
From this morning the rain that fell spatter has not stopped as well, making the atmosphere around the house more quiet, and quieter, almost no vehicles passed through the day and only the sound of rain and the occasional sound of frogs rang. Grandma just sat pensively in the bale (a wide seat made of wood to sit down lesehan) that was in front of her stall while drinking fresh warm tea that he deliberately made to accompany her in the rain these. This small shop owned by Grandma has long stood by selling various daily needs and selling kerosene in literal terms which at that time there were still many people who used kerosene stoves. Usually if grandma does not outperform this stall, there is my aunt who sometimes helps to keep the stall. My aunt rarely helped grandma at the stall because she worked in a fairly large fabric store located in a shophouse complex near the market.
Sometimes the grandmother scolded the boys who ran around in wet clothes exposed to rain water with fishing rod and fishing rod they brought to fish. And he also recognized one of the sons, who was the grandson of the owner of the house next door, the grandson of a married couple whose wife was about his age, but has a chatty disposition, in contrast to her husband who looks friendly and patient. Sometimes my grandmother heard the voice of the woman who was scolding her grandson for being caught skipping class and even wandering around playing somewhere. Once also the boy cried and then ran towards my grandmother's shop for fear of being scolded again by the woman who was none other than her own grandmother for whatever, because of what, my grandmother did not have time to ask him because of the outpouring of sympathy seeing the child crying with a bruise on his right arm. Then told him to hide in his stall. He saw that the boy was quite handsome with white skin and his oriental face like not peranakan people, but like the totok Chinese who came here. And lately he found out that the father of this child is indeed from mainland China there, only died a year ago because of illness. His mother was busy with her business in the market so there was almost no time to take care of it. My father, who happened to be approaching my grandmother's shop, was suddenly shocked to see a man with bruises that he thought looked quite horrible which was in stark contrast to the white boy.
"Well, whose child is this?", my father whispered to Grandma carefully.
"The grandson of that Ncek who lives next door, you know what?. His wife was very fierce, you saw this blue sampe child", Grandma looked at the child with sympathy. Sometimes he felt sorry for this child who seemed to be less attentive than his family, considering the old woman who was chatty and quite fierce according to him.
"Why is he here anyway?, if his wife comes here how?", Papa looks nervous because he does not want to until grandma has to deal with such a person. But, my papa was also sorry to see this child in front of him who seemed to have cried out and endured the pain in his right arm.
"Udah gapapa, you don't have to worry. Let the cave take care of. You take it to Dalem nih son first. Tar if Ampe his wife came to the cave who said.", My grandmother explained in a steady tone, my grandmother already considers this boy like her own grandson, he said, considering at that time only papa's older brother who has a family but has not been blessed with children.
"But Well...",
"Bring to the house" answered my grandmother a little annoyed.
"I.iya Nah.", my papa replied resignedly because absolutely can not argue when the grandmother had spoken in such a tone. He also actually pity this boy just that he also does not want if grandma has to deal with such a person. He was afraid that he would cause new problems that of course he was very unhappy with.
My father nodded slowly and told the boy to walk and follow him into the house. My father would occasionally look at the house next to him afraid that the woman would see him here. After entering my papa told the child to sit in the living room and wait for aunt to come bring medicine for him.
"Do not hesitate, consider it again play here.., ntar there is an aunt here, Ncek stay yes...", My papa said to the boy that he indirectly told the boy to call him Ncek (Uncle, usually a call for the younger brother of the papa side).
The boy just nodded slowly and muttered his thanks to my papa. He looks a little afraid of the look of papa's face which always looks wrinkled and serious. After his death he now only silent alone in the spacious living room, occasionally he lowered his head by paying attention to his bruises that almost blackish terrible. He looked to the left and to the right, this house was as lonely as his grandfather's house next door, plus it was seen out there that cloudy clouds had begun to cover the clear sky, which may soon rain. From the window of the house, his gaze now turned to the prayer table of my late grandfather in the corner of the room, next to the hallway leading to my father's room and the kitchen. The table was quite large in dark brown with one table high and wide and another table in front of him which was short and smaller and also dark brown. The boy seemed to be attracted by the prayer table and walked slowly there. He caught a glimpse of my late grandfather's photo and observed other objects on the table, a hio, a plastic flower vase, a candle holder and a ash place to stick a hio while praying. But in the middle of his little observation he was like hearing something. A strange voice that was hard to explain, was slow but audible, just below this prayer table. He intended to peek under the table because the small prayer table was lined with a wide tablecloth in red. He slowly crouched down and slowly lifted the red cloth. He lowered his head and he gasped in shock at the figure of a small child with a whole body that was jet black, with very little hair almost bald, the big word that was also pitch black, said, and his mouth seemed to be moving indistinctly and let out a strange sound that he had just heard. The strange child was like coding with his hands wanting to be approached by him and heard a word....
"MAIIII...",
Slowly but sounding dreadful, and the boy immediately stood up and took off his red cloth. Then he came back startled to see the aunt standing in front of the hallway with the medicine in her hands. I saw the child's fearful expression. Aunty just shook her head slowly and put one finger in front of her mouth.
"Don't want to play with ya.", whispered slowly.
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