Under the Same Sky

Chapter 11

" Alya, later in the afternoon you go to the Supermarket to buy ingredients and a little snack less. This is well kept, I have written down a list of ingredients that you should buy." Mother told me. This morning, I was sitting at the dinner table with a paper while trying to draw another butterfly design for Mr. Hansel.

" Why not now, Mom?" my many.

" Later in the afternoon, if now there is fear of forgetfulness. I'll remember back."

said Mother.

" Why not the same mom? Later, if I forget to buy something, how? Difficult to go back and forth dong." I said.

" Said, you work in a famous textile company, making designs very carefully. This period of work should be the same Mom?" exclaim Mother again. I put my lips one inch ahead. Ih, Mom's jutek is out.

" Well, Alya who's going there?" my many.

" Same Nak Adit, let him drive." replied Mom quickly. I don't mind being told to drive alone from home to the Supermarket within half an hour. Coincidentally around my house there are only small stalls, there is also a supermarket far from home.

I looked at Mom suspiciously. Why lately has always been the name Bang Adit that Mom mentioned in front of me. Little Bang Adit, there was nothing Bang Adit, yesterday Bang Adit, now also Bang Adit.

" Why go with Bang Adit again, ma'am?" tanyaku carefully.

" Loh, why is it? It's good, same with him. You're the same age, so it's good to talk. Than you are the same driver and just keep quiet all the way. If the same Nak Adit, later can ask for his opinion as well right, to choose a good vegetable." continued Mother again.

I'm still staring at Mom full of probes. It's true what I just described. I'd better go with Bang Adit to the Supermarket later in the afternoon so I can ask for his opinion on good ingredients to buy. But, I suspect there is a hidden purpose to all this.

" Mommy didn't mean to mate Alya with Bang Adit, did she?" ask me in the end. Really, this question tickles me a lot.

" What if you're the same as Adit? The guy's good, Alya." Mom replied.

Mother looked at me sharply, which instantly made my guts suddenly shrivel. " Well, your boyfriend can pray with us?" ask Mom with a spicy tone.

" Mommy.. Why is that? Is not everything the same in God's eyes?" ask me with a disappointed tone.

" It's Alya, but you only have one family. And this is your family. Wherever you go, you'll come back here." said Mother again.

" Yes, Alya knows about the concept of the family, but the matter of who Alya lives with later, is there no right for Alya to look for himself, Mom? No need to be set up."

" You've grown up Alya, already know what you should do for your own future. How do you take care of this business and this house, how is the position of a mother who only has daughters. If you understand all that, you can understand what we have to do, Alya." She said slowly, but firmly. I lowered my head.

Father's status as the owner of the company he started from zero until now has developed well and stable. And the amount of land owned by the family for generations in this village.

While Mom, I know Mom felt like a failure as a wife and a mother, who could only have two daughters, she said, without sons as successors of the company-the family lineage of the male side. Throughout her life as Father's wife, Mother struggled to defend herself from the insinuations of the surrounding community over her shortcomings. Actually, the other family did not consider it a failure for Mother. However, Mother often felt she had to do something else to cover up her shortcomings. Active in the family and community activities in religious matters as one of the ways he did. His life seemed only to do religious activities.

" Mark is not what I thought. He is very open with cultural differences. All this time he had always accepted the state of Alya, that Alya had a different culture to him. He never forbade Alya from praying according to Alya's habits all this time." I'm still trying to give you an understanding of Mark's situation, of who Mark really is.

" Have you ever talked to him about our family?" ask Mother.

I shook my head softly, I admit, I never talked about my family to Mark. I only told him who and how my family was in outline, but did not tell him the questions that were in it.

" Life isn't just about love, Alya. There are many problems that we have to face in the future." said Mother last time before leaving the dining room, leaving me alone again.

I stared at the paper before me, thinking of Mark again. Sadness began to creep in my chest. Why can't I ever talk about Mark with my parents? Why do they seem to close their eyes that I have a lover who has accompanied my days in Singapore since these two years? Mom and Dad never asked or talked about who I was related to. They seemed to assume that I had no partner for the past few years.