12 Badoets
Loro

November 2021.

A pair of feet stepped gontai through the asphalt road full of holes. Sayup-sayup heard the sound of adzan maghrib reverberating in the distance. Some people were dressed in good clothes heading to the mosque. Unlike the shabby-faced man who is now stepping barefoot down the streets of the slum sub-district market.

Name's Wildan. Thirty years old. An unemployed person who aspires to success by way of gambling. So this afternoon. He carries his shiny red rooster. Wildan named him Jawara.

Every day Wildan fed Jawara with red ginger and wasp insects. Hope the rooster can be fierce and win in cockfighting gambling. But as expected, there is no gambling that brings prosperity. The champions won once and lost in a row until this afternoon.

Wildan came home with a defeat. The money that had been left one sheet of red was lost to bet. There was only a Jawara with a face full of wounds that accompanied Wildan now.

Wildan looked up at the sky. He wanted to cry so badly. At his current age, Wildan felt like he was just being trash in society. When all his high school friends were married, he acted like a boy. Let alone the house, even the job he does not have.

Wildan stopped a move at one of the kiosk's closing offices. He leaned his body against the slightly rusty zinc door. Wildan took Jawara down from his carrier. The rooster was weakly bowed, exhausted.

"Your name is Jawara, but you keep losing. I should've given you your name Wildan. Just like me, the one who always loses and fails." Wildan grumbled as he looked at the helpless-looking Jawara.

When Wildan was engrossed with his cock, there came Pak Anwar a najai teacher who was about to go to the mosque. Seeing Wildan's condition, Mr. Anwar shook his head.

"And, keep showering if the hunt comes to the mosque," said Mr. Anwar gave advice. Wildan pretended not to listen.

"You were a pinter, the best among the students who ever learned to pay me a salary. But now kebling's like this." Mr. Anwar is back in his head.

Wildan did not say, nor did he look. Finally, Mr. Anwar went by with his heart full of concern.

"Whisper! The easiest thing to do in this world is to comment on the lives of other people's grandparents" Wildan grumbled after Mr. Anwar left.

Wildan walked back, entering a narrow alley next to the market. He avoided meeting people who were about to go to the mosque. Especially if you cross paths with Ika's parents, you can be more embarrassed later.

Wildan actually had a handsome face. Her skin was clean with a sharp nose. Although rarely exercising his body also looks sturdy and quite athletic. He used to have a girlfriend from High School named Ika.

Wildan and Ika have been in a relationship for quite some time. Even had to live the story of LDR when Ika had to study outside the city. Once a month they meet. I always made a deal with Wildan when he got home from his dorm. They met at the bus terminal and rented a cheap hotel around there.

All that they lived for years, until finally disaster happened. The relationship was known to Ika's father. Wildan was thrown in prison for 5 months and 15 days on charges of carrying a woman out with a ruse. Since then, Ika and Wildan's relationship has run aground. Ika is now a household not far from Wildan village.

Recalling the bitter tingle of his life, without tasting tears trickled down Wildan's cheeks. His limp and shaky steps led Wildan to the narrow yard of an asbestos roofed house with walls that had not been plastered. Wildan dropped his body on the 'twisting' chair that was in the corner of the front porch. Jawara he let sit limp under the chair.

Wildan occupied the small house with his elderly Father. His name is Mr. Umar. He is 70 years old this month. Wildan's mother died a long time ago.

Long ago when Wildan Elementary School had felt like a rich man's son. Mr. Umar is fairly successful with his fishing tackle shop. However, when Wildan 4th grade Elementary Mother died for no apparent reason. Wildan's memory was vague at the time. As she remembered, the mother was found on the side of the highway in a lifeless state.

Wildan remembered his childhood as a happy life. Adolescence is a dark time that he wants to forget. Almost every night he had to take care of the Father who fell asleep in the yard after returning from the drunken place.

Often Wildan heard Mr. Umar rummaging in unconsciousness. Mr. Umar often mentions clown masks and foreign names that Wildan never knew. Pak Umar often also called the death of his wife because of someone named Sumiran.

The dark sky made Wildan realize the lights of the house had not been turned on. The house that looks unkempt increasingly looks seedy and gloomy.

"Paac? The light is not yet on, " cried Wildan calling Mr. Umar.

The atmosphere was silent, there was no answer from inside the house. Wildan frowned, for he believed his Father was inside. Why is the house left so dark? Wildan got up from the chair and stepped into the living room.

The living room is really dark. Wildan blinked his eyes, trying to get used to the net in the pitch of darkness. Wildan grabbed the switch in the middle of the room. He turned on the living room lights and the front porch.

Now it is clear, there is no one in the living room also in front of the TV. Wildan did not find the Father who usually in Maghrib time just sat daydreaming. There is no way it feels like the elderly parents are out of the house when it is dark.

"Sir? Father sleeping?" scream Wildan. He walked over to the room in the back near the kitchen.

Wildan knocked on Mr. Umar's door several times, but there was no answer. He put his ears on the door leaf made of sengon wood that looks worn.

Doc. . .

Dock

Dookk

There was a sound of knocking coming from inside the room. Like the sound of someone hitting a wall with a hammer.

"Sir? What's father?" ask Wildan again.

The mood remains silent. No response from the room.

"Sir? Wildan's in?" yelled Wildan once more.

Wildan grabbed the door knob of the room and pushed it slowly. The room that feels stuffy with the smell of a little pessimistic out in the air. Wildan immediately grabbed the switch and turned on the lights.

The view inside the Father's room, made Wildan's chest feel tight. Pak Umar's feet dangling in the middle of the room swaying to touch the wall of the room produced a knocking sound that paused. The Father was gone, hanging on a piece of cable that was glued to the ceiling of the room.

"Bapaaack!" peekik Wildan's.