Destiny<\/p>\n
By Lie Hua<\/p>\n
\"So you are Rusmini's daughter?\" he asked again, his eyes
\ngazing penetratingly at the fair-skinned girl with an oval face,
\nher hair cut short to reveal the nape of her neck.<\/p>\n
As if disbelieving his eyes, the man, in his mid-forties,
\nasked again, wanting confirmation that she was indeed Rusmini's
\ndaughter. Taken aback, the girl could only answer in a weak
\nvoice.<\/p>\n
\"So alike, so alike, no wonder,\" the man said again, nodding
\nhis head, the hair graying and receding. Then he looked at her
\nagain up and down, making her stand awkwardly, moving her right
\nleg and her left leg forward in turn.<\/p>\n
The two of them were standing outside an empty classroom. All
\nthe students had rushed out as soon as the bell rung.<\/p>\n
The girl, a newcomer, was getting ready to leave when the
\nteacher, Mr. Fuad, approached her and said he wanted to have a
\nword with her. He asked her which school she came from and why
\nshe had moved to this one. She answered the questions
\nefficiently. Nina was a rather quiet girl. She would talk only
\nwhen she thought it necessary to. She found it rather strange
\nthat the teacher had suddenly come up with a question about her
\nparents. She knew she could have mentioned any name but the
\nteacher's eyes, as if begging for an honest answer, told her she
\nhad to tell the truth. So she told him her father's name was
\nLukman and her mother's Rusmini. It was when she mentioned her
\nmother's name that she noticed a change in her teacher's
\nexpression. He knitted his brows together a number of times and
\nhis eyes were moving as if in search of something lost. Quite a
\nlong silence ensued before she heard Mr. Fuad ask her to confirm
\nthat her mother was Rusmini.<\/p>\n
\"So you are here with your parents?\" he asked. What a silly
\nquestion to ask, she mumbled to herself. A girl of sixteen lives
\nwith her parents naturally.<\/p>\n
\"Yes,\" Nina said. For a brief moment she noticed Mr. Fuad's
\nface beam. Then the history teacher sat down, his eyes looking
\nfar off into the distance. Nina was still standing. \"Come on, let
\nme go,\" she said to herself. Mom must be waiting. The first day
\nat a new school and coming home late. She knew her mother would
\nbe waiting anxiously, especially after reading horrifying media
\nreports on the increasing crime rate in the capital.<\/p>\n
\"Take care,\" her mom had told her just before she left the
\nhouse that morning. They had moved from a small town in West Java
\nfollowing her father's promotion to a position at head office. On
\nher first day in Jakarta, she had had a headache. People were
\neverywhere. On foot, in buses, in automobiles, on motorcycles, on
\nbikes. All sorts of people. All indifferent to her.<\/p>\n
Mr. Fuad was still sitting in the same position, his eyes
\ntransfixed at something Nina could not see. Thinking she had to
\nfill the silence, Nina emboldened herself to ask if she could
\nleave.<\/p>\n
\"Oh yes, yes, yes, of course,\" Mr. Fuad said, as if waking up
\nfrom a deep slumber. He looked at Nina's face again, nodding his
\nhead several times. Nina did not know what to do. She only wanted
\nto run home, to her waiting mother.<\/p>\n
\"So you are Rusmini's daughter. How alike,\" the teacher
\nrepeated. Then he took out his wallet and fumbling into it, he
\nproduced an old folded piece of paper, yellowed by time. He
\nlooked at it briefly and then moved to his desk. Nina was
\nfollowing her teacher's actions with curious eyes. Mr. Fuad took
\nout an envelope and put the paper into it. Then he wrote
\nsomething on the envelope and looked at it again. There was an
\nobvious hesitation in his eyes. He was lightly holding the
\nenvelope in his right hand and then turned to Nina. The girl
\napproached him.<\/p>\n
\"This is for your mother. Just tell her it's from an old
\nfriend,\" Mr. Fuad said in a flat tone. \"You may go home now. By
\nthe way, I'm sorry for keeping you here.\"<\/p>\n
She felt a heavy burden fall off her shoulders. Before she
\nleft, she could still notice the wrinkles on Mr Fuad's face. It
\nwas a dark face. But Nina was too young to understand that a
\nperson's expression can change within seconds. Man's heart is not
\nto be fathomed but the reflection in his face hardly tells a lie.<\/p>\n
Nina half ran, eagerly wishing to be in her mother's embrace.
\nFuad followed her until she disappeared outside the school
\nbuilding. He heaved a deep sigh. Then he took out something else
\nfrom his wallet. He looked at it closely, very closely. Then he
\nkissed it lightly and heaved a deep sigh again.<\/p>\n
Rusmini was at the peak of her anxiety. On the first day of
\nschool and her daughter was so late in coming home. This is
\nJakarta and anything can happen to anybody, let alone a young
\npretty girl like Nina. She had read in today's newspaper that a
\nteenage girl, not much older than Nina, had been gang raped by a
\nnumber of jobless youths. Another story said a girl the same age
\nas Nina had been missing for days and was found later dead --
\nraped and mutilated. The horrors of the capital made her ever
\nmore restless and anxious.<\/p>\n
She was just about to telephone Lukman and ask him to pick
\nNina up at school when she heard the voice she was waiting for.<\/p>\n
Nina was at the door. She looked tired. The hot weather had
\nmade her face red. She was sweating, too. Nina had to transfer
\nbuses twice and then walk about 100 meters home.<\/p>\n
She opened the door and was perplexed by Nina's gaze at her.
\nThe girl did not hug her which was her habit. She simply stood in
\nfront of her, some 50 centimeters away.<\/p>\n
\"What is it, dear? What's happened to you,\" she asked. The
\ncrime scenes she had read about in the newspaper flooded her
\nmind. Cold sweat stood out on her back, arms and face.<\/p>\n
\"What is it, dear?\" she whispered again as Nina stood still,
\nnot saying a word to her.<\/p>\n
Nina slowly opened her school bag, the one her mother bought
\nher for school moments before they left for the capital. She took
\nsomething out: A white envelope. Nina placed it in her mother's
\nright hand.<\/p>\n
Rusmini took it, and drew it toward her in a slightly
\ntrembling, wet hand. She was curious. Without asking Nina what it
\nwas or who it was from, she opened the envelope and found an old
\nyellowish piece of paper. She unfolded it and suddenly huge
\nletters jumped out at her. The whole world was bright. Too
\nbright. Dazzlingly bright. Then darkness fell upon her.<\/p>\n
A quarter of a century earlier a young man and woman promised
\nto wed each other, come hell or high water. They had been going
\ntogether for close to six years when one day they decided to
\npromise before God that they would not forsake each other despite
\ntheir families' opposition to their union.<\/p>\n
The young man was a sailor. He was on the boat for months and
\nthen returned home for a brief period. Then he was out sailing
\nagain. He was quite handsome and would make a fine husband.<\/p>\n
His girlfriend's family, however, would like him to find a job
\non land. Sailing was risky, they would tell her. Yet the girl was
\nobstinate. Love had complete control over her. She would rather
\ndie than be separated from her lover.<\/p>\n
So that morning, she snuck away to meet him in a clearing one
\nkilometer away. It was a clear morning. The sun was shining
\nbrightly. Birds were chirping, flitting from one twig to another.
\nThere under a leafy banyan tree, the boy was sitting. The two
\nwere silent. Their hearts talked.<\/p>\n
\"Let's now promise to ourselves that no matter what, we will
\nnever leave one another.\" Then they kissed and hugged, softly,
\ntimidly.<\/p>\n
Three months later the shocking news came. The ship sank
\nsomewhere in the Mediterranean with reportedly no survivors. Her
\nboyfriend had been on board the ship. She fainted.<\/p>\n
Days passed. Years came and went. Old wounds healed. Rusmini
\nnever heard another thing about her fiance. She got married to
\nanother man and had a daughter.<\/p>\n
The history teacher was still sitting in his chair. His eyes
\nwere transfixed at an object far away.<\/p>\n
\"So you are Rusmini's daughter. That's why,\" he kept mumbling.<\/p>\n
It was the letter he meant to post to Rusmini as soon as he
\narrived at Port Said in Egypt. The first letter after their
\nsolemn promise, in which his dream about their future was painted
\nin rosy letters.<\/p>\n
Destiny sets its own course. It kept Fuad alive, the lone
\nsurvivor struggling for his dear life for days in an alien sea.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/destiny-1447899208",
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