[play]
a very sunny morning. maybe yinglong, the responding dragon, had run out of breath to create the cloud after the blew of merapi mountain. vulcan, the roman's god of fire, seemed like been busy these few days. beaten out thunderbolts for jupiter and weapons for mars, down at olympus. i guessed. muted tvone coverage on merapi eruption. few more eruption happened yesterday. may God blessed all of us.
dashed on the red sofa. stretched my arms. moist wind blew from the window. lit a cigarette with a purple cricket lighter. two bottles of pulpy orange and unfinished chitatos sprawled on the table, leftover from last night. sinked a cheese bun into the coffee and took a bite. cheese and coffee. tfsu.
last night i was able to met a proper family to elongated the infaq which had been trusted to me last ramadhan. i almost forgot about it. there were still Rph 1,380,000 with me, worth around RM460. it was an ordinary family of six. an old widow who stayed with her daughter whom also a widow. her daughter got a ten years old daughter, and they were taking care of three more orphan. the poor orphans were her grandchildren from her other son who died in an accident.
when i asked her about how she manage to support the family, she said her late husband left a tent that she rent it out for function or such in her village. the rent was about Rph1,000,000, but then she had to paid for the truck and the guys that did the installation and de-installation, ended she would got around Rph 300,000. that is if nothing happened to the truck. if the truck driver went stupid and run out the traffic, she had to paid for the police summon. if somehow the truck need repair, she had to add in. most of the time, she would get less.
her family normal menu was salted fish with rice and sambal, which she offered me during my visit. sometimes if nobody rent the tent, they would be blissful with tahu and sambal. luckily she got the house from her late mother, so she don't have to pay for the rent. daughter mother daughter.. where the heck were the man in this family? and last night, i made them a millionaire. ;) may God blessed my generous friend and gave him more rezki. i had to moved away my head to hide my watery eyes from watching her bow and kneel to thank me, as if i was an angel sent by the God. took her hands away from my foot and told her it was not from me. i just the mediator.
leaned back on the red sofa. gotta move my lazy ass to get a bath. it already 8.23am. venus strangely still tag on grey. black coffee in a black cup. the refreshing aroma of the kopi lampung filled the room.
[pause]
a long time friend called for a coffee and a chat at kopitiam. my project schedule changed to 07:00pm. venus uranus stucked in a weekly meeting. locked my laptop and headed downstairs. stop-over at seventh floor to dropped my timesheet. pushed the button of the lift and waited. 'being at the right time at the right place' is a survival skill needed in jakarta. if you miscalculated the time, even the lift would had a traffic jam. the lift opened for the third time, and it still full. i had to play the game with their rules. the lift opened, going upstair, i hopped in. and it was not only me who used the same strategy. almost nobody went out when the lift opened at almost every floor, until it reached groundfloor. sigh.
arrived at koptiam, ordered a coffee. the waiter asked whether i like a black coffee, but i reply that i need a combination of red and yellow coffee. off-course black! duh.. my friend was having nasi uduk sambal bali with hot lemon tea.
my cellphone vibrated. sms from the old widow. she just came back from carrefour. her voices mixed with joy. she paid the delinquent electricity bills in full. paid the water pump bills. paid the school fees of all her grandchildren. bought a sack of 5kg rice. she said enough for a month. and bought a full trolly of groceries. all the restlessness had been lifted off her shoulder.
seated back after a meal. he handed me a piece of paper. a checklist from malaysia embassy. application of polygamy. he plan to get married to indonesian lady. not a bad choice. he showed me her picture before. he wanted to make the marriage as smooth as he can. his wife had met the lady to discussed the matter. he had done most of the homework and task. i guessed he got mostly everything in place already.
he just worried about one thing, inconsistency of her wife feelings. i told him to went fishing. frowned. his eyes requested an explanation. took a sip from my coffee and lit another cigarette. i told him to dealt with marriage was like fishing. we just hafta know when to give off the string and when to pull back. just need to trust our own instinct. how sweet is that. and advice from monogamy guy about polygamy.
gleed to the time on my laptop. 4.25pm. damn. soon there will be no taxi available. traffic jam will begun as hell. sat at the bench of kopitiam and teh tarik. no red sofa. no black cup. venus already tag in grey. or should i get another coffee?
[pause]
0 ulasan:
Post a Comment