MYFATHER
Episode 17's
Yudi woke up as soon as he heard a rustling sound and the door opened, while Mirna who had already woken up from her lap exclaimed happily,”We have arrived.”.
Yudi's eyes squinted with restraining the light that seeped into his eyes. Understandably, during the trip the car window curtain is lowered until the atmosphere in the car becomes dim, especially after sleeping five hours....five hours?
Yudi asked in shock as soon as he saw his watch which showed at half-eight p.m. ”Crazy, today how do I sleep?”
”Surely you are as sleepy as I am,” Mirna laughed. ”Come, down!”
Yudi was stunned to see the building before him. It was only realized that the light that blinded his eyes was not the sunlight, but came from a large crystal lamp on the terrace. Never before had Yudi seen such a large crystal lamp, its size was able to hold up to a hundred small light bulbs and five large bulbs whose beam power resembled a shooting lamp. Four pillars of an adult male arm guard each corner of the roof that shades the terrace. The pillar was made of white marble carved into the vine of the plants coiling together. A small pond with a shower in the center caused a soothing gurgling sound while outside the pool, at the bottom, was buried by something as big as a thumb neatly arranged with eye-catching colors.
Initially Yudi thought it was a pebble but after paying close attention it turned out to be a river coral whose age was very old by abrasion. Unlike luxury houses in Jakarta made of cemented brick, the outer wall of this terrace is made of flat round natural stone that is quite tight when made into one. The terrace is almost twice the length of Mirna's car. While the width of this house is certainly wider than the terrace, about three or four times.
He turned the body back, found a large garden.no..maybe more correctly called a garden, with Japanese grass shaved neatly to make it like a green carpet or soccer field. While on the edge that forms a circular horizon that may be the boundary of the yard there are birch trees and acacia that sit side by side with each other.Sounds faint birds chirping merrily among the trees. A two-and-a-half-meter wide asphalt road, connected to the road in front of the terrace, stretched out in the middle of the green field until a row of trees were split.
”This is your home?” Yudi commented with an enchanted face.
Mirna took Yudi's arm and invited him in. They crossed the marble floor, so slippery that Yudi could barely see his own reflection down there. A door made of teak wood as high as three meters is at the end of the terrace, the luxurious door could not even be matched by the gate at the headquarters of Katim Persada Coal which he had passed in Balikpapan. Although large, not impressed by its heavy weight, when Mirna swung the object out the door it moved so lightly.
The living room is the first part that welcomes Yudi. Because the living room is the spearhead of an owner's welcome to guests or invitations, this room is decorated with extraordinary. A soft velvet curtain of blood red covered the window beside the front door. The crystal lamp there is similar in shape to the outside but smaller in size, not only illuminates the room but also warms it. Its outer wall made of flat natural stone was not visible from the inside, maybe because it has been broken into straight walls that are connected and smeared with candles in order to reduce the flow of air that can enter through the sidelines if the shape is still like outside.
Two large sofas of ancient patterned leather decorate the room, Yudi had seen such a shape in a luxury furniture store in a Jakarta shopping center, it is matched with a guest table made of wooden chunks that have been flattened top and bottom and twisted. The wooden table was carved with the complexity of the root shape that was never understood by Yudi, the location of its beauty.Below the guest table was spread a wool carpet in harmony with the curtain while the floor was made of the same as the terrace.
A shelf connects with a glass-coated wall on the outside, the, to protect the display in the form of eggshells decorated with silver and gold beads arranged in a row on a board shelf made of mahogany. There are five shelves entirely from the top to the bottom of the glass cabinet, after counting a row on the top shelf Yudi whistled amazed to find the shells in the closet turned out to amount to almost three thousand in number.
”Who makes these beautiful decorations?” ask Yudi.
”Oh, it was here a long time ago. Inheritance from my great-grandmother,” replied Mirna.
”Then this house is very old,” Yudi looked around. Not a single cracked wall or dull ceiling showed its head despite the strong impression of the history it carried for tens, maybe even hundreds, of years ago.
The next section is the main room. The main room is an eight square room with a ceiling that is much higher than the living room. There were no crystal lamps but an oval circle made entirely of glass and similar to the aquarium in Ancol gave off a light that was not too bright but quite shade as a substitute for a crystal lamp. Yudi did not know how that shady light could be produced. Maybe there is a bulb inside the oval circle or it could be a candle, the problem is that the light of the bulb cannot be as shady as it is wearing a candle will be very difficult to light it without flying up there.
Although impressed as the main room of this room has fewer items than the living room. There are only animal-themed paintings around the walls, each wall looks to have a certain pattern where the wall to the left of the three paintings with pictures of animals are flat, on the right contains marine animals, and on the left there are three paintings, the wall behind him are two paintings of aerial animals while the wall in front of him are two paintings of land animals. Everything is gloomy. There were two curved gauze doors in the room, one connected to the dining room while the other to the cellar.
On top of a pair of land animal paintings there is a ledge which apparently is a threshold from the second floor. A staircase hidden in the darkness is to the right of the room and connects this floor with the floor above it. Yudi did not ask why there was no sofa or television like the living room because it was very disrespectful, maybe the television is in each room because Mirna and her mother do not really like the atmosphere of the room that is too wide. For him this house was too big, when he looked up more he not only saw the second floor but also the third floor.
The floor of the stairs that led them to the second floor was made of glass so that he could see the floor below. Its barrier made of gold-plated aluminum was carved to resemble the body of a snake, complete with its scales. Two small lights at the base and top end shine a faint light to help anyone who walks through them get on their way.
”How long has it been staying here?” ask Yudi about it.
Mirna who walked in front replied without turning her head, ” I have never lived in another house besides here since birth.”
”Surely many memories happened here.”
”That's.”
”And you're just alone? You and your mother?”
”Any,ya?”
”Ngak. So many rooms while the occupants are just the two of you. Have you never felt..”.
”Fear?”
”Yeah, that kind..”.
”We are not just the two. There were two other servants. We also often invite guests. Therefore I invite you here to enliven the atmosphere, right?”
Both arrived at the second floor, there the floor is no longer marble but parquet made in harmony with the walls made of sandalwood. Which makes him surprised because the closer to the oval ’lamp’ in the ceiling of the atmosphere is not getting brighter but rather approaching dimly, dimly, very contrasted with the large crystal lamp on the terrace that makes the surrounding conditions bright. It should be the crystal lamp that is placed here, and vice versa. Fortunately, the lighting was helped by large windows at the ends of the east and west wings that passed through the glass reflecting moonlight that looks half-shaped tonight. Yudi was curious to know the situation of the top floor, maybe much darker and creepy!
There are about seven rooms on the floor, side by side along one wing to the other. If the house is symmetrical Yudi estimates there are about fourteen rooms in total, on the second and third floors. A fantastic number of homes in a small town like this, especially this house seems to have not undergone renovation or human touch even since it was first built. The Mirna family used to be a large family in this area so it can invest a lot of money to get a good building in its initial construction.
”Your room is here,” Mirna opened a third door from the west side. The location is a little to the middle makes the room close to the stairs, it is not too close but it is more decent than the seventh room which is at the end and looks so far away.
Yudi stepped into the room following Mirna. The girl turned to him, ”Not ugly, right? There is a bed, wardrobe, and bathroom complete with a bathtub and toilet there.”
***