The Staircase
Black Rubber

After yesterday's incident I was deterred from following my mother to the well again. I prefer to bathe at home with rainwater accommodated in a large barrel. Though my father and uncle repeatedly offered me a bath in his pool. The pool is like a swimming pool for them. Fairly broad. But I don't like the murky water. I rarely see fish in the pond.

This afternoon, I took a shower earlier than usual which my mother sometimes forced me to take first. Not far from where I was taking a bath was my father sitting behind me, moving his hand like he was pulling something. It sounded like iron rubbing against a rock. After feeling enough, Dad tested his sharpness by scraping the tip of the object on his right thumb nail.

I looked up for a moment, stood up while returning the dipper into the barrel. "That's what, dad?" Askaqua.

Dad turned body. Lifting the thing he was holding was as if raising money found on the side of the road. Clearly visible from a distance, the black coiled rubber on the wood algae that you were holding. The end of the wood algae was a glittering white, sharp color.

"It's a notch knife, son." Answer me while smiling sweetly and then continue sharpening the toreh knife.

My mom just got home. "Take this, Rin." While thrusting a bucket of clean water.

Drought almost a week makes the mother every day take water, back and forth to the well. Spontaneous dad directly grabbed the bucket. Put it in front of me, cover it with a blue so that lice or termites.on the roof of the leaves do not splash into it.

Rin, call my father and mother dear. I used to copy. I told my dad, wake me up in the morning, Rin. Mom was angry. He said it was a rin-miss call. I used to sell at the market, leaving my mother alone at home for a few months before I was born. Now, I've had a lot of free time at home. Switching jobs to become rubber penoreh belonging to the Tibetans, big bosses who have a lot of rubber plantations. The house we are occupying now also belongs to the Tibetan sir. We were given a free home.

Although now the father has a lot of free time at home, but Rin's call did not disappear. I dare not imitate him anymore.

"My mountain also don't forget to sharpen, yeah." Pinta.

"Yes, are you coming tomorrow?"

"Follow, let's finish it quickly and quickly sell it to the Tibetans." While cleaning items scattered in the kitchen and around the furnace.

I just finished taking a shower, shivering in the cold. So hurry into the room. The room is approximately three meters long and approximately two and a half meters wide. Narrow indeed. Fortunately I was an only child. So this room is still fit for the three of us despite the crush.

"Mom, where's my shirt?" Shouting in the room.

"This uncle wears." Uncle's out there. My uncle's house is close to ours. Uncle lives alone. Father said uncle used to have a wife and two children. But they are divorced and their two children are with their ex-wife.

It turns out that my screams were heard all the way to uncle's house. I blushed in shame. Still looking for the clothes that mom kept in the noodle boxes.

"Yes, geez. What are you looking for? Why is it so messy like this?" Mother was angry while shaking her waist in the doorway of the room. "This what?" Lifting my clothes and pants.

A dress with a picture of a child sitting pensively on the stairs. Plain short pants. If I put it on, the tip of the pants is about twenty inches above my knees, sexy. This shirt and pants were given a Tibetan pack a year ago.

I smiled so much that my tooth looked funny. Last month, one of my molars was broken. I was upset because ever since my molars broke, I had trouble chewing and eating blue swordsman candy again.

My mother and the Posyandu officer forbade me from eating blue swordsman candy. They say they can break my teeth. But I like that candy. After eating the blue swordsman candy I could boast of it by sticking my tongue out at my father, mother and uncle.

"Sorry, ma'am." I said stop my mother's nagging that could have been as long as the train car.

I'm wearing pants, a little tadpole. The shirt is narrow. As much as I could pull him down until my head came in. Same with those pants. One leg that I lifted when I put it in, made me lack of balance until almost fell.

I was wearing the clothes I just took out. "There's only this kid giving me a job. Next time you take clothes here-raised instead of pulled."

"All my clothes, Rin." Pinta.

"It's the same. Father's son is not much different." Mom nags. I laughed when I heard my mother's nagging.

I salute my mother. I didn't see the clothes in the cardboard. But easily - mom found it. All the homework is done because of my mom. Like tonight. We sat around dinner. My mother's cooking is delicious. Even if it was just mashed yam leaves and salted fish, we ate it voraciously.

*Now at seven hours West Indonesia Time, Radio Republik Indonesia will present news about pe*ranian.

Father solemnly listened.

The price of rubber is currently experiencing a fairly drastic change. From the previous eighteen thousand per kilo to, tut...

Soak radio. Batteries exhausted. Dad curious. He got up from his seat and turned the volume buttons of his radio. Then rushed into the mosquito net, disappointed.

Fortunately it didn't rain tonight. So we can sleep well.

"Wake up, son." Mom woke me.

Didn't I just fall asleep? Very short sleep. Dad's in the kitchen preparing the incising equipment. I was busy cleaning the room. While I try to wake up from my sleepiness.

The chickens haven't crowed yet, but we're awake. I washed my face. Then wear pants and long clothes that are thick so as not to get cold.

"Excluded?" Ask dad.

"There's." Mother replied slowly while putting a bushel and drinking water into the bag.

The three of us walked through the still dewy grass. Sendalku wet. I'm in the middle. The father in front was shining down the road with a torch tied to his head. The mother behind me who also illuminated my footsteps with torch fire.

About half an hour. We arrived at the rubber plantation belonging to the Tibetan sir. Rubber is irregular because local rubber is grown carelessly, some grow by itself. The size of the rubber bar was twice as big as me.

"You guys over there. Let me be here." Show dad.

Mom started slashing her toreh knife into the rubber bar. The sound of nicks is like we scratch the skin that itches strongly. My mother's hands are very sharp. One rubber rod can be cut in a short time, not up to a minute.

The rooster crowed after ten rubber bars were cut by my mother. I tailed behind him while holding an anti-mosquito.

At the end of it was my father's torchlight. Obstructed leaves. Every now and then I pat the mosquitoes anchored in my hands and feet, scratching them. Itching.

"You wait here. Wanna?" Mom put her bag into the cabin.

"I'm scared, ma'am." My eyes started to glaze over. Not far from my mother. Fearful.

I kept tailing, following my mother until the sunlight began to reveal itself then I dared to stay away. The birds chirp. Squirrels jump in here. The ants in front of me started to gather food.

"Oh." I complained of pain.

"My leg was bitten by a fire ant, ma'am." While scratching my right big toe, it started swelling. Itching and pain.

The fire ants were clustered very much. Brown is a bit reddish. The first bite was like being touched by fire. Over time itching and pain to swelling.

"Here you go, you just wait in the cottage. We're done soon." Mother continued her incision after smearing my feet with kerosene from inside her torch.

Little improved. I waited for them at the cottage. Not long after that they approached me.

"It's over, dad?" Tanyaku.

"Toreh already, but the sap water hasn't. We'll wait two to four hours, and then we'll get the sap that's been collected in the shell." Answer me, explaining.

Mom opened her bag. Take out the food. Dad sipped the water very quickly, sounding strong. Just three gulps, the water in the bottle was a little leftover. His breathing is irregular. Sweat is very heavy.

"Today we can sell. Kitchen equipment is also a little leftover. What about our debt to the Tibetan sir?" Ask mom while steaming rice.

"Can. We sold what we did yesterday. Which we save today. Debt problems let us take a cicil. Tibetans must understand, really." Dad sat near me. Gave me a piece of salted fish.

I listen to their conversation. Not far from our cottage there are indeed three rubber piles that are deliberately covered with leaves. No wonder the smell of rubber stings in this cottage. But I don't care. I hungry. I even eat very well. Eating in the woods is more fun.

Dad's done eating. Sit for a moment, then stand while taking the bucket. Dab clay into the bucket. He said let the rubber not stick. I did the same thing after lunch. I'm still with the rest of the rice that I have to spend, my mother forced.

My shadow is right in the middle. I cringe in the hut while enjoying the sound of birds chirping increasingly blaring. Sounds melodious.

About three hours later, the father and mother left, picking up a bucket that was dried in the sun. The clay smeared inside the bucket had already dried up.

"You wait here, son."

"I'm coming, ma'am." Spontaneously standing up, jumping from the hut that was stumbling almost collapsed.

I tailed behind, mother carrying a fairly large bucket. He stopped at every rubber tree he cut. Bending down, pouring sap water from the shell into the bucket. I helped use a larger shell, until it was full, then I gave it to my mother. I was not aware of my body until the civet got a burst of sap that I pulled because it stuck firmly in the shell. Until my blond hair was a little curly, it was hard to separate.

I groaned in pain, trying to separate my taped hair.

"Mom told you to wait in the cabin." His gaze was pitying, but hurriedly deflected his gaze, his two shoulders heaving, a soft chuckling sound.

I kept insisting until mom's bucket was full. We went back to the cottage, followed by my father. Dad froze the rubber with rubber vinegar. Printing it on a used carpet that is rectangular.

One large piece of rubber has been successfully printed. Dad covered the rubber with dry leaves. The other three pieces were taken and cleaned, the color was already blackened. A stinging stench on my nose. Dad shouldered it himself using a small axle. Groaning as hard as possible, anchoring the axle to the shoulder while walking quickly. My mom and I followed my dad from behind.

My hair is still taped. Mother held back her laughter at the sight of my hair being ruffled, standing still. I'm speechless embarrassed.

For about a minute, we finally arrived at the home of a large, three-story Tibetan man, mixed in red, white and blue on each level. The Tibetan house is huge. It is the largest house in the village.

A tall, muscular man approached us. "Boss is not home, sir. But the boss left this rubber sale to us for a while. We'll grind it in the machine first, sir."

The Tibetan father and employee lifted the rubber one by one. Grinding it with a manual engine uses the strongest spin until the rubber is thinned and the water content is reduced.

At the end of the day, my mother was talking to three mothers sitting in the canopy of a Tibetan pack store. I approached my mother excitedly.

"Why is his hair so stiff?" One mother asked my mother while laughing, followed by the other mothers.

"Because of the rubber splash." My mother answered with a pity tone.

"Miris is right your fate, son. This age has come." The mother in front of me who was pregnant came along.

I sat next to my mother. "Yes. No one was accompanying him at home." Answer my mother, slowly.

I smiled faintly at the cynical gaze of a mother whose entire hand was filled with yellow bracelets.

"I'm going home first, yeah. My son's been home a long time since I've been dead. It was still sleeping on the swing." The mother, whose hands were full of yellow bracelets, resigned, returning to her home.

"I was first too, yeah. We've been here a long time." The pregnant mother also resigned. Mother nodded.

"Me too, yeah." The mother who asked me about my hair followed.

Right now, only me, mother, and the shopkeeper were still sitting casually in the canopy of the Tibetan pack store. In the shop there was a toy, my eyes glittering at it. Occasionally glanced at my mother who had been staring at the father who was in cash transactions with Tibetan employees. Dad approached us, his right hand holding something. My face looks sad.

"Well, I want a toy." My love while putting on a hard face.

"buy. Take whichever you want." While greeting my mother as if to interpret something.

"Price down. If I knew I wouldn't sell today."

"How low are they?"

"Last week it was eight thousand dollars per kilo, today it's just nine thousand per kilo. It's true the radio broadcast last night. Far down."

"Yes, stop. How else. The supplies at home were little."

I picked toys in the store. Not caring about my hair that currently occasionally made the shopkeeper hold back his laughter. I chose a smaller toy. The price must be cheap. This is my dream car. I cried in my heart.

"I want to buy this one, Dad. It's a nice color. The shape is also good. There's wheels. I can push it here and there. Must be exciting, Dad." I showed my toy of choice to my father and mother. "Buy this toy, ma'am." Imbuhku.

Asking for my mother's approval who had been silent to listen to me for the promotion of my chosen toy.

"I promise I'll help mom and dad a lot." I followed my explanation earlier. Convince my parents that what I'm buying now won't cost them.

"Yes. Take it." Think of my mom like a fishing rod pulled by a big fish. Flexural. Greeted cheerfully by me as I said, hurrah in my heart.