Mystery of Room 13

Mystery of Room 13
Part 23: The Smile is Back


I could not imagine the sorrow that Father would feel, if I really had to experience and disappear without a trace like Gayatri. I don't know if his heart will be broken. Can he endure the pain.


"Here, don't cry anymore. Pray that what happened to Gayatri will not happen to you. Han, I'm going inside first huh. I need to see how the production building is doing now. Hopefully nothing is badly damaged so we do not need to ask for new items to the boss. If we ask, the business will be even longer because surely every person who violates is dismissed unilaterally by the company."


I just nodded weakly. These eyes were bowed again and I stared at the screen of my dead phone and then I turned it on again. I don't know what to do to get rid of my death. Social media has not made me forget the problems.


"Mr... Sister Hanna, come on, get home!" I was surprised when suddenly Beautiful was already beside me. Maybe it was because I was too busy daydreaming and imagining something that hadn't even happened yet that I didn't know it was coming.


"Well, when did you get out of the building?"


"From that moment, Ma'am. My mouth ached because it called Mbak Hanna many times but Mbak Hanna did not look. Ma'am Hanna don't daydream, I call her it's been many times lo."


"I'm sorry, it's beautiful. Hanna's mom really didn't hear you call."


"Yes already. Come on, let's go home. Beautiful doesn't want to be here. Beautiful still cringe every remember the same incident last night. A new age to see with their own eyes, usually only see in the video mystery story. Amit-amit jabang baby. Hopefully this is the first and last time there is a scene as scary as this in Indah's life," he said as he walked towards the parking lot while I only smiled faintly.


What is seen Beautiful is still nothing compared to the terrors that I have experienced so far. On the way home, Indah invited me to stop by for breakfast first. However, I rejected it because for me the most important thing now was to just rest and calm my raging mind.


I also want to call my family in Ungaran. I want to listen to the voice of my father and my brother Arum, because I don't know what's going to happen in the future. Will I still be breathing here or will I be the same fate as Gayatri, lost without a trace and never returned.


"Mother Hanna isn't hungry? Last night Hanna's energy drained."


"No, I want to go home. If you want to buy breakfast, it's okay. I went back to my index first. I'm gonna take a break."


"Don't! Ma'am just go home. Buy breakfast near home."


On the way home, I was more silent and preoccupied with my own thoughts. It was beautiful to ask me if I was okay. Beautiful question only I responded with a smile that I threw at him through the reflection in the rearview mirror. I want Beautiful to know that I'm okay.


Beautiful house looks quiet and no occupants. My mom and dad have gone to work. I put myself in bed without changing my uniform. Last night's events are back. I hurriedly called my father because I desperately needed his warm embrace. I need to hear her soothing voice.


Immediately I sought out my father's contact and contacted him immediately. If I usually prefer voice calls when communicating with my father, then this time I prefer direct video calls. I wanted to see her face firm and fierce, yet once I missed it. True to say, the first love of a daughter is her father, not her lover or husband.


When the call is connected after a long wait. I could see my father's thin mustachioed face. Wrinkles on his face did not reduce his dignity and good looks when he was young. Although only a farmer and a manual laborer, my father was among the most handsome men in his village.


"Assalamualaikum, sir," I said as I waved at the camera.


"Wa-waalaikumsalam, Nduk." The words of the father who sounded stuttered and weak made me speechless and felt that something was wrong because the father who usually spoke loudly and firmly, how could it change. I noticed my father's pale face and his cheeks were a little thin.


"Sir, eat first yes, so you can take medicine." I could hear the voice of my brother who was persuading my father to eat and take medicine. Actually why father? Is he sick? I saw him stick a finger to his mouth and set his gaze to the right.


"Sick father?"


"No! You are in good health. Don't you worry."


"Lo that was, why did Madam Arum ask you to take medicine?"


"Hes, that's ordinary, your mother always makes the same sprain as your mother. You sneeze a little directly bought a sack of medicine."


I have it right the father does not like it the most if told to take medicine. The problem now is actually what father is sick. Just a few days I left already looking skinny and also pale like that. His lips were slightly down, his speech was also stuttering.


"What does the father feel?"


"The father is in good health, Nduk. You how in Solo, smoothly right? Not feel at home? Your grip still no? If you say the same father, let me send money." My tears welled up, when his condition was not in a good state, the brown-skinned man still thought about my needs.


"Alah, sir, now it's not the time to send money using money orders. Now we have mobile phone tucks, the money has arrived." Mbak Arum nimbrung in our chat. He also seemed to be holding a bowl of rice porridge.


"Effused, Sir. I've been waiting for Hanna."


"Don't you want to eat, Mommy?"


"Yes, he said he misses his favorite son. Han, persuade me to eat the same as taking medicine. Penance me, all the way I do let the father want to eat, the result I got scorned throughout the train."


"Father eat yes. Later if you do not want to eat, Hanna does not want to go back to Ungaran and find a husband of Solo people, if necessary find people outside the island."


"Followly, the daughter of her two seneng threatened. You're the same mom. Yeah, where's the bowl. I'll eat it just so I don't get your talk."


I smiled with relief as the bowl of porridge was now on my father's lap. However, a moment later my smile turned into tears, as I saw my father painstakingly grasping the spoon.


"Sir, let Arum bribe." My father refused on the grounds that he was still not paralyzed so he could do it himself. Several times the porridge spilled and dirty the clothes and pants of the father.


"Sir..."


"Yes. Eat it slowly, sir. The important thing is that the stomach fills up and also take the medicine."


The man I made the role model smiled widely, as if asking me not to worry about his condition which was clearly not okay.


"Sir, Hanna please let me talk to Ms. Arum for a moment, yes."


"Why not talk now? Do you want to play secrets with your father?"


"Biarin dong, sir. Hanna's a big girl, maybe there's something she wants to ask or tell her about a girl."


"What questions can your father not answer?" said the father with a haughty tone. I laughed amusedly. It is true that all questions can be answered because even though only a farmer, the father includes people who are literate in technology. Not only that, the latest rumors about the artist also father never miss.


"Mmm, like how it feels to menstruate or maybe Hanna wants to ask a trick so that her boyfriend approves of her father. If it's like that, it means you'll soon have another grandchild."


"Oh, can't. Hanna must be content to enjoy her youth first, about getting married later."


I just laughed at my father and brother.


"Already, talk to the pot basket like Arum will not be finished. There you guys talk. If your mother still exists, this house market is rich in bird markets."


"Lo, there is a saying that the fruit falls not far from the tree. If the mother talks along the train then the children along the tracks. Yes, Han." I agree with my brother's words.


"No idea, it's up to you."


The laughter echoes because in the end the father chose to end this endless debate by admitting defeat from his two daughters.


I gave Mbak Arum the code to get out of my father's room with difficulty continuing to eat. Ma'am Arum walked up to his room and locked him up.


"Sir, why is it? Why does it look different?" I flocked Mbak Arum with a lot of questions.


"If you ask one-on-one, let's not confuse me."


After a long sigh, Mbak Arum told me a week ago suddenly you fell unconscious while harvesting rice. Some of my neighbors were immediately rushed to the hospital.


"What does the doctor say, ma'am?"


"Papak kumat hypertension has even been in the number two hundreds. Mr. drops and suspected of having a mild stroke. It's been progressing, yesterday I was talking very hard."


"Keep why didn't Ma'am Arum contact Hanna to tell her what happened?"


"Father forbid me, Han."


"Can't you?"


"Because father says, let you focus on working. Kan you yourself who have aspirations to buy a headstone for his grave mother. You want all the costs out of your hard work."


I cried terjugu. Seven days after my mother's death, I told my father that no one should give me a tombstone because I would buy it as a form of my worship as well as a sign of my love because as long as my mother is there, I haven't been able to make it happy with my sweat.


"Hanna go home, Ma'am? Let me take care of my father."


"No need. There's me here anyway. You don't worry. Just focus on your work there."


Focusing on my job, it feels very difficult. Especially after last night's tragedy. I want to feel like I'm pouring out the fear that's happening to Mbak Arum but I don't think it's the right time. Surely these days Ma'am Arum is having a lot of thoughts. The condition of the father who is sick, not to mention he must be separated from his husband and children who are in Jakarta. If I had to add to my problem it would not be wise.


"Sir, Hanna wants to say goodbye to you. It's Hanna's eyes getting sleepy because they just got home from work late."


"Yes, just a minute." Ma'am Arum went from his room and went to my father's room.


"Have you, Nduk, been confiding in your brother?" I tried to smile even though in this heart it was sliced to see the condition of the father who aprons with porridge.


"Already, Sir. Hanna said she'd go to bed first."


"Yes, you be careful, Nduk."


When I was about to hang up the phone, my sense of hearing caught the song without lyrics sung by Mbak Arum the same as what was sung by a woman similar to me. The woman who came out of the mirror of the factory toilet.


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