Project : Alterization
Chapters 10
That night I went home to the dorm at nine o'clock and thirty minutes. The maximum time for us students to be outside the dormitory. The last time before I left the mosque, the atmosphere inside was still quite crowded. There are some children of shuqqoh tahfidz who still memuroja'ah their memorization. So yummy. They could freely enter and exit their own rooms at any time, without fear of being locked outside the gates like us. Because their room is on the first floor and directly connected to the outer hall of the dormitory. That is one of the advantages of being santri syuqoh tahfidz. Unfortunately, whenever I tried to register first, I was not accepted year after year in a row. But it doesn't matter. Because I know there must be wisdom behind it all.
"Assalamu'alaikum." I went into the room, then immediately walked to my bed located in the bottom bed. I tucked my binder in the bed, I immediately threw my back and put it on the bed. At that time the room was quiet. Empty churning. Maybe my roommates are playing in another room. I was alone in this room.
"Huh, so tired today." I murmured. Thirty seconds had not passed I had a relaxing rest, suddenly the bed I was sleeping on was swaying. I was astonished too. For a moment, I put my head out of bed. Suddenly...
All of a sudden, the head of a ball came out from behind the top bed. With her lazy eyes, she looked at me upside down. I was shocked to death too. I suppose what. It turned out that Tsari was head and round. My bedmate. The shock I felt went to waste.
"Jep! Do you have a ballom?" ask her while putting her bare hands down.
"Weh! No matter who. Make the hangers know?" I cut open the hand that he put out. I look at the war.
"Maap. Where's binders?"
"Tuh, ana slippery next to your bed." I replied briefly, still upset. He took it and read it.
"Sek, s. Why are you alone in the room while curled up on the bed? Ana until can not fathom the existence of yours earlier." asked me suddenly curious.
"Read a novel too."
"Oh, read a novel.. eh? You bring a novel?" I'm aware of something. Carrying a physical book-shaped novel is prohibited in this pesantren. And then he, he just read a novel?
"Novel people write too" he replied casually, flipping through my binder page. Oh turns. I think he who has long been labeled as a pious child has begun to dare to break the rules.
M. Abdurrahman Al - Atsari. That's his full name. However, for people who are already familiar with it, the call "Tsari" is enough to distinguish himself from other santri-santri named Abdurrahman. He has been one of my closest friends since MTW. He was the only friend who was still willing to communicate with me while I was being bullied at the time. Although she was round and sometimes asked for my treat, I was very grateful to be able to get to know and befriend people like her.
"person's writing? Got Cinde? or Rizki?" as far as I know only those two people are also engaged in writing activities in my generation. Sometimes, we exchange writing to read each other's work. Sometimes, we also write together to make it easy when we want to ask vocabulary that we do not know. But I am still far ahead of them. After that they are difficult to make use of every time they have and continue to write every day. It's completely contrary to what I've always done.
"No. It's got rois." I was surprised by the answer he gave.
"His name is Rois Khalid. Why why?" tsari looked at me more and more intensely. Looks like he's done reading all the extras from my novel.
"Yes. Want to know. Look at the writing here!" I clutched that slightly unfamiliar gray binder in my eyes. Just a moment to try reading it.
"Hmm.. as a novel, this prologue is perfect. But, the author's way of connecting one sentence to another is too monotonous. Too many words 'too' there and here. His word is also difficult to understand. Not very poetic." I said judging the writing as if I was the greatest expert writer.
"But the groove is good, really." - Tsari, laughing.
"Genre Mecha Sci-fi, huh? I can. Ana wants to know the guy!" I looked directly at Tsari with sparkling eyes.
"Judek. You just sit in the front shaf on the right. Ntar met the most. Tomorrow ana temenin deh.." I also gave a thumbs up as a sign of agreement.
The next day, before the Maghrib adhan was proclaimed, I immediately stood by sitting on the leading right shaf. Folding table is ready, pen is in hand, just slide. I wrote while waiting for Adzan to reverberate. Drowning in his focus of writing, I did not realize that the shaf on my left and right were now full. Especially when looking back. It seems to be a lot. The entire mosque was filled with humming chants of people reading the Quran. Tsari did not come either. I haven't seen her nose at all. Don't-don't, he wants to lie to me. Hmh!
For a moment, my attention shifted to the person sitting next to me. He sat cross-legged with his back down while writing something on paper. The paper attached to a binder is gray. It seems that it is no longer foreign to me. But what is it? I can't remember. He continued to write until lafadz iqomah was recited.
After the maghrib prayer I did sunnah rawatib. And that man, he was still writing with his little pencil. As if no matter what, his gaze was always focused on the binder he wrote. Never turned in the other direction. Shortly after, Tsari arrived. He patted my back from behind.
"That's him next to you!"
"He who?" tanyaku plain.
"HIM!" Tsari rolled her eyes. I immediately understood the way his tone had changed earlier. Then, without further ado, I immediately regretted it.
"Assalamu'alaikum, is..." I put my right hand to shake. For a moment, he focused on his writing. I feel trapped by him.
"Vaalaikumsalam. Rajev, right?" he caught my right hand without looking at me. His eyes were still focused staring intently at his writing. What a strange person. That was my first impression of him.