Love In War
⁇
Sweet mouth spiny heart. Wallahi, I'm so scared, who wouldn't be afraid if his body was under a man's confinement. Silencing the woman's mouth with her burly hands, repeatedly, she told me not to scream. But, I'm not being served. I don't care at all how hard he tries to shake my body's resistance.
Yes maliki yaumidini iyyaka a’budu wa iyyaka asta’inu.
“O lord of the day of vengeance, only to You I worship and only to You I beg for help.”
Imam Nawawi mentioned in the book of Al-Adzkar that the prayer was read by the Prophet when he saw and met his enemy in a war. And the strands of every prayer continue to intertwine in my heart. To Allah alone, the servant takes refuge from all evil forms of man and the jinn.
"Ssttt...Shut up!" He returned for the umpteenth time. His face now looks angry. But I didn't ignore it back.
"Shut up, Laila! Or you want me to silence you with my mouth."
Not because of the threat that made me stop rebelling immediately but because of the foreign voice from the outside of this hut house.
Aldert nodded as if he knew what I was thinking. He took his hand out of my mouth and helped me get up. The man walked saggingly, peering through the small cracks of the bamboo wall.
"You have to get out of here" he said as he approached me again, wrapping some clothes in his backpack.
"What about you?"
"I'll stay here." He pulled my hand towards the back door, opening it slowly.
Aldert turned his gaze to Sander who was now standing beside me.
"So she's fine."
Sander nodded obediently.
"What about you?" just ask for more."You're not coming with us?"
I don't know why I feel like something is suddenly hitting my heart. Like worry and fear, maybe.
Aldert shook his head." There's something I need to finish."
"But…"
"Go!" Dismissed." Take him away."
Sander quickly pulled my wrist. Even so, my gaze never turned away from him who was still faithful staring at our departure from the door frame of the hut house.
Dor's!
The familiar voice instantly stopped the movement of my feet. Obtained. I'm sure it was a gunshot. But, isn't the origin of the sound…
Oh, Allah. Aldert….
"California. No!" Sander managed to catch up and block my wrist, stopping my leg movement.
He shook weakly. "We have to go now!"
"But..How about Aldert?"
What's wrong with me? Why am I suddenly worried about the man I misunderstood?
"Major will be fine, Laila!"
"But…"
"Trust him!"
Kuhela breathes heavily. There was nothing I could do but follow him, inevitably we were forced to continue our journey.
Time did not feel rolling so fast, the dawn has now been changed by a dim afternoon. For the umpteenth time, Sander and I stopped taking a short break from this long indeterminate journey.
"You'd better eat first." Sander stood in front of me holding out something he had wrapped in banana leaves. " So you just ate a little mulberry. It does not fill the stomach. Don't let your stomach empty and your stomach recur."
Looking at me who was just silent, looking at what he was holding, Sander again said,"
Relax, it's rabbit meat. I just baked it in there." He pointed at the shrubbery that was still seen billowing black smoke.
"Thank you" I said, smiling as I accepted the meat.
Sander nodded and sat down beside me.
No taste, that's what I felt when the meat touched the throat.
"Is the food bad?" Sander's question blew my daydream.
"No." My ring." It's delicious, it's just it's my first time eating rabbit meat."
"Did your religion forbid eating rabbit meat?"
I'm back to shakes." No. gabe. Rabbit is one of the animals that is allowed to be consumed."
"By the way, is he gonna be okay?" I looked far away. Since then, the worry about him has not gone redam.
"Major will be fine."
"Where do you know." Toleh him. How could he be so sure?
A thin arch rose from the corner of his lips." There's nothing to worry about. Major was even on the verge of his limit."
I scrunched my forehead." Meanin?"
Sander looked at me." Have you ever heard that it is a prayer?"
I nod my head.
"The speech is like an arrow shot right at its target, that is why we are encouraged to say good things, so that the words of good prayer accompany the person we are talking about," he was staring straight ahead.
I don't know what to say. What Sander said is true.
The evening has now rolled over the night.
Sander in front of me seemed busy lighting a fire without a match. He put charcoal cloth on the firestone, then swiped it with steel. Then there were no long sparks that burned the charcoal of the cloth to make the fire burn stably.
"You must be tired. Rest up!" Find me.
"What about you?"
Isn't he just as tired as I am? Maybe he's more tired than I am. The circle under his eyes explained it all.
"I'm fine." Sander smiled." I'll keep watch. You sleep!"
"All right." I breathe slowly." If you are tired, please wake me up. I'll replace you on guard."
Sander simply nodded in response.
***
The sound of birds chirping in greeted my eardrums, and the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was a tree trunk that was surrounding towering.
"You awake?" The greeting voice reflex made me turn to the source of the sound while waking up leaning on the tree trunk.
"Why not wake me up?"
Sander smiled, walked slowly towards me, and thrust the fruit in his hand.
"You look so good." He's shaking." I can't wake you up."
"Sorry," I regret. Subjugate head. I felt guilty for being a burden to him.
"Sorry why?"
"Because I've troubled you." Toleh him. "I'm just a burden to you."
Sander shook his head." No Laila. You are not troublesome at all, let alone a burden."
"Yes.Stay, I can't do anything for you guys."
"You don't have to do anything for us." Sander seemed to be sighing heavily with a straight forward look." We're the ones who should apologize to you."
I scrunched my forehead." Sorry for?"
Sander turned his head towards me. One, two, three, four, five minutes, but he never answered my question.
"It's nothing." The ring." Better, spend the fruit." Apparently he refused to answer.
"What fruit is this?"
For the first time, I just saw a fruit like this.
"Gooseberries," he said." I even had to climb up to 1,000 meters to get it."
"Oh, really?" I stared in disbelief while Sander laughed. I don't know what's funny to him.
"Do you believe?"
I'm shaking.
"Good!" Not immediately put the round-shaped red fruit into his mouth.
"Oh, come. I was just joking," he said as he watched me still snatch annoyance.
"But it's not funny at all, sir."