Waiting Morning

Sea ghost vs Sundel Bolong

The last night was at the Indonesia-Malaysia border. Two soldiers were sitting on a bench guarding the Sebatik Island lighthouse enjoying the end of duty before tomorrow they were handed over to the other members, and soon they can enjoy family time. A time that was very much awaited by all the soldiers who had fought in the task of the country.

“ Yes, 14 days.” Yoseph shouted as he clenched his hands in the sign of freedom.

“ Ordinary aja kalee” Akbar responds with a flat expression.

“ Brother is not happy with 14 days leave?”

Akbar shrugged his shoulders, “ciye..who wanted to kopdar the same soulmate” goda Akbar nudged Yoseph's shoulder.

Joseph kissed a picture of a beautiful woman and then placed it on his chest, imagining a beautiful meeting after 8 months of not meeting each other.

“ Wouldn't be enough if just kissed tuh foto” Akbar chuckles.

“ Brother is not kangen the same sister?”

Akbar answered by raising his eyebrows, then he continued his sketch while humming Richard Marx's right here waiting song.

“ Who is he bang?” glance at a sketch of a hooded woman .

The image of a hijab-wearing woman who always turns her back on the subject, always and always is what Akbar described.

“ Why is a brother just a picture of a woman who always turns her back on her brother?, hm... he is not a sundel bolong right?” Yoseph chuckles.

Mats,

Suddenly Joseph's forehead received a pencil caress that Akbar was holding.

“Auwww..” Yoseph grinned as he rubbed his eel.

“ Aja, she is a woman who makes me pound at first sight and fall in love in the next meeting”

“ Yes...times the sea ghost*dapetnya sundel bolong! Yoseph.

*Sea ghost is the name for the marine army.

“ You look at this bang, this..ini.and this” Yoseph pointed his index finger at some sketches that Akbar made. “ Everything is just the back of a girl bang! Hih..” Yoseph while taking a shot imagining if it was really a sundel.

Akbar only gave an answer with a casual smile, without words. Until Joseph could not wait to tear down the secret fortress of the heart of Syaiful Akbar.

Akbar pulled both ends of his lips into a very charming and charismatic smile.

“ Who is that woman bang? “ call Yoseph getting curious.

“Hm..” Akbar sighed for a moment, then threw it away slowly. It was like it was claustrophobic to tell her bitter memories of her love story. But silence would not help him avoid his interrogation Yoseph. Moreover, Yoseph is typical of people who do not give up easily to find out about something.

" Come bang, tell me" Yoseph said, assuring him that this time he was really curious. Highlight the eyes of Joseph who gave the assurance that he could be responsible for being trustworthy.

" Bang..." Joseph tried to convince once again with a slightly soft tone and with a smoothed tempo unlike the Ambon people in general.

Akbar put down the pencil he used to draw, then he closed his eyes with a smile imagining the face of ayu he had longed for. Imagine a hijab-wearing woman at the end of the sea running towards her.

Then the ayu girl walked around her body, although she did not touch Akbar but her presence was really felt.

With a smile on Akbar's lips, he started his story with his eyes closed.

“ She is the woman who is always waiting for me, being special with the endless secret passage”

“ Brother's intent.” Joseph moved his eyes more and more confused.

The words that Joseph spoke this time brought his delusion to a halt, and forced Akbar to open his eyes.

“Yes, she's the girl I've always wanted to meet every time I go back to Semarang”.

“ You mean brother, you have never met him despite living in the same city?”

“ What is the difficulty bang, stay at home, take the road, and apply, get it done!”.

Akbar did not respond to Joseph's rant this time. It is not as simple as Joseph said.

“ I'm sure bang, with the look of a beautiful brother plus this uniform makes brother more dashing and whoever his future father-in-law will not reject your application bang”

Yoseph's long statement like that was only answered Akbar with a shrug of his shoulders and hands.

Joseph approached and saw the sketch again, with a name written on the lower right corner.

“ M-A-R-Y-A-M T-A-B-E-E-N-A” Yoseph spell it.

A sweet hijab girl named Maryam Tabeena is able to fill the days of a Saiful Akbar, who until now has not known his existence.

Although their house is only less than 1 km away, and can be reached in just 20 minutes. But fate has not revealed the reason, distance and time invites them to enjoy each waiting verse until it finally ends in a sweet paragraph in the form of meetings.

“ I'm more curious about the face of the sundel bolong girl you are bang” ledek Yoseph who thick his Maluku accent.

Bucc,

A scroll of sketch paper landed on Joseph's lips.

“ Once again you say sundel bolong, I swear to let you meet for real!”

“ Amit-amit” Yoseph knocks on the eels and tables that are nearby alternately repeatedly, “ brother meet where the hell is the same tu girl?”

“ She's my underclassman at SMU”

“ Oh, gita love SMU story, like Galih and Ratna who like to mojok in school cafeteria!”

“ We are different schools, we are so close when we represent the school as ambassadors in raimuna activities. Last time I met at a jamboree camp, I had graduated High School and she was in 3rd grade at the end of graduation. Exactly a month before I attended my education in Surabaya”

“Trus, she doesn't know your feelings? Didn't know you were a Marine?”

“Tahu, he knows” very well, Akbar got out of his seat and walked towards the corner of the lighthouse building and leaned his back.

Folded his hands together.

“ Teruuuus..” by Joseph.

“ After my education is finished and the bond of service in Cilandak, I visit his house. Intentions want to make a surprise, eh me who made shocked. I thought it would be a wonderful way of meeting me with Beena”

“ She already has a boyfriend?” Joseph walked up to Akbar. Akbar shook his head, though,

“i did not meet Beena because she was studying in Bandung”.

“ Brother does not ask for a phone number or place of boarding is?”

“ I met his father, and he did not want to give his HP number with the reason to let Beena focus on college”

“ Brother rejected his father?”

“ Not also, he is a friendly person and even gave me a lot of support including when I convey my seriousness to his daughter. His father told me to come again when Beena was done college”.

“ Continue...continue...” Yoseph was curious.

“ Three years after my first visit to Beena's house, precisely after my assignment in Papua. I stopped by his house, even I still use PDL complete”.

“ Brother meet?”

Akbar shook his head and remembered the events of that time.