What a Beautiful Divorce

49. The Pinaka House

"Those three boys are so nice, Nimo. They gave us enough fish. You didn't forget to bring it, did you?" ask Prapto to Nimo, while sprinkling chicken food.

"There, Boss. We'll cook. Mother also gave the spice so that we can eat delicious after taking care of the garden later,” replied Nimo. "Boss, please open the article on how to grow this Japanese vegetable. I'll take the seedlings to the building's equipment."

"Yes, Nimo. All right, please bring my cigarettes to the front desk of the kitchen, yeah."

Prapto continued to step into the dairy house and brought the pair of cows outside. "You're getting fatter" said Prapto smiling. “Well, after breakfast, play around the garden!"

The pair of cows sounded as if they were obeying Prapto's words.

"This, Boss," said Nimo, as soon as he arrived near Prapto.

Prapto lit his cigarette and then scrolled the phone. "Here, Nimo." Prapto showed an article on how to grow Japanese vegetables on his phone screen.

After reading it for a while, Nimo nodded. "Come, boss, let's get started!" bring him.

They then planted Japanese vegetables in a part of the garden adjacent to the land barrier wall.

Natural agriculture does not use tillage methods such as plowing and hoeing. Prapto and Nimo simply dug a hole and planted vegetable seeds.

***

"Finally it's done, too, boss," said Nimo, who had just put two hot cups of coffee on the table.

"Yes, Nimo. Hopefully the seeds of Japanese vegetables will flourish later."

"It looks like it's going to rain in the afternoon, boss. Vegetable seeds will be happy. Oh yes, Boss. Father's going to harvest rice tomorrow. Boss wanna come? Later after finishing threshing rice, we can bring the rapids to be sown in the back land that we will make rice fields."

"I'll come, Nimo. Later we make the irrigation of the rice fields as well as making a fish pond, how?"

"Good idea, Boss. Let us buy it to the Village Chief later. He has a lot of ornamental fish" Nimo said.

"Yes, we'll just buy it to Mr. Oscar. Come on, let's fry the fish that those three best friends gave us, Nimo!" bring Prapto.

"Come, Boss! I'm hungry too" Nimo said.

***

At half-time three in the afternoon, Prapto paddled his bike to the library. In addition to wanting to read books related to river fish, of course, he wanted to see the sweet face of Pinaka.

Prapto entered the library after parking his bike. In the library, children and mothers seem to be engrossed in reading. Prapto looked around to find Pinaka's whereabouts.

"What book are you looking for, Mom?" tanya Pinaka, who had just finished explaining the contents of the book to Kinan, her son Bu Ani.

Prapto. "I thought you were in your room, Pinaka. I was looking for a book about river fishes" answered Prapto, smiling.

"Tumbens?" pinaka Sahut.

Prapto. "Yesterday I lost fishing to Lapen and his two best friends.”

"Before a minute, Mas, I'll find him" said Pinaka. "Sit down first."

Prapto took the bench and shifted it to the front of Pinaka's desk. Shortly after, Pinaka came with three books.

"Try to choose. I'll go to the kitchen for a second" Pinaka said. Then he entered his room.

"Please eat, Mas." Pinaka put down a glass of coffee and a glass of tea and a plate of black fries. "I was cooking egg ketchup fries, Mas, Ms. Harni who taught me the recipe."

Prapto. He took the fries and ate them. "Lezat, Pinaka. By the way, I have never seen this menu in Jakarta. You ever seen that?"

"Thank God it's delicious" Pinaka said. "No, Mas. It feels like there are quite a lot of stalls and restaurants in Jakarta that I visited, but I never saw this menu. Miss Harni said, this is her own menu."

Prapto laughs after chewing a soy sauce egg potato. "It turns out, in addition to being good at storytelling, Ms. Harni is great at cooking too, yes," Prapto said, laughing.

"Don't be so hard, Mom. Miss Harni is here" Pinaka said in a soft voice.

Prapto laughed while nodding. "Week tomorrow you're home, Pinaka?" tanyakanya.

"Yes, Mas. But not overnight at home. I'll be gone in the morning and back here in the afternoon."

"Why?"

"Father and Mother tomorrow, very early in the morning will go out of town to attend the wedding of a friend of Dad's," Pinaka replied.

"I'm coming, yeah. I owe it to your house" said Prapto. He then bribed the fries again.

"Okay, Mum. What debt, Mas?" ask Pinaka wonder.

"When we went to Jakarta, you didn't come home, we went to my house. Well, this time I'm not going home and going to your house" explained Prapto.

Pinaka laughs. "Mas Prapto is there" he said. "I'm planning on going home in two days, Mom."

"Alright, Pinaka. Tomorrow I will also help Nimo's father harvest rice first."

Pinaka smiled sweetly, as he watched Prapto start reading books with a serious face.

***

The next day, after feeding their cattle, Prapto and Nimo immediately cycled to Mr. Dwipangga's house to help Nimo's father harvest the rice.

Prapto was given a serrated scythe by Mr. Dwipangga. He said, "Do not go hard to beat him, Nak Prapto. This scythe is very sharp. Later after the rice that you sickle is full where you put it, just take it to the harvest storage building. Once everything's done, we'll threshen it later."

"Well, Mr. Dwipangga," answered Prapto.

Mr. Dwipangga returned to his rice field, where Nimo and Bu Kinasih had started to sow rice. Prapto stared at the cloudy sky for a moment and lit his cigarette before stepping into the rice field.

The morning weather was cool, because the sun had not been visible since morning. The harvest of rice Mr. Dwipangga has gone as far as sixty percent when it is noon. They then stopped for a while to eat.

After everything sat on the mat held by Nimo, from the garden door Arini appeared to come carrying several boxes of food. Arini then sat down next to Bu Kinasih after experiencing him and Mr. Dwipangga.

"It's from Mom, Ms. Kinasih," Arini said as she opened her food box.

"Tell our thanks to Bu Ina and Mr. Uto, yes. Come on, come eat, Arini!" Take Miss Kinasih.

Arini smiled. After smiling at Nimo for a glance, he ate.

While eating, Prapto imagines himself later also invited to eat by Pinaka's parents and he might chat with Pinaka's father who is a businessman. But, a question suddenly popped up inside Prapto's head.

'What would I answer if Pinaka's parents asked me if I was single or a widower?' ask Prapto to himself. 'But, it was unlikely that they would ask me directly, maybe they had not even thought of asking about it. I don't know ... If I'm really asked, is it hard to answer?'