Young Master Liem
BAb 16 Return

As promised Wan Siang, finally the Sweet One can go home and see his father. The two of them went riding the dock and along the way the Sweet was unceasingly smiling. Wan Siang saw that Sweet continuously smiled with excitement, making her face look beautiful. It is said that women whose lives are happy will be more beautiful, maybe because they smile more often and their minds are always healthy, so they do not get old quickly.

Wan Siang was very happy to see the beautiful looking Sweet. Wan Siang unceasingly watched his face which now exuded an aura of maturity accompanied by the elegance of Javanese women. His body is increasingly beautiful in a dress kebaya expensive with jewelry will make everyone who looks at him may think that he is a man if alone. But since Si Manis went in the company of a Chinese man with a rich appearance, it was clear that he would be considered the man's favorite mistress.

Such was the suspicion of the people in the village of Si Manis when the dock they were riding entered the village with a narrow road. The houses are no good, lined, sometimes separated by a blumbang full of kale plants. Kale that grows like a pest in blumbang is sometimes useful for locals, because they can harvest it to be used as a dish such as kale stir fry or kale bobor, for example, namely vegetable kale cooked with a mixture of coconut milk and water, given spices in the form of kencur.

Dokar who was hitched by Wan Siang and Si Manis also invited admiration for the village children who happened to pass by, they followed the back of the dock like a circus troupe. Some of them also don't wear tops. While the women in the village immediately got fresh gossip material.

“See that Si Parjiyem, already rich him. The clothes are good, the jewelry is big,” said a mother who carried her child.

“His cup has become his mistress a rich man, fast now never seen.”

“Yes, I think he works in a faraway place, turns out to be a mistress, ckckck...”.

At that time, in the eyes of the indigenous people, although a mistress looked like a rich and domiciled person, she was still a mistress, a woman who was considered dishonorable in the order of society. Often a mistress becomes a gossip, although sometimes the people also talk about her appearance and wealth. Though the gossiping is also average destitute, but they feel better and honorable than the gossiped.

The neighbors of the Sweet One began to gather in front of the house of one of the residents and make the Sweet a gossip material. Suddenly they become all-knowing creatures, skinning the life history of the Sweet from baby to adult.

“Badahat his mother was just a porridge seller in front of the house, and his father was a porters in the harbor, who would have thought his son now became rich,” said a middle-aged woman who used to know well with the mother of the Sweet One.

“But he is just a mistress, if that sinyo already have a wife, Parjiyem could be thrown away, returned to his place of origin.” People who say so feel Wan Siang still looks young, so it is not necessarily married.

“Not necessarily, if she is a mistress, she can join the same sinyo until old.”

Women are increasingly fantasizing about the future of the Sweet, but the Sweet herself has not been imagined about the future she will live in.

Finally the dock stopped in front of a small house made entirely of wood. The door of the house also seems to have been damaged, because it takes more effort to shift it, because it has been too sagging down. Wan Siang was the one who shifted the worn door so that the Sweet One could enter without feeling any difficulty. The floor of the house is still land and the room in the house is also not much. There is only one bedroom, kitchen space and a multipurpose room in the middle that is given a mat to sit in.

Wan Siang did not expect that before living in his house, the Sweet lived in that simple house, whose wood also looked rotten to age.

First the Sweetie looks for her father. Coincidentally that day was Sunday, usually his father would have a day off work. But actually his father had not worked for a long time, before he thought of going to the gambling house owned by Wan Siang.

Si Manis' father was fired from the port porters job because the company where he worked reduced workers, due to malaise that made the voyage quiet. The money made into gambling bets was his last severance pay.

The thoughts of the father of Sweet at that time were in a state of turmoil, he was fired, also had asthma that was getting worse and worse. He was afraid that he would not be able to support his daughter again, and he thought about handing over his son to the rich under the pretext of becoming a debt collector.

While gambling with Wan Siang, the young man could hear the inhaling of his father Sweet who was not smooth and beeped as often happens in people who are short of breath.

Wan Siang recalled his conversation with Si Manis' father when he met at his gambling house first.

“You sick?” asked Wan Siang at the time.

“Yes Sir, asthma. It's been a bit severe.” Answer the Sweet Father.

“Have been treated?”

“Already Master, to the shaman. But not healed.”

So when he saw the father of Sweet lying in bed with irregular breathing and sounding worse, Wan Siang was not surprised. Asthma is indeed getting worse and worse, especially if the night and the air is cold.

“Bapaaaak!” pekik Si Manis who was very sad to see the condition of his father who lived bone wrapped in skin, and difficulty regulating the breath.

“You go home, Nduk..” replied his father in a weak voice.

“Iya, I miss you father.”

“Bapak is also kangen, but you can not go anywhere, Mr. again sick.”

“Bulik Ningsih,” saya The Sweet.

“Parjiyem, long time no see,” said his aunt.

Ningsih saw a change in the Sweet who was very striking, her face was getting beautiful, the body was densely filled, the danger was good and also wore expensive-looking jewelry. Then the aunt of the Sweet One glanced at Wan Siang who was fixated on watching the family meeting. Ningsih of course already knows what happened to the Sweet One, based on the confession of the Sweet One's own father.

“Your father is very ill Nduk, thank goodness you came.”

“Why doesn't anyone say that you're doing this?”

“Your father banned, he said he did not want to make you difficult. After all, your father is embarrassed because it makes you a debt guarantee. She doesn't dare to meet you, let alone ask for help.”

“But I am his son, his only son.”

“That's what your father wants, Bulik can't do anything.”

Sweetie and her aunt were on the bedside. The aunt tried to feed the sweet father food, but the food was not swallowed. Everyone there was worried.

“Gawat, your father can't eat, Bulik is afraid the situation is getting worse. He said if he could no longer swallow food, it was a sign.... Mbahmu used to be so,” Ningsih so worried.

Then there was the sound of breathing that was getting heavier and dashed.

“Parjiyem... I'm sorry Nduk, I'm wrong,” the father of the Sweet tried to talk even with a very heavy effort.

“Parjiyem forgive Dad,” said The Sweet with tears.

“Thank you Nduk, now you can go quietly. I've missed seeing your mother.”

“In Chinatown there is a good healer, let's go there,” said Wan Siang.

“I am not strong anymore Sir. Sir please take care of my son, if I am not around,” Sweet's father's message.

“I promise,” replied Wan Siang who made the inner father of Sweet relieved.

“Father can not go.. the tree can not...,” the cry of the Sweet One is getting worse.

“Nduk, that's your mother waiting for you near the door, I want to go with your mother now. You take good care of yourself yes.”

The sweetie looked towards the door, but there was no one. Actually, the father of the Sweet One is indeed close to death so that his inner eye is revealed, until he can see supernatural things that cannot be seen by ordinary people.

The longer the breath of the father of Sweet the heavier, then disappear completely, accompanied by the loss of his heartbeat. Sweet's father has died.

“Looks like your father was waiting for you Nduk, now you have come, Father has calmed down,” said Bulik Ningsih.

“Mr... Wake up Sir. I have money now, I want to give it to you. Later we cook a good sir, we go to the market to buy new clothes for Father, the clothes of the Father have been torn a lot.” Sweet tried to shake his father's lifeless body with a heart of sorrow, but there was no response.

Sweet's heart was so shaken, it was like he had no grip on life. Somehow Wan Siang's heart also grieved, even though he only briefly dealt with the father of the Sweet One, but he also felt lost.

In order to calm the Sweet One, Wan Siang hugged the girl, and the Sweet One cried in Wan Siang's sturdy chest. The man tried to toughen up, so that the Sweet also became rigid.

“Calm down, so that your father is also calm in nature there,” said Wan Siang softly.

The Sweet did not reply, just then Wan Siang realized that the girl had fainted in his arms.