FONDLING
PAREWANG 1

Today Mbah Kakung finally died of age also after experiencing a long illness. Gondo Sasmita, that is the name Mbah Kung is very famous in our city as one of the conglomerates in a city in Central Java.

Mbah Kung died at the age of 103. He even still looks dashing and youthful at that age so that makes some people have time to ask him what the recipe of youth is.

"Kajin woke up early," that's Mbah Kung's answer whenever people asked him what the recipe for youth was

As a person who died with abundant wealth assets certainly makes the descendants of Mbah Kung fighting for each other's inheritance. It is common that if a man dies leaving property, his heirs will surely fight for inheritance.

Such is human nature, his greedy attitude will appear when looking at material possessions. When Mbah Kung was sick, no one would take care of him but my mother.

As the only daughter My mother had to take care of Mbah Kakung who was sick for a long time, but sadly she even got the least inheritance among the other Mbah Kung children.

They even just give the mother a quiet and unkempt food stall with an old house Mbah Kung that has not been maintained since he was sick.

But I still don't complain and accept everything with Legawa.

"You are Sri's youngest child, so I think only you are suitable to bequeath our family business" said Mr. De Danu

"Yes, anyways we are not suitable men if it becomes a rice basket," added Mr. De Seto

"Yes, no papa Mas, let me continue Romo's business. After all Romo has entrusted me and I have also agreed to it," replied Mother

"Yaudah then, now everything is clear so please disperse," concluded Mr. De Danu then left the family room followed by others.

Only the mother who still sat dumbstruck staring at the painting Mbah Kung displayed in the living room.

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At half-five in the morning I heard the sound of someone pounding rice with dimples. His voice was so loud that I could not close my eyes anymore. I rushed out of my bedroom and headed to the back where the sound came from.

I saw my mother swinging the pestle and pounding the paddy hanging behind the house so excitedly.

Seeing mother alone doing it I also intend to help her, but unfortunately mother forbid it subtly. My mother asked me to do another job.

I saw Mom looking happy when she hit the dimple, her smile seemed to expand like someone who was meeting her heart.

After pounding the rice, the mother then brought the rice to our food stall which was not far from home.

It turned out that Mom used the rice she mashed herself for the rice she sold.

I once advised to hire people to pound rice or buy rice only good quality for rice selling Mom, he said, but he always rejected it on the grounds that it was his secret stall recipe handed down by Mbah Kung.

Mother also said if the recipe can not be lost if they want to keep their food stalls selling.

Although our food stalls are not so rame but since held by Mother, the restaurant became very crowded to have many branches throughout Central Java.

The business of the rapidly growing mother's food stalls make the de envious sir and ask the mother to give the house of Mbah kung to them because the mother already has many rice stalls.

Again the mother was not angry and let Mr. De Danu and Seto take the Mbah house that should belong to the mother.

He relented and bought a new house as our residence.

I even got angry with Mom because she was too good to make her two brothers always oppress her. But mom just answered casually every time I argued with her.

"The treasure was not brought to death Le, so for what we are the seizure of property that is not ours. It belongs to Mbah Kung so let them take it" replied Mother

That day when I was about to return to the city because the semester holiday period was over, we had the arrival of a collector of antique objects.

The man was interested in my mother's dimples. He even bid with high treasures, but my mother loudly refused him.

"You dare pay what my life is for!" exclaim my mother in a high tone

Hearing Mom's sadistic-sounding answer made the antique collectors rush away.

Indeed the dimple is the only legacy Mbah Kung has, so it is only natural that the mother defended the antique desperately. Moreover, I've heard that Mbah Kung also forbade Mom to sell the dimple let alone give it to others.

That was my mother's daily life while running the Mbah Kung heritage food stall. Seeing that life was going back to normal, I decided to go back to Jakarta to continue my studies.

Some knew then that my father had asked me to come home because my mother was sick.

When I got home, my dad hugged me. He then drove me to meet his mother in his room.

I saw Mom looking skinny lying on her bed. His face looked like a tired man.

I hugged him tightly. It felt like my mother's body was just a bone, making me feel sorry for her.

"Mother must be tired from taking care of the food stall alone so it hurts" I said while helping her sit down.

Mom just smiled as she looked at the large mirror in her room.

He then asked me to straighten his hair.

While combing Mom's hair, I also invited her to talk to her.

Finished tidying Mother's hair, I also took her for a walk to the front of the house.

Because mother is still weak I purposely led her.

Mother stopped her steps as she passed the rice mortar that was placed in the backyard.

"For a long time I haven't been feeding you" said Mother staring at the rice dimple.

I don't know why I feel weird when I see my mom say that line, like she's talking to someone.

Suddenly my hair stood up as my mother rubbed the dimple. He treated the rice mortar like a human being. Mother even covered him with a special cloth so that the dimples were not dirty.

For the size of luxury items maybe I do not care if the mother treats it excessively because it has a high selling value.

But for the size of an old rice mortar I think this is quite excessive.

Not only covered with a special cloth, the mother even cleaned the dimple with special water given a set of flowers.

Of course this mother's behavior makes me a little wonder, what exactly are you keeping secret?..

The next morning I was startled by the sound of dimples coming back, out of curiosity I rushed to the backyard to see who pounded the rice this early.

I can't believe it when I saw that Mother who still looked weak yesterday was pounding rice using the mortar.