Barong<\/p>\n
By Sunaryono Basuki Ks<\/p>\n
New Year's Day was a blessed day for Wayan Suardika, but not
\nbecause he had received a bonus from his office, stashed in an
\nenvelope which he handed to his wife Nyoman as soon as he got
\nhome. His wife's face lit up. She fingered the red banknotes, but
\nhurriedly put them back in the envelope. Perhaps Nyoman felt what
\nhe had done as a blessing for the family. It was not money that
\nmade them feel grateful to Hyang Widhi.<\/p>\n
\"Where's Gede?\" asked Wayan.<\/p>\n
\"Playing with his friends. Perhaps at Pak Agung's house. You
\nknow, Gung Nik has a new toy to play with. A new video game.\"<\/p>\n
\"Has he been there long?\"<\/p>\n
\"Long enough. He must be having a good time there.\"<\/p>\n
Wayan took off his cap and put it on the table. His wife
\nunderstood, and without being asked, went into the kitchen. She
\nreturned through the curtained door with a half-full glass of
\ncoffee on a wooden tray.<\/p>\n
Holding his hot black coffee, Wayan mused on the black days he
\nhad been through. He sipped his black coffee, reliving the
\nsuffering of those bleak days.<\/p>\n
It had been more than two years ago that Gede Sutarsa, their
\nonly son, had been taken ill. His wife took him to the community
\nhealth center. Full of hope, she let Gede take the medicine the
\ndoctor gave her.<\/p>\n
\"It's only a cold,\" the doctor told her.<\/p>\n
\"If it's only a cold, cayapult oil will cure him,\" Wayan said
\noptimistically. Normally, his son would have recovered in a
\ncouple of days. But this time Gede remained sick. This five-year-
\nold boy started complaining of a headache and of pain in the
\nchest. Returning to the health center after all the medicine had
\ngone, the doctor examined him more carefully.<\/p>\n
\"You should take the kid to the hospital. I'll write you a
\nreference. They have a laboratory and X-ray equipment there. He
\ncan have a sputum test and have an X-ray taken. He may be
\nsuffering from tuberculosis. Any of your relatives suffer from
\nTB? A neighbor? Or a maid?\"<\/p>\n
As far as Wayan knew, no one in the family had TB. Did they?
\nOne of his neighbors maybe? Who knew. And they did not have a
\nmaid.<\/p>\n
Then they took Gede to the hospital. He had an X-ray and a
\nsputum test. Wayan had to empty his wallet for those tests.<\/p>\n
\"Nothing is free in this country,\" he thought, but he still
\nfelt lucky because he did not have to pay too much for the
\nservice -- although he did have to queue for a long time.<\/p>\n
The tests were negative. Gede was quite healthy. No TB. Did he
\nperhaps have a heart problem? After all, he felt pain in the
\nchest, and a heart disease also gave you pain there, a pain like
\nbeing pinned down.<\/p>\n
A friend gave him some advice.<\/p>\n
\"You'd better take Gede to a specialist.\"<\/p>\n
\"Can't I take him to the one in the hospital?\"<\/p>\n
\"If you want better care, you must see the doctor at his
\nprivate surgery. You still have to queue, though. But don't
\nworry. See an internist. He will examine all the internal parts
\nof Gede's body.\"<\/p>\n
\"And he will also clean out the inner folds of my wallet,\"
\nWayan joked.<\/p>\n
But Wayan was not joking about Gede being examined by a
\nspecialist. He took him to Dr. Ngurah's private surgery. He was a
\nspecialist. \"He is an expert in examining what it is inside the
\nbody,\" Wayan thought.<\/p>\n
In the beginning of every new treatment, Wayan was always
\noptimistic. There was always hope for Gede's recovery from his
\nsickness, hope for their only son who would pray for their
\nparents when they died. At the end of every examination, Wayan
\nhoped that the next round of medication would work. He was
\nconvinced there was a cure for everything. The stream of medical
\nexamination, medication, prescription, and private surgery
\ngradually exhausted his money and he had to mortgage his only
\npiece of land, inherited from his parents. The purser in his
\noffice kept his bills.<\/p>\n
\"Gede suffers from a strange disease,\" an uncle told him.
\n\"Look for a balian.\"<\/p>\n
\"But this is the nineties. Could he really be suffering from
\nthat kind of disease?\"<\/p>\n
\"Don't dismiss it out of hand,\" the man said.<\/p>\n
\"Perhaps Gede has something to say but is keeping it to
\nhimself, maybe that's why he has become ill.\"<\/p>\n
\"That's an educated man's theory,\" his uncle replied. \"Just
\nthink about what the doctors said. Those smart people said Gede
\nwas completely healthy. So there can't there be anything wrong
\nwith him? Perhaps there is something wrong with us. Our ancestors
\nare angry with us, or perhaps they want something from us. You'd
\nbetter ask a balian about that.\"<\/p>\n
Personally, Wayan did not believe in quacks, but for the sake
\nof Gede's recovery, he let his uncle find one. No harm in trying.<\/p>\n
\"So it seems I'm right,\" his uncle pronounced, \"The balian
\nsaid that our ancestors are asking for something. They will
\nprepare for the banten, you only have to be ready with the
\nmoney.\"<\/p>\n
Only the money. Wayan had to think hard before adding to his
\ndebts. Money was not a simple matter for Wayan. It was easy to
\ntalk about but hard in practice.<\/p>\n
\"Mr. Wayan, you have exceeded your debt limit. Can't you try
\nto borrow money somewhere else?\" the finance officer in his
\noffice told him.<\/p>\n
\"I need money for my kid's medication, Sir.\"<\/p>\n
But the man only looked at him.<\/p>\n
\"Isn't there anything we can still sell?\" Wayan asked his
\nwife.<\/p>\n
\"The radio, perhaps?\" his wife suggested.<\/p>\n
\"An old radio won't sell for much. Perhaps only two thousand
\nrupiah,\" Wayan said.<\/p>\n
His wife looked sad and touched the necklace hanging around
\nher neck.<\/p>\n
\"How about this, Bli?\"<\/p>\n
Wayan could not say a word. The necklace with a heart
\nmedallion swung between Gede's recovery and the loss of past
\nmemories, since it was inherited from his wife's parents. His
\nwife seemed to read Wayan's mind.<\/p>\n
\"We can pawn it and buy it back when we have the money.\"<\/p>\n
It turned out that the money still could not pay for Gede's
\nrecovery. Even after they had made religious offerings, Gede
\nstayed ill. He coughed during the night, felt pain in his chest
\nand suffered from headaches during the day. And they could not
\nget the necklace back.<\/p>\n
In the dim light of evening, Wayan would observe his son's
\nface. Even when he was asleep, the boy seemed to be in agony.
\nPerhaps it was only Wayan's own suffering he saw. Perhaps it was
\nhim who felt terrible and he was projecting his own feelings onto
\nhis boy. Wayan wanted to weep, but there were no more tears left.
\nHe had cried in the early stages of Gede's illness. Gede lost his
\nfriends; the other boys had started to avoid him. He was seven
\nyears old, but had not been to school yet.<\/p>\n
And Wayan was dejected. Nothing was left to sell at home, and
\nGede was looking worse and worse. Wayan could not work in peace.
\nHe was frequently reprimanded by his editor.<\/p>\n
\"Your story is no good. You should concentrate on your job
\nmore.\"<\/p>\n
But he had concentrated, not only on his job but on how he
\ncould find medication for Gede's recovery. He had lost faith in
\nthe balian. He could not remember how many balian he had visited,
\nand they all gave him different explanations. One said that Gede
\nwas a victim of black magic. It was really aimed at Wayan, but
\nmissed and had attacked Gede instead. He asked the balian to
\nremove \"the package\" from Gede's body. A ritual was performed and
\nhe paid for it, but still Gede coughed and suffered.<\/p>\n
One told him that their ancestors wanted .....<\/p>\n
Another said that his house should be purified because the
\nland used to be a rice field ...<\/p>\n
A third said ....<\/p>\n
Yet another said ....<\/p>\n
Wayan stopped believing in them. Wayan stopped believing in
\nthe magical powers of the balian ....<\/p>\n
Until the end of the year.<\/p>\n
Wayan's grandfather, who lived in the mountains, came to visit
\nhim. He rarely saw the old man. Perhaps once or twice he had met
\nhim when he was only seven or eight years old. His father had
\ntaken him to the mountains. It had been a long journey. First
\nthey had traveled by bus, and then they had walked for half a day
\nto grandfather's hut. Despite the cold, Wayan had felt at peace
\nthere.<\/p>\n
\"Do you like it here with Wayah?\"<\/p>\n
\"Yes,\" he had said. He loved grandpa's hut. The old man had
\nsweet roasted cassava. He had a fireplace to warm himself, and he
\ncould put the unpeeled cassava in the fire.<\/p>\n
Grandpa had stroked Wayan's head.<\/p>\n
\"But you're better off going to live in town. You should go to
\nschool and become educated. Don't be like grandpa.\"<\/p>\n
\"I love it here.\"<\/p>\n
\"Of course you can visit me any time and stay here,\" he had
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Wayan did not know who had asked grandpa to come this time. It
\nhad been a long time since he had last seen him. The old man
\nlived alone, far away from the rest of the family. He rarely
\nattended family ceremonies at the family's sanggah. People often
\nhad trouble remembering whether grandpa was still alive or
\nwhether he had already died.<\/p>\n
\"So you visit us, Grandpa.\"<\/p>\n
\"Yes, I miss my grandson. And Gede is sick.\"<\/p>\n
\"How did you know that Gede is sick?\"<\/p>\n
The old man only smiled and said \"Yan, Grandpa can feel it.\"
\nThen he called Gede.<\/p>\n
\"Come here, De.\" He stretched out his hands and hoist the boy
\ninto his lap. From a cotton bag he tool a package wrapped in
\nbanana leaves. When he opened it, Wayan could see that it
\ncontained flowers.<\/p>\n
\"Burn this incense, Yan,\" he told Wayan.<\/p>\n
Without saying a word Wayan burned the incense grandpa gave
\nhim. Then grandpa carried Gede to the wooden bed and laid him
\nthere. He took off the boy's shirt and put the flowers next to
\nthe boy. He himself climbed up the bed and sat cross-legged
\nbeside the boy. He took the burning incense from Wayan's hand and
\nput it in between the fingers of both his hands. He closed his
\neyes, then he took some flowers and put them on Gede's chest. For
\na moment Gede groaned as if he felt deep pain, but it was not for
\nlong. Then, Wayan did not know how, he watched the blood ooze out
\nof grandpa's hand. In his hand he clutched some old Balinese pis
\nbolong.<\/p>\n
\"Take these in your left hand, wrap them in paper or leaves,
\nand then throw them into the sea,\" grandpa told Wayan.<\/p>\n
\"What are they, Grandpa?\"<\/p>\n
\"Just throw them away. The fight between Barong and Rangda is
\neternal. In the end, Barong always wins, but Rangda cannot really
\nbe defeated. He will constantly disturb us. So never forget to
\nmembakti,\" Grand said.<\/p>\n
Returning home from throwing the coins into the ocean, Wayan
\nfound his wife alone.<\/p>\n
\"Where is Gede?\"<\/p>\n
\"He is playing with the other kids.\"<\/p>\n
\"He's full of beans, and he told me the pain in his chest is
\ngone.\"<\/p>\n
\"But where is Grandpa?\"<\/p>\n
\"He said he wanted to take a walk.\"<\/p>\n
From that day on, Gede was healthy. Grandpa never turned up
\nagain.<\/p>\n
As Wayan sipped his black coffee, he realized the banknotes in
\nthe envelope were quite meaningless compared to Gede's recovery.
\nIt was their most precious New Year's Gift. A new year with a new
\ndevelopment: Gede was better.<\/p>\n
Grandpa never told him who had done this to him, but he had
\nbeen quite clear about some things. Rangda was never completely
\ndefeated. Never think that people will do you no harm even when
\nyou are kind. He recalled grandpa's advice: Doing good is much
\nbetter than doing evil. Believe in Sang Hyang Widhi. When the law
\ndoes not work in the world, it will work there in the hereafter.<\/p>\n
Sunaryono Basuki Ks was born in Malang, East Java in 1941. He
\nteaches English literature and art at the Department of Languages
\nof Art, the School of Teachers Training and Education, Singaraja,
\nBali. He has published seven novels and some anthologies of
\npoetry. He also writes for newspapers.<\/p>\n
Note:
\n Red Banknotes = Ten thousand rupiah notes
\n Hyang Widhi = God of the Balinese Hindus
\n Balian = Traditional Balinese doctor
\n banten = Offering
\n Bli = A respectful form of address for a man
\n Wayah = Grandpa
\n Sanggah = Shrine
\n Pis Bolong = A old Balinese coin with a hole in the middle
\n Barong and Rangda = Symbol of Good and Evil
\n Membakti = Pray to God<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/barong-1447899208",
"image": ""
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