" Shouted the Security. Jack paused for a moment and the security guard threw something.

Then Jack caught a bottle of mineral water thrown by the security guard. This confused Jack.

"What's this for?" Ask Jack.

"Of course to drink!!! You must be thirsty scavenging a lot of garbage in front of the gate, right?"

"No, I refused. I'm not thirsty..." Jack wants to return the bottle.

"You have to accept it. This could be my gratitude all this time for cleaning up that plastic trash..."

"But..."

"Already, no buts. If you refuse it, I'll be hurt. I helped you and you helped me. Humans need to help, right? They were destined to be social beings who protected each other..."

There is little doubt in Jack's eyes, between accepting it or not. But he decided to accept it, because he was already very thirsty.

"Thank you..." Then Jack left with a bottle of mineral glass, a sack of garbage, and a scavenging stick.

He went to a tree not far from the gate and sat down under it. He drank the mineral water so quickly, like he was afraid that someone might snatch it from him. Then after it ran out, he squeezed the bottle very firmly and threw the bottle into his sack of trash.

After a while of waiting, the students from the school came out as well. They were wearing the high school alma mater because it was Thursday. Among the students who came out, there was one woman who caught Jack's attention. The woman had black, pony-style hair, an oval face with white skin, and eyes that captivated her when she looked at him. Seen from the look on his face he is a cheerful person, inclined to be childish. But many people around him chatted with him, showing that he was a person that many people liked.

"Miss..." Jack muttered when he saw it.

Jack got up from his seat and followed the woman he called Nina. Right, Jack switched professions from scavenger to stalker woman of his age. That's why he didn't go to TPA instead scavenged at the school gate where there was no valuable garbage at all. The goal is to follow the girl to her house.

Jack keeps his distance from being noticed by the woman and her friends. His crime was admitted to be most disturbing to others and in that city the law was so cruel that it could no longer be described in words. Therefore, Jack was careful to follow him so as not to get entangled in the laws of the city.

"Well I see you again..."

"Daddy..."

One by one the friends of the woman separated and lived one of her friends who eventually separated from her as well. Now the woman is walking home. Jack kept up with himself and remained careful not to get caught. He continued to follow until he arrived in front of the large house that was his home.

Jack's heart became calm mixed with rage. Even so, the goal of him following the woman had already been achieved. The real goal is to keep the woman from happening to him. So in his criminal act, there is a good motive that drives him. He will not harm her, he will help her if there is danger.

As Jack watches the woman into the house, his body is pulled by someone. Then the raw bogem crammed into his right temple and Jack cried out in pain.

"Oh, so this is the guy who's been stalking my girlfriend!!!!" Said a young man.

It was the young man who hit Jack to his right temple until he cried out in pain. The young man also claimed to be the girlfriend of the woman who made Jack surprised. The young man was not alone, he was along with the 2 people who were behind him, like an important person bodyguard.

"Nina never had a boyfriend! You just confess-me!!!" Jack shouted with his madness.

"Nina's? Who's Nina?" The young man wondered.

Then Jack pointed to the woman's house and the young man frowned.

"Eh, are you crazy? That woman is Jenny, not the Nina you mentioned. You're the wrong guy!"

Jack is shocked again by the young man's words, but Jack insists that he is Nina.

"Bro, we'd better hit his head so the crazy goes away."

"Well, Albert. That guy's gone crazy."

The other two heated up the young man to hit Jack. Hearing the words of his friends, the young man finally said, "i have repented to put down my cruel hand again. My cruelty has consumed the hearts of the guilty. But you're the one who disrupted my girlfriend's life and made her sleepless for a few days because of you..."

Then the young man approached Jack and let out a serious and cruel look. The gaze was directed at Jack's two eyeballs.

"Now it's time to teach a lesson to a bad boy...."