Kang Giman

Ngatini Rasdi

There was a frightened look on the face of Kang (older brother) Giman when he returned from his rice field. He flung his hoe into a corner of the kitchen and hurried into his bedroom.

It was still early in the morning and Marti, his wife, had yet to leave for the market.

"What's up, Kang?" she asked, worried, coming into the bedroom and seeing her husband's pale face.

"You said you'd only be back by the afternoon."

"I'm scared!" he replied. His body was quivering.

"Of whom?"

"The police"

She was confused; her husband kept to himself, was a good man and had never been in trouble with the law.

"What do you mean?"

"I saw many policemen in the rice field. They are sure to take possession of our rice field," he said in a trembling voice.

Now she knew; the rumor was going around that a factory was planned for the area, and policemen had been seen walking in the fields.

The factory would mean that people would have to be moved from their land. And if they did not go willingly, then the police would be called upon to make sure they were evicted. In neighboring villages it had already happened, when a rich businessman wanted to buy the land at a fraction of its price.

"Don't be afraid of these policemen, Kang. They will not arrest you because you are not a criminal. They may just want to find out what the rice fields look like. Who knows, they may just want to get acquainted with people like you, Kang.

"But one of them was rude to me. He shouted at me!" Kang Giman said.

Marti chuckled. "It's only your feelings, Kang. Perhaps this policeman only wanted to command respect. Don't you think that a policeman must be firm in his attitude?"

Kang Giman pouted.

"Come on. You are not a criminal nor a fugitive. What must you be afraid of?" she said. Then she left for the market.

But Kang Giman could not rid himself of his fears. He quickly shut the door and all the windows in the house. "Nobody will think that I'm inside," he thought.

An hour passed but Kang Giman could not sleep. His fear mounted; He imagined himself being arrested, taken to a jail call and beaten up. He remembered telling his fellow villagers a long time ago, when they heard of what had happened in the other village, to unite and defend their rice fields to the last drop of blood.

"Isn't it possible that the policemen were here because someone had told them something about me?" he said to himself.

* * *

On her way to the market, Marti saw several policemen in the rice field, standing with other men, all smartly dressed.

Marti walked faster. She wanted to finish her business at the market as soon as possible and then return home. Her husband's behavior worried her.

When she finally arrived at the market, she noticed that some people were staring at her.

"Please, is there anything strange about me today?" she asked one of her neighbors.

"Is your husband still in his rice field?" the woman responded.

"No. What did my husband do there?" Marti asked.

"I saw a policeman shout at your husband and point his gun at him."

"Why?"

"People said your husband dared to look at the policeman in the face."

"Just that?"

"And it was also said that your husband once told us to defend the rice fields to the death."

Marti snorted. After all, many of the villagers had been talking about Kang Giman's determination to defend his rice field.

"You'd better tell your husband not to fight. The little people will never win."

Marti snorted again and then hurried home. She felt increasingly worried about Kang Giman, alone at home.

She could not get in when she got home.

"Kang Giman!" she shouted.

There was no answer.

"Get up, Kang. Open the door!"

When there was still no response, her heart beat faster.

She wildly knocked on the door, shouting her husband's name. She took a piece of wood and began banging hard on the door hinges until it broke.

But the bedroom door was also locked.

"Get up, Kang! Get up! Open the door!" she shouted, crying.

Still there was no answer.

She took the plank once again and broke the bedroom door open.

There, on their small bed, her husband, pale and shivering, was tucked up.

"Come on, Kang, don't be afraid of the police. Come to yourself, Kang!" she cried, hugging him closely. Still, Kang Giman said nothing.

* * *

Kang Giman still refused to leave his bedroom. Days changed into weeks and weeks into months. Marti asked several psychics to help her husband but to no avail.

After two years had elapsed, Kang Giman finally left his bedroom and sat on the veranda. Sometimes, he would even walk a short distance. But it was hard, for word had got around about his problem and he would be met by stares and pitying smiles.

"The police are coming, the police are coming," some of the local kids would shout as he went by. It would send him running frenziedly into the safety of his house.

Finally, one morning Kang Giman was ready to leave the house and return to his field. He was carrying his hoe and wearing his usual head covering.

"Where are you going, Kang?" Marti said.

"Where else? To the rice field, of course."

Marti could not hold back her tears. Kang Giman finally looked like himself. Unfortunately, all the rice fields had been taken over by the construction of the factory site. But the crisis had come, and now it was abandoned, overgrown with weeds.

"Don't go, Kang. There are policemen in the rice field!" Marti said that morning. He put his hoe down and went back to bed.

She would say this every day to her husband when he emerged carrying his hoe. And, every day, he would return to his bedroom, frightened and pale.

-- Translated by Lie Hua