Mawar's Eyes<\/p>\n
By Maria Magdalena Bhoernomo<\/p>\n
Mawar was sitting on the veranda with her face tilted slightly
\nupwards into the cool of the morning. She had just turned six.
\nHer mom and dad said it was time for her to go to elementary
\nschool.<\/p>\n
Mawar suddenly smiled as the image of a crowded elementary
\nschool flashed into her mind. She remembered all the times she
\nheard excited children gaily laughing and joking with one another
\nbefore school began and during the breaks.<\/p>\n
She was familiar with the noisy atmosphere of school though
\nshe was blind. From the time she was three years old, her Mom had
\nintroduced her to school life. Almost every day Mom had asked
\nMawar to accompany her when taking her brother, Eko, a third
\ngrader, to school.<\/p>\n
\"Are you brave enough to go to school now, Mawar?\" Dad asked
\nbefore leaving for the office, gazing at her with a deep sense of
\nconcern. Dad now seemed to have given up hope of finding a cure
\nfor her blindness. He had tried almost every conceivable way,
\nboth medical and supernatural, to restore her sight. He had been
\nto countless ophthalmologists, as well as numerous psychics and
\nshamans, who recommended various weird treatments, but Mawar
\nremained as blind as ever. People said that blindness from birth
\nis incurable. Mawar might simply have been destined to be blind.<\/p>\n
Mom appeared from the dining room, smiling and carrying a
\nglass of chocolate milk. \"Mawar, you forgot your drink after
\nbreakfast, didn't you, honey?\"<\/p>\n
Mawar smiled, her hand groping for the glass. She immediately
\nheld up the glass, then guzzled down the sweet milk. Seeing Mawar
\nthoroughly enjoying her favorite drink, Dad smiled, teasing: \"My
\ngoodness, if you keep drinking so much milk, you'll surely become
\na little fatty and your body will blow up like a big barrel.\"<\/p>\n
Mawar and Mom burst out laughing.<\/p>\n
\"And when your body's like a barrel, you'll roll round and
\nround when you fall down, darling,\" her father said jokingly.<\/p>\n
Mawar giggled. Dad kissed her forehead before getting into his
\ncar.<\/p>\n
\"You should also bring your chocolate milk along when you go
\nto school like your brother always does,\" Mom said.<\/p>\n
Mom, however, knew in her heart of hearts that her blind
\ndaughter would never be an elementary school pupil. But as a
\nmother she needed to console the child, who was so eager to go to
\nschool.<\/p>\n
Again, Mawar flashed a broad smile.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Mawar was really excited when one morning Mom asked her come
\nalong to be registered as a new student in the neighborhood
\nschool.<\/p>\n
\"I'm terribly sorry, Ma'am. We have never had a blind student.
\nWe can't make a decision on whether your daughter can be accepted
\nas a student here. All depends on the school principal. But, I
\ncan register your daughter as a student here for the time being!\"
\nthe teacher in charge of registration stated.<\/p>\n
Mawar became gloomy, causing Mom to console her at once.<\/p>\n
\"You'll be accepted here, Mawar!\"<\/p>\n
Mawar did not utter a word. At home she sat on the veranda,
\nsaying nothing all afternoon.<\/p>\n
\"Hi, Mawar! You've registered yourself as a new student at the
\nschool, haven't you?\" Dad asked as soon as he stepped into the
\nhouse from the office.<\/p>\n
Mawar remained quiet, her face gloomy.<\/p>\n
\"Eh, why are you so quiet, honey? Have you lost your tongue?\"
\nDad teased her, kissing her on the forehead.<\/p>\n
Suddenly Mawar burst into tears. \"I may never be able to go to
\nschool, Dad!\"<\/p>\n
\"Who says that you can't go to school, Mawar?\" Dad asked,
\ndisappointed.<\/p>\n
Mawar sobbed uncontrollably.<\/p>\n
Dad took a deep breath, thinking: \"It's time now to tell her
\nthat she can never become an elementary school student. She'll
\nonly be able to go to a special school, not to one for physically
\nhealthy children.\" He then advised her to be prepared to study at
\na special school for the blind.<\/p>\n
\"I don't want to go to a school that's far away,\" Mawar cried
\nout between her sobs.<\/p>\n
\"The special school for children like you is very far from
\nhere, darling, I admit. But you don't have to worry. I'll take
\nyou there,\" Dad assured her.<\/p>\n
Mom suddenly came out of the house: It's okay, please don't
\ncry. If you don't want to go to a distant school, you can always
\nstay at home. I can teach you how to read and write.<\/p>\n
Mawar wiped away her tears.<\/p>\n
Eyes also moist, dad went quickly into the house. He couldn't
\nbear to see his radiant daughter suffer. Like her mother, Mawar
\nwas truly beautiful. Dad threw himself onto the bed, sobbing. He
\nwas overwhelmed with the feelings of regret that had been
\nhaunting him for so long in his life. The regrets of an
\nunfaithful husband who had contracted VD after having sex with a
\nwhore in a hotel when his wife was away in another town
\nconducting research. Sobbing, he recalled the night he spent in
\nthe hotel.<\/p>\n
\"Don't have sexual intercourse with your wife until you are
\nfully recovered,\" warned the doctor.<\/p>\n
Dad was not a sort of man who could contain his lust.
\nOblivious to the consequences, he made love to his wife before he
\nhad completely recovered, and got her pregnant again.<\/p>\n
After learning that mom was pregnant, he had started getting
\nworried as a few days earlier he had attended a seminar on
\nsexually transmitted diseases in which a speaker said:\" When a
\nman suffering from a venereal disease has sexual intercourse with
\na woman and makes her pregnant, there is be a high probability
\nthat the child will be born blind.<\/p>\n
Weeping and cursing himself, Dad ran his hands through his
\nhair, lamenting the foolishness that had caused Mawar's
\nblindness.<\/p>\n
\"What a damned fool I am! What a damned fool I am!\" he cried
\nrepeatedly.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Mom was actually aware of what had probably caused Mawar's
\nblindness, but knowing that he had atoned for his sins, she did
\nnot want to condemn Dad for what he had done as he had changed
\nafter realizing his mistake.<\/p>\n
Late at night, Mom heard Dad crying.<\/p>\n
\"You don't have to regret the past. What's important now is
\nthat you have made up for what you did. Perhaps Mawar was
\ndestined to be blind, anyway. If she were not blind, maybe you
\nwould have caught an even deadlier disease by now.\"<\/p>\n
\"I'm terribly sorry and I deserve to be cursed!\"<\/p>\n
\"It's okay. You'd better bring yourself closer to God, ask Him
\nfor forgiveness and pray to Him to grant us patience in bringing
\nMawar up,\" Mom advised him.<\/p>\n
Dad sobbed uncontrollably, cursing himself again and again.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Despite Mom and Dad's repeated encouragement, Mawar refused to
\ngo to a special school for the blind.<\/p>\n
\"If I can't go to regular elementary school, I'll stay at
\nhome,\" Mawar asserted firmly.<\/p>\n
Neither Mom nor Dad could do anything to make her change her
\nmind. Then, as Mom had once promised, she tried to learn Braille
\nso as to be able to teach Mawar. It was no easy job for Mom to
\nteach her blind child.<\/p>\n
\"You should learn Braille first,\" Dad suggested after asking
\nMom how Mawar was getting along with her lessons.<\/p>\n
After a futile six-month effort to learn Braille, Mom finally
\ngave up.<\/p>\n
\"My Goodness, it's not easy to master the system,\" Mom
\ncomplained.<\/p>\n
\"I think it would be best for us to get a special teacher for
\nher,\" Dad suggested.<\/p>\n
Mom was happy although it meant even more outlay.<\/p>\n
Six weeks passed, and Dad had still not found a special
\nteacher.<\/p>\n
\"Why don't you try to learn Braille yourself,\" Mom suggested.<\/p>\n
Dad took her advice. In his study at midnight, however, he
\nsuddenly thought about Mawar's unhappy future. He then cursed
\nhimself again. He imagined that her future would be bleak and her
\nworld dark without a ray of light anywhere.<\/p>\n
Unconsciously, he grabbed a pair of sharp scissors which he
\nalways used to open envelops and thrust them into his eyes. And
\nwith the scissors he gouged his right eye out, blood streaming
\ndown his right cheek, and with great pain he then gouged out the
\nother, fresh blood spurting from under his left eyelid.<\/p>\n
Dad screaming in pain, Mom rushing in crying hysterically.
\n\"Daddy, Daddy!\"<\/p>\n
Translated by Faldy Rasyidie<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/mawars-eyes-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }