The Secret Love Story (End)
New Sheet
If love doesn't work, set yourself free...
Let your heart again spread its wings and fly into the wild again ..
Remember that you may find love and lose it..
When love dies, you don't have to die with it...
The strongest people are not those who always win.
Except those who remain steadfast when they fall
~ Love The Great, Kahlil Gibran ~
I returned to Singapore and continued my delayed studies until it was over. No more than five months later I finally completed my thesis and obtained my master's degree two months later. I went back to Indonesia and found a job there. And after a long time running around, I finally got a job at a Public Accountant Office in Jakarta.
I breathed in the afternoon air in the glass window of my study facing the highway. The air is not so clean as in Sragen, but at least the air this time is still better when compared to the usual Jakarta air. I picked up my embroidered phone. Almost every day I get a call from the same person, my mom. Mama knew my relationship had ended with Sabrina a while ago, so she thought that the reason I chose to go to work in Jakarta was because of Sabrina. But, actually the reason I left was not because of that, but rather because I still wanted to feel a new atmosphere.
Mom Calling :
"Assalamu'alaikum Son...,"
Calling of Erlangga :
"Wa'alaikum salam ma.
Mom Calling :
"How are you doing, son?"
Calling of Erlangga :
"Okay, how's mama?" asked Erlangga who was not directly answered by his mother. Erlangga heard her mother talking to someone else on her phone. "Ma.mama." asked Erlangga.
Mom Calling :
"Huh..iya son, why?" Mama Erlangga asked instead of answering Erlangga's question.
Calling of Erlangga :
"Ih,, mama, how the hell is ma. Not that mama was the nelfon Egha, it is now the mama who even ngacuhin Egha. Mama's busy doing it anyway?" ask Erlangga.
Mom Calling :
"Sorry boy, mama is busy cooking with her new friend.", said her mother.
Calling of Erlangga :
"Well, if you're busy making phone calls Egha ma...,"
Mom Calling :
"Yes, my mom misses your voice, son. Mom also wants to know you the same....,"
Calling of Erlangga :
"Stop...Egha knows where my mother's talking is going. Surely at the end of the day mama wants to recognize me with a new theme mama who is fun to cook with the mama right. Who is he, mother's daughter, father's daughter papa, or... Arghhhh..already anyway Egha does not want contact point..," said Erlangga who then immediately turned off the phone.
Erlangga knew he was disrespectful to his mother, but how else he was tired of his mother always betrothed him with her children, the children of his papa office meeting, or whatever else. Erlangga does not want to deny or not grant the wishes of his parents, only he is not ready and not ready to think about marriage.
*****
Mahdi parked his car in a field near Ara's residence. He intends to meet Ara as promised some time ago. The girl asked him to meet about something important that Ara wanted to tell her. He knocked on the door of the small rented house. And out came a girl who wore a green channel dress toska floral motifs and accompanied by plain jibab with matching colors. He opened the door and smiled at the person behind the door.
"Assalamu'alaikum., ." said Mahdi.
"Wa'alaikum salam Mas..," said Ara. "Enter mas..," he said while giving distance to Mahdi to enter the living room. He opened the door wide so as not to cause slander if he and Mahdi were only two in the house.
Ara provided drinks and some small snacks and placed them on the living room table. He sat across from the Mahdi. Mahdi drank a drink that Ara had prepared for him.
"Em...what do you want to talk about Ra?" ask Mahdi later.
"Oh.it.it.that's.my memory loss problem, mas...," said Ara with a little hesitation.
"Just a little bit. I remember some of those past memories. Slowly those memories came into my memory. However, when I want to uncover everything that exists then everything will come back all together and I do not find the bright spot. Even though there was a little more mas, a little more I could find out everything, about all the people I knew during my lecture, but suddenly when my memory leads to one memory with someone, I know someone, I still can't be sure who that person is" explained Ara.
"So, the conclusion is that you've got some of your past memories, but you've lost some of the ones about one person?" mahdi and Ara asked with a nod. "Em..If you may know, have you remembered me too, Ra?" ask Mahdi with an anxious tone.
"Did you still feel deep tightness when you tried to remember that person?" ask Mahdi again. And Ara nodded back.
"Mas, don't want you to feel pain again Ra, so I think you should....,"
"I want to remember him. I want to remember everything about that guy. I know how much I'd be tormented if I tried too hard to remember it, but I still remember it...,"
"Ra, why would you want to remember everything if there was everything you remember that would only hurt you?"
"I want to make peace with the past mas," said Ara firmly. And Mahdi could no longer say anything for the firmness of Ara's answer other than to agree with the girl's request.
"All right, I'll help you. There's one method you can try to get your memory back,"
"What is mas?"
"Through optogenetics. There are acquaintances of doctors who master that method in medicine. Did you try it?" ask Mahdi. And Ara nodded her head.
"Well, I'll let you know after I ask my friend the schedule for the therapy..,"
"Okay, thank you.." said Ara.
"Why should you thank Ra, you think of me like everyone else." said Mahdi.
"Eh..meaning mas?" asked Ara with a frowning sign she did not understand.
"Em..mak..meaning...ah.forget it..later...someday you will also understand..." said Mahdi.
Ara still did not understand the meaning of the words of the man before her. However, he confirmed all the words of the man while nodding his head in response. Mahdi also invites Ara to eat outside so that Ara does not bother to prepare lunch. Ara also agreed that the invitation was because he also needed some items that must be bought.
It was late afternoon when Mahdi said goodbye to return to Surabaya. While Ara still wanted to go around looking for her necessities given that today was Saturday, so she could go home a bit late to find what she needed.
"You really don't want to turn back?" ask Mahdi.
"Yes, really. I have a need for a moment. Later I can go home alone," Ara said without telling Mahdi that she actually still wants to buy some of her necessities before returning home. He did not tell the Mahdi his purpose because he did not want to trouble the man. After all he also did not want the man until more nights to Surabaya.
Ara walked towards the location where she used to buy her necessities. He walked from one shelf to another in a supermarket. However, he suddenly met a middle-aged woman who was holding his head while pushing her stroller filled with groceries. Ara finally approached the middle-aged woman.
"Ah, mom...mom's okay?" ask Ara later.
The middle-aged woman then raised her face which had been lowered now looking at the young girl.
"Em..my head is a little dizzy, deck..," said the middle-aged woman later.
"Did it hurt so much? Does your mother need my help?" tanya Ara who was then greeted with a nod by the middle-aged woman while assuring her.
The middle-aged woman also smiled in a knot but was invisible to Ara. Some time ago he thought that he might faint here. However, suddenly there was a young girl who was willing to help him. The young girl sat the young woman down on a chair and then she took over the middle-aged woman's groceries and paid for the middle-aged woman's groceries with the money the middle-aged woman gave her that age before. After that, he paid for his needs with his own money. After finishing everything he returned to the middle-aged woman who was sitting resting on the chair with her temples still massaging to relieve dizziness in her head.
"Mom, do you still feel dizzy?" asked Ara while returning the change over the middle-aged woman's groceries. The middle-aged woman nodded her head then to answer Ara's question.
"Do you want me to take you to the hospital?" asked Ara and the woman then nodded her head again while giving her answer.
Ara stopped the taxi and helped the middle-aged woman to drive her to the hospital. The middle-aged woman received treatment later in the ER and asked Ara to help her contact her family. After a call to the middle-aged woman's family, she returned to the patient's bed that the middle-aged woman was in.
"Mother, I called my husband and he said he was on his way and was coming soon" explained Ara.
The middle-aged woman who has received a little help is now better than before even though she is still not fully recovered.
"All right, thank you, son. You have helped me and I have troubled you with a lot," the middle-aged woman said.
"It's okay ma'am, I happen to be near my mother, so I can help a little" Ara said. "Em...in that case, because the mother's husband will soon arrive, I say yes ma'am was afraid too late," explained Ara. "Bless my mother put it on the nightstand ya ma'am. Excuse me first..,"
"Yes son, once again I thank you very much...,"
"Yes mom, I hope you get well soon. Assalamu'alaikum.," said Ara while bowing her body saluting the middle-aged lung woman who was lying on the hospital bed.
"Wa'alaikum salam..," said the middle-aged woman with a smile that never escaped when she saw Ara.
*****
