Women of Choice
Persist
***
I saw the sound of azaan beginning to be heard from the nearest mosque. Mica opened her eyes which still felt heavy. As for Zafran, the husband was no longer beside him.
Mica tried to dispel the drowsiness that was still attacking her. Then he forced himself out of bed and opened the door to the bathroom.
Seeing the door of Ms. Siti's room, her mother-in-law was still tightly closed. Signs the person inside has not woken up.
Have not had time to complete the ritual wudhunya from the direction of the room has been heard whining Icha. Like other small children, Icha also every time he woke up from his sleep sometimes began with a cry and a bit fussy.
Mica immediately finished her activities in the bathroom and rushed to the baby so that Icha's cry did not disturb her mother-in-law who was still in the room.
Just now Mica's footsteps will enter the kitchen space there already stands the figure of Bu Siti who is holding Icha.
"You, right, now have Mica's child! Should be able to learn more skillfully in order to take care of this child. Do not get used to catfish like snails," said Bu Siti ketus.
"Yes, Mom. Here Icha carried with her mom, yuk!" invite Mica to try to reach her son who is still in the arms of the mother-in-law.
"Don't want Icha don't want to be with Mama, Icha wants to be with Dad," the innocent boy refused to shake his mother's hand.
"No, look! This is because the child is not taken care of by a mother. So close to dad. Until he woke up, what his father was looking for. In fact, most children are sticky to the mother, not even to the father." Bu Siti immediately said a lot of cornering Mica.
"What's this, still dawn, how come, it's on the storm?" Zafran, who had just entered a new house back from the mosque, asked quietly.
"That's your wife. From the first marriage with you until you already want to have two children catapult disease is not lost. In the bathroom, it was almost twenty minutes. No hurry" replied Ms. Siti, handing Icha in her arms to Zafran.
While Mica immediately passed to the room to immediately fulfill the obligation to perform dawn prayers. At the end of his prayer, still with a mask attached to his body Mica then rested on the sebahadah pour out all the burden of the mind of people who can never appreciate his feelings.
For only the Almighty can know the feelings of his heart when it is not appreciated and always considered one-eyed by those around him.
"You who are patient, yes, do not take the heart of all the talk of the Mother," consoled Zafran rubbing gently the head of the wife.
Mica smilingly nodded her head towards her husband with tears still soaking her cheeks.
"Not many thoughts. Pity our son who is still here" said Zafran. His palm rubbed gently on his wife's stomach.
Mica opened her face and folded and put it back. After that he rushed to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for his little family.
Mica started frying some of the bloated fish she had spiced up yesterday afternoon that was stored in the refrigerator. While frying the fish he made kale saute and Zafran's favorite sambal terasi.
Finished completing his work in the kitchen and Mica brought all his cooking to be served at the dining table. Because he felt very sticky and felt sultry after a few hours standing in front of the stove. Mica went to the bathroom to get back to cleaning up. While Icha he bathed first and now is playing with his father.
After changing into Mica's clothes then stepped into the dining room. There were Zafran, Icha and her mother-in-law.
Mica's eyes widened when she found the dining table everything that was held had changed the menu. There is gudeg jogja, a bowl of meat rendang, potato parchment and various other appendages such as ati ampela chili ijo and capcay meatballs.
Mica let out a breath that felt very heavy. Either where now all the dishes that he served and had been hard-earned almost took for two hours he struggled in the kitchen earlier.
Zafran shook his head.
"This is all from Mella you know, she had deliberately ordered this food all for us," explained Bu Siti smiling satisfiedly towards Mica who was still fixated.
"If you find a wife that should be good at helping the economy of the husband not the one who even added the burden of her husband. Let's guarantee the family nutrition." Bu Siti's voice was deliberately slightly hardened so that Mica felt insinuated with her words earlier.
"Gazzy ... There's parchment. I like the pedal, Grandma," cried Icha. His index finger pointed towards a plate that contained some of the contents of a ready-to-eat parchment.
"Here, Ma, we have a big meal" Zafran told Mica, who was still watching.
Zafran called it a big meal because they rarely get to enjoy such a special menu.
"But, this is only for the three-person portion of the doang, you know. If for 4 people it seems not enough," between Bu Siti glanced at Mica with her eyes.
Hearing the mother-in-law's words, Mica gulped and said, "Yes, Mom, it's okay for me to eat alone in the kitchen" she replied, trying to strengthen her heart.
"Nothing, right, can be divided so that we are all flat," said Zafran. His hand received a plate that had been filled with white rice that had been taken by his mother. While Icha was fed by Bu Siti from his own plate.
"No need. Let your wife do all her work first in the kitchen. I saw that the former she cooked is still messy and in all the dirty," denied Bu Siti. His hands were skillful in taking the meat shawl and mug onto his son's plate and his own plate.
"All the time, you used to dirty clothes yesterday in the washroom. Mom is old, it is not strong if you have to wash dirty clothes," continued Bu Siti without hesitation.
"But, ma'am, Mica now has a history of allergies that can't smell the pungent smell of chemicals like detergents or floor-picking liquids and the like." Zafran tried to explain the health condition of his wife who did have a history of allergies and breathing.
"Don't be spoiled like that, lah, just like the son of the sultan," said Bu Siti scattering the tip of her lips.
Mica rushes to the kitchen so she no longer listens to all the chatter between the child and the mother. Her heart was torn with grief every time she heard the words that came out of her mother-in-law's lips.
As if Mica has no self-esteem every face with Bu Siti who continues to corner her and always glorify the figure of Malla who does have a good career and a much more established economy.
***
In his room, sitting on the edge of his bed, Zafran thought hard how to create peace between his own mother and his beloved wife.
The man did not get to the heart if he had to see Mica who was willing to accept his shortcomings, instead had to receive bad treatment from her own mother.
Finally, Zafran took the initiative to invite the woman who had given birth to it to the usual study place he visited once a week. Luckily, Bu Siti accepted and accepted the invitation of her son without coercion.
In the study presented, the ustaz conveys a verse that more or less means the following:
“And those who hurt those who believe and believe without their faults, they have borne lies and sins."(QS. Al-Ahzab verse:58)
In Zafran's heart there is a mountain of hope for his mother to be able to realize if all this time the attitude and speech of the old woman has often incised a wound in the heart of Mica, as his wife.
