Fired up by the freaky people next door<\/p>\n
Santi W.E. Soekanto, Contributor\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
Dear house renters, some words of advice.<\/p>\n
Never live next to a kleptomaniac. If you have to, install
\nstrong bars on your window frames as well as good locks, and be
\nsure to have only one set of keys.<\/p>\n
And never, ever live next to a kleptomaniac who is also a
\nterrorist in the making.<\/p>\n
These tips, like other well-grounded pearls of wisdom, come
\nfrom having to live almost all my adult life renting one house
\nafter another, as money is always too tight to even place a down
\npayment for a house of our own.<\/p>\n
You get to meet all sorts of people. You do not usually have
\nto get along with all of them, you need to just endure them until
\nthe year is up and again you have to pack up and hunt for a new
\nplace.<\/p>\n
Once in a while, you meet nice people who make you feel sorry
\nabout having to move again. Once in another while, however, you
\nwould be better off living next to Count Dracula.<\/p>\n
Shortly after we moved to Depok, outside of Jakarta, we began
\nto know our neighbors. There is Lady, a dignified woman caught
\ntoo soon by widowhood, who sometimes looks wistfully at couples
\npassing by.<\/p>\n
There is Aisyah, an IT graduate who spends her days now
\nchasing after small kids and who seems to fall pregnant if
\nsomeone so much as blinks. There is Mrs. Azzam, a political party
\nactivist who never wastes any time in her effort to rope in new
\nsupporters, distributing party stickers and other insignia.<\/p>\n
Then there was Mutiara, a young mother of two and a short-time
\nhouse renter, who came to me fortnightly to borrow some money. I
\nthink it was because I wear a head scarf that Mutiara usually
\npeppered her pleas for a loan with statements that she was a new
\nMuslim convert, and that her \"still-Christian\" parents would
\nsupply her with untold wealth if only she was willing to return
\nto them and reclaim their faith.<\/p>\n
I stopped paying attention after checking with her husband and
\nlandlady and finding out she was not a convert, and that her
\nmother was born Muslim.<\/p>\n
There is also Bang (Brother) Ucup, the plump ojek (motorcycle
\ntaxi) driver, who seems to become rabidly jealously if I choose
\nto use the service of another ojek to transport me to places too
\nnear for a bus, but too far for me to walk the distance.<\/p>\n
Paijan, the former chicken seller who drives his motorcycle
\nmore carefully so that naturally I find his service more
\npreferable, once had to endure the inquiry from Ucup as to why I
\nalways choose him.<\/p>\n
\"Because I drive more carefully,\" Paijan answered truthfully.<\/p>\n
\"Bah! Excuses, excuses!\" Ucup said.<\/p>\n
My husband was rather upset.<\/p>\n
\"Did Ucup say that? Excuse me! What other reasons could you
\nhave for preferring Paijan over Ucup?\" he demanded heatedly.
\n\"It's not like you are choosing ojek drivers based on their
\nlooks!\"<\/p>\n
\"Well, no,\" I said, trying to placate him. \"Otherwise, I would
\nhave asked you to become my ojek driver. You are the best looking
\nman in the neighborhood.\"<\/p>\n
The neighbor who later became my most compelling reason to
\nfind another place was Sheila, a young mother of one and the
\ndaughter in law of our own landlord.<\/p>\n
Shortly after we moved in, small things began to disappear,
\nincluding my new, unopened bottle of face cream. When we spoke to
\nneighbors about the incidents, it was Sheila's husband who told
\nus that he suspected his wife was the culprit because she had
\nstolen from his family several times in the past.<\/p>\n
We confronted her and, weeping, she begged us to forgive her.<\/p>\n
\"You see, Ibu, my husband has threatened to divorce me again.
\nHe keeps on watching blue movies at home. He speaks for hours on
\nthe telephone with his ex-girlfriend ...\"<\/p>\n
How did she enter the house? Well, she kept a set of keys from
\nbefore we moved in. So, we installed strong bars onto the window
\nframes and changed the locks, and let her off the hook. However,
\nshe broke in again and stole a few times whenever she had
\ndisagreements or felt in anyway insecure in her relationship with
\nher husband.<\/p>\n
But even those were nothing compared to what we later had to
\nlearn -- that our plump neighbor was actually a terrorist.<\/p>\n
A strange sight greeted me on my doorstep one evening upon
\nreaching home from work -- a small, gift-wrapped box. It was at
\nthe time when reports of terrorist bombs abounded.<\/p>\n
I was at the time working for this newspaper, and had covered
\nstories about journalists being murdered because of their
\nreporting. But I thought, \"Who would ever, ever send a mail bomb
\nto moi? I am nothing!\"<\/p>\n
I begged Allah for protection, and gingerly opened the
\npackage. Inside were two small rocks and lots of razor blades.<\/p>\n
Someone is stupid enough to want to hurt me! Naturally, I went
\nnext door. Sheila emerged still wearing her prayer veil, and told
\nme in a worried tone that a man on a motorcycle wearing a helmet
\nhad come in the afternoon looking for me. He had left the
\npackage, she said.<\/p>\n
\"He was tall, his voice was deep, he was wearing dark clothing
\nand a helmet, so I didn't get a good look at him,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Looking back, I realize how stupid I had been in not pressing
\nher further for details.<\/p>\n
Finally, a telephone call: \"The
\nsecond...package...will...cause...you...more...trouble!\"<\/p>\n
I knew that voice. I hung up and ran next door to confront my
\nneighbor. \"It's been you all the time!\"<\/p>\n
Suddenly, she crumpled. Weeping, she pulled me in by the hand,
\nsat me down on her sofa and tried to place her head on my lap.<\/p>\n
\"Please Ibu, forgive me. Please don't tell my husband or my
\nparents in law. They will make my husband divorce me!\"<\/p>\n
I sighed. Another house hunting session was in store.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/fired-up-by-the-freaky-people-next-door-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }