What a Beautiful Divorce

66. Not Home?

Prapto and Nimo looked at Mr. Ziko. The old man then turned off the engine of his car. "Calm down, Prapto, Nimo. We don't bother him, so don't worry,” said Mr. Ziko.

But Prapto and Nimo cannot calm down. They immediately prepared themselves in case the tiger came attacking. They had held up their respective knives, which were in the pockets of the uniform.

"If we die in this forest, Arini and Pinaka will definitely be very sad, Boss," Nimo said, in Endonesa.

"Of course, Nimo. But now we have to focus, because the one in front of us is a big tiger, which can tear your neck in just one swing of his arm." answered Prapto, also in Endonesa.

"Hey! you guys talking about me? Why not speak English?" ask Mr. Ziko, smiling.

"No, Sir. We talked about how beautiful the tiger's stripes were" said Nimo, who Prapto answered with a nod. They don't laugh for fear.

"Look!" exclaimed Mr. Ziko while pointing with his head towards the tiger earlier.

Now beside the tiger stood a man wearing the same uniform as them, but it was black. The man then nodded towards the car. Prapto, Nimo, and Mr. Ziko returned the nod. Then they saw how the man in the black uniform patted the tiger on the back, then the tiger walked behind him.

"What the fuck, Mr Ziko?" ask Nimo who has returned to English.

"I think that person is one of the natives of this Amazon forest, Nimo," replied Mr. Ziko. “I've heard stories about one of the tribes here who was friendly with tigers, leopards, and other large animals.”

Prapto scrunched his face. "That guy wasn't a forest researcher or an archaeologist, sir? He's wearing a uniform like us."

Mr. Ziko shook his head. "Tribes in this amazon there are those who wear clothes like city people and village people, Prapto. The man was carrying a pack of cloth, it was likely that he was a native who had just finished hunting."

Mr. Ziko revived the engine of his car and continued on his way.

"Have you ever heard of one of these Amazon tribes called Satere-Mawe?" asked Mr. Ziko, after turning to Prapto.

Prapto and Nimo shook their heads.

Mr. Ziko continued. "They have a tradition of 'bullet ant gloves.' You know bullet ants?"

Prapto and Nimo shook their heads again. Mr. Ziko then explained.

For the Mawe tribe, a man must experience the worst pain offered by the forest. And for that, men who have reached a certain age must insert their arms into the gloves of bullet ants to feel the sting of ants that are three centimeters long.

Bullet ants are the ant species with the most painful sting of any insect. As the name implies, this ant is said to have a sting that feels like a bullet shot. The bullet ant sting is described as extremely painful, the pain lasting up to 24 hours.

For the Mawe ritual, they drowned hundreds of bullet ants in a natural tranquilizer, causing them to faint. These bullet ants are then woven into a glove made of leaves, with the stinger pointing towards the inside of the glove.

When the ants regained consciousness, these gloves were placed in the hands of the young men who underwent the ritual. The young man then had to wear bullet ant gloves for five minutes and hundreds of bullet ants would sting him repeatedly.

After the bullet ant gloves were removed, the young man would usually experience pain and trembling for hours. They may even have muscle paralysis.

To pass the ritual completely, boys like Mawe have to go through the practice 20 times over months, even years.

The grueling test is to prepare the boys for the traditional Mawe life, where they will face all the dangers of the jungle as hunters and warriors of their tribe.

"You want to be a resident of the Mawe tribe? If you want, let me take you there," said Mr. Ziko, closing the explanation.

The jeep driven by Mr. Ziko arrived at a vast black land. Not far to their right was a small building made of planks, and from the small building appeared a tall fat man wearing a wide hat. Mr. Ziko, Prapto, and Nimo approach him.

They shake hands and the man introduces himself as Lucio, the man who manages the taking and selling of terra petra land.

"It has to be managed" Lucio said, gesturing with his hand to reject Prapto's offer of cigarettes. "If not managed, too many greedy humans will take this terra petra land as they please without thinking about the state of nature. Don't make nature angry."

The fat Lucio then stood up. He pointed to the vast black expanse of land in front of them. "The extraction of this land is also limited to any certain period of time, because it must wait for the natural process first to regenerate terra petra. Indeed, terra petra land can spread, but if its acquisition is not restricted, terra petra can be depleted as well."

Lucio then took Mr. Ziko, Prapto, and Nimo to where their terra petra order was being loaded. There were many men loading terra petra land into five trucks.

"My friends will finish loading the entire truck first, only later will they be brought out of the forest. While waiting for him, you can take a look at this beautiful Amazon rainforest," Lucio said, smiling.

Nimo whispered to Prapto who was beside him, "The way he advised us to look around this scary Amazon forest is like suggesting an excursion, Boss."

Prapto. "But the advice is good, Nimo. I want to see the arapaima fish that Mr. Ziko said earlier."

They also pay attention to Lucio. Mr. Ziko then kept his promise to look at the habitat of arapaima fish that can reach four point five meters in length. "I'll take you on an excursion in the Amazon forest before leaving Brazil" Mr. Ziko said.

After about fifteen minutes of travel, Mr. Ziko stopped his car. He goes down and invites Prapto and Nimo to follow him into a small road that leads to a swamp. At the edge of the swamp, Mr. Ziko took the dead fish he had provided from the house and threw it to the edge of the swamp surface.

For a while, the dead fish floated, until soon Prapto and Nimo gaped at how the surface of the swamp had instantly turned dark, then a large fish appeared to eat the floating fish in a very fast movement.

The large fish resembles arowana fish with brownish silver scales. "That's arapaima, cool, right?" said Mr. Ziko, smiling in admiration. The arapaima fish appear to swim for a while and then dive back into the swamp.

"That's great, sir," said Nimo.

"That was not the greatest arapaima yet, Nimo," said Mr. Ziko. "And also, there are still many other large animals in this vast forest. Come on, let's go to the car to eat some food!"

***

Mr. Ziko, Prapto, sir, and Nimo returned to the terra petra loading place in the afternoon when Prapto signed some documents given by Lucio first before they left for the port to accompany the land transport truck.

After making sure the terra petra land was loaded onto the ship, and after Prapto signed some more documents, they returned to Pak Ziko's residence.

"You're not resting?" ask Mr. Ziko, to Prapto and Nimo. Then he sat on the terrace.

"No, Sir. We are listening to the singing of insects at night" Prapto replied.

Nimo smile. “Tonight we want to hear the insect singing longer because tomorrow we will leave this cool rainforest to return to the village."

Mr. Ziko frowned when he heard Nimo say that tomorrow they would return to the village. "Reynaldi Green hasn't informed you yet?"

Quickly, Prapto's intelligence could immediately grasp the intent of Mr. Ziko's question. He straightened his seat and asked, "Isn't our day home tomorrow, Mr Ziko?"

Mr. Ziko sighed. "The Green Reynaldi base," he said, shaking his head. "Call him now, Prapto. Let him explain to you."