ADJOINING REALM
TWO IN ONE

"Look, Dar.. Min.. I'll tell you everything from the beginning. I hope you can forgive Sastro and Wajana after hearing my story, Dar. Because this also concerns what they do," said Ki Karta while staring at Darto and Mbah Turahmin alternately. Then he looked up, his eyes staring at the ceiling of the house, but his mind was staring far towards the place where he had first met Gending.

"It happened 21 years ago. Everyone watched Gending who always came once every seven years in this village. No pair of eyes can shy away from her beauty when she dances, even until fellow women come to flatter the beautiful face that she has. But that doesn't apply to me, Dar.. Min.. I knew if he had something lodged in his body. Because I am a person who is quite old and has seen his arrival several times. I realized, where maybe someone can come here every seven years, but his face is always the same he did not grow old at all" said Ki Karta stopped, saying, from the first look up he is now staring at the tea glass that he had never held, then grabbed the glass and sipped the bitter tea until it was half finished.

"Then how did you get to know him, Kar?" mbah Turahmin continued to light a cigarette in between his fingers.

Ki Karta grabbed Mbah Turahmin's cigarette first, after the cigarette in her hand lit up, she went back to telling me, "Had he danced, I dared to ask Gending. I asked her about what was really in her body, but at that time I did not get any answers, Min. He told me to meet him back, just as the sun was already sinking on the first day of the suro. You know what I saw on the night of the suro?"

Darto and Mbah Turahmin immediately shook their heads, they could not guess what Ki Karta saw at that time. They then proceeded to re-attach the ears to hear the continuation.

"At that time I went to the hut used by Gending. There I saw Sastro and Wajana who were stabbing keris into the stomach gending many times," said Ki Karta while putting on a pale face.

"Then?" sergeant Darto was curious.

"Every time Gending was impaled, a single snake carcass immediately appeared under Gending's feet. I saw clearly the crying Gending, but strangely he kept telling Sastro to hold on to his legs and hands, also telling Wajana to keep stabbing his stomach. They both did what Gending asked with tears in their eyes, and their mouths continued to say sorry," Ki Karta said back to a standstill, he took the time to wipe the water that began to seep from his eye bags.

"Do you know what I was doing at the time?" Ki Karta continued while looking at Darto and Mbah Turahmin with a probing gaze, and only got a head-butt answer from both.

"He whispered to Sastro and Wajana, then they nodded to each other, and took me away to the house of the now deceased village elder. Gending asked that I marry him that night. I was really confused that time, Dar.. Min.. Why should I get married? But when I saw the crying Gending pleading for marriage I agreed and married a makeshift witness that night. After making the agreement, Gending asked to come and rest in my house, we slept on the same couch, and we did the same thing that the couple did that night. Nothing strange, everything was going normally, until when the sun came up. All the things made of glass actually broke inside my house, I heard the sound of women shouting at that time, and when I saw the source of the sound, there was Gending with a completely different face. Face angry! His hand kept clenching and slamming everything nearby while continuing to say the word 'Braken you Gending!' He chided while continuing to tear himself apart. I'm scared Dar, Min. Fortunately there was Sastro and Wajana who came and pulled me out of the house as quickly as possible," said Ki Karta again stopped, he grabbed a second cigarette and then turned it back on.

"They told me that marriage is a abstinence from the agreement that Gending did. They also said that in the course of the year the body and the figure of the snake lodged in his body were completely separated, because the snake figure in Gending's body is doing a ritual to increase the offspring that will follow it. They said if when the snake figure was married, they were tasked to reduce the child left in the body of Gending so as not to increase in number after the mating procession was completed by the snake. Gending really wanted to die, he had no desire to live anymore, but the snake lodged inside him never gave permission for himself to die," Ki Karta said again stopped, saying, he felt pity after remembering the events he had experienced long ago.

"Unfortunately, not dead gending. The figure of the snake in Gending's body instead asked for the collision in exchange for the loss of their agreement. From there one by one the villagers began to die every day, it lasted for almost a year. They died being bitten by a poisonous snake, which was none other than the child of a snake that was residing in Gending's body," Ki Karta let out a long sigh then again said, "I had met with him once, I had met him once, he just gave me a baby. He said that all the citizens died for the survival of the baby that was conceived by him. After that I never saw each other again, she never danced again, even though the snake chicks always came once every seven years. Maybe he's really dead, all we see is a shell that the savage snake completely possesses."

Darto and Mbah Turahmin were astonished to hear the incident that Ki Karta experienced. Even Mbah Turahmin immediately embraced Ki Karta who began to sob at that time. All looked gloomy at that time, until finally Ki Karta opened her voice again in her cry, "Please... Dar. End my wife's suffering."

Like getting a trigger. The feeling in Darto's heart immediately flared up. His hands clenched with a furious face plastered. In his anger he said the word "I'll end this fateful story."

Be connected,-

...NEXT YEAR, YES ...

...😆😆😆...