“Abomination!” The word seemed to explode from their eyes as they saw the large rattan bucket that Farid carried from the back of the house. Amar demanded that it be placed on the floor, while Akbi casually approached him to bring it to the table. Farid followed silently.

To clear the table and floor were always in debate between Akbi and Farid after a meal. One can no longer rest once the hunger is satisfied, there is always a great urge to begin something or continue things to spread the food from the stomach; Akbi went upstairs by playing his favorite flute by the window, and Farid with what he said his ‘peaceful walk’. Thus, it is an act of patience waiting for the last person (usually Amar) to finish their meal before start the clearing, and cleaning the table or in the past, the floor. To Farid, it has never been necessary for a debate for this job, but he only seeks for fairness.

Akbi is the fastest eater among them, after he eats, he would run upstairs to muse his instruments, so long had he been at it that he forgot he was also a child, responsible for clearing the dishes! Their parents say that complaining about the small thing that requires no effort is extremely childish, and it is true when he does it, it does feel humiliating. It is only one time that Amar was apparently so sick hearing him and Akbi quarrel their tiredness until one of them giving in made Amar leave half of his food untouched to go working to the field.

Since that day, Akbi will stay in his seat, or stand in front of the door to wait for the meal to completely finish so they can split the task with each other. It might be because Akbi’s habitual presence in front of the door, Amar crafted a seat from a Mahogany tree and made a porch in front of the house. Since then, Akbi will wait and sit there while playing his flute. But because Akbi’s turning, Aeti talked to Farid privately that this job is now his at least until his turning. You have been seventeen, now they say, but his foolish heart ache when kept their promises. Then who will continue the job onward? Nevermind.

The knot on his bicep is not as suffocating as Akbi said, it fits and is light. But this little cuff is restraining. Yesterday, the big wild berry tree right behind the barn already bloomed many fruits but the lumps of the berries are not nourished with water enough, today, especially right in the moisture of the morning dew, they must have become really delicate and the lumps will fall together from the petal with a gentle touch. He planned to forage them, but those hungry eyes will hunt any movement from him and will scrutinize him to determine whether he is in the conduct of a man, a chief, or whatever, at least for the entire day.

Farid then decides to go to his room instead which does not need further permission. He stood at the top of the stairs, waiting for a time if his name was summoned, but it was all absent. He continue to the room upstair, then sat on the bed of woven bamboo held by four strong pillars of bamboo stem.

The upstair is an empty room with large space with his and Akbi’s bed separate, at the entrance stair is the most left of the room, before it stuffed Akbi’s many variety of belongings including his clothing, three books from the school years ago, and his beloved instrument of flute, a stacked bamboo that sings when it is shakes called Angklung, and a large plucked instrument with a strange melody called Gambus.

Farid opened the window right before his bed, he unfolded his Sarong knot and took out the buried paper into the glowing surface of his bed. It was the note he wrote, an instruction as admonition and a test to himself so everytime he looked down, he is not allowed to forget “To say thank you to father for protecting the family, Akbi to be his best friend, and mother for always taking care of him”. He couldn’t believe what just he read. He ripped it by his nails bit by bit and threw its dust by the window, no one ever shall ever read it except him.

For the remainder of the day, he immersed himself in the history book, its pages whispering tales of bygone eras and forgotten kings. The weight of the volume felt substantial in his hands, a tangible link to the past he sought to understand.

In the kitchen, Amar took out the chimney glass of the Corong lantern. He sliced the yesterday’s unburnt wood in the thickness of a nail, and gust winds to the sleeping amber on the stove. The redness swells fervently and he catches the fire, the edge of the burning lip is kissed to the wick, and the pungent, sharp odour of the fuel quickly fades away.

Amar blankets the tiny flicker with the chimney glass and waits for its dances steady before taking it to his room. He placed the lantern on the protruded wooden peg on the wall beside the door. Suddenly the front door opened, Akbi entered the house with the similar lantern in his hand.

“Where have you been, go sleep with your brother”, commanded his father, his head was the only part of him visible in the doorway as he spoke.

Akbi ascended the stairs without answering his instruction.

“Beautiful night, and calm” Aeti reluctant to close the window in their room. Their beautiful farm is behind that darkness.

“Beautiful indeed, but dangerous” said Amar as he laid on the bed with hands on his head, the creeks of the window agreed as it was being closed completely.

Aeti sighed.

“My dear, I worry for our child, there is no safe place to refuge now. I was still besieged by the news of the son of Efrits this afternoon, robbed and dead. The little boy was murdered in his home, and it was near the crowded village, my search for words is nothingness. Abomination for them to do such acts in the daylight, or even night! Ah, Nothing is safe here with or without humans. Why are those ugly creatures ‘Night vigor’ so persistent and never cease from existence? they forever tainting our nights with fear. And what I worry more is that Farid has turned into an adult and will despise us if we keep trying to restrict him in supervision” said Aeti.

“Though he is an adult, he remains under my protection. I will not grant any excuses, he shall always be in home and safe” Amar replied.

“But poor him! Surely he understand more of the night vigor than us, he also always compliant for our request, of our threshold and rules. He understands the reason but I feel that he loathes us for it, his eyes are telling me. My husband, somethings need to be changed though I am exceedingly worry to give him the freedom to do what he will, to go where he wants”

“Can you imagine if any evil came to him?” James whispers as if he is offended.

“God forbid it happened, but what makes something interesting to him? They will got bored on the first day and release him anyway”

“Behold Aeti!, I do not need amusement. He is a sleeping deer in the watch of a huntsman ….”

Amar raises his little finger, its shadows stretched across the room.

“He is like a flying stick, he can not even carry a small log. And his mind is like a ground cherry, encapsulated with large petals. He always thought his mind flickers like geniuses, superior, and the most advanced but inside is like this…tiny and closed. No, no, for him I do not underestimate but I am telling you the truth for our measurement, because I do not see only in his eyes, but also his mind and manner. I do not know what worms inside his head but truly he is naive, foolish, thinking everything as yes and no, incapable of commiting decision for himself”

Aeti looked him in the eyes “And what’s good about you to say so about him?”

“Aeti, I do not need a debate, and I surely believe that’s not what you need the most now. This time is unforgiving, when he is ready, I will let him first before you do. Now, allow yourself to lie down beside me”

“Time ticks forever, if it is long enough his mind would think that life is repression. Don’t you ever see in his eyes, he is afraid of you!” She hissed.

James sat and pointed his finger “You’re exceedingly offending me as I don’t wish the best for my son. He is just simply not ready, for anything. But if you want him to be like the son of Efrit, tell me and I will order him to escape this… ‘prison’! as what he might fantasize in his head. But how would you imagine hearing the news, Aeti, when your son dies, he dies in the ‘kindness’ of his mother?”

“My husband, please forgive me but-“

James clicked his tongue, his sharp eyes looking at her while he exhaled, he spoke no more and lay back on the bed.

The air in the room hung still and heavy, the kind of silence that pressed against the ear. Then, with a subtle shift. A pale, slender blade of moonlight, sharp and ethereal, sliced through the narrow gaps in the weathered wooden wall. It fell across the dusty floorboards, a ghostly finger pointing into the darkness. Slowly, reluctantly, Amar stirred. His eyes fluttered open, heavy with the residue of sleep, and fixed on the luminous stripe. It was a comforting light. Amar sat for a moment of thought, when a sudden, faint ripple of wails echoed from afar, strengthened his senses. His eyes stretched open and walked mutely to the doorway and went outside with his lantern and machete.

Tonight is a full moon. The shining footways of a cluster of flat and white cobble-stone that is paved between the freshly cut grass under the moonlight resembles a strange and vaguely formed midnight river. The metallic fluctuation of insects’ ringing from the bush went quiet as he stepped on it. Time froze. For a moment he is allured by the welcoming of the stillness but quickly alert by the growing sense of suspending danger lurking behind every corner. Where did the wailing come from?

The footway laid on the edge of the high land before the steadily downward valley, looking far enough in the western horizon, there are waves glimmering politely. Amar looked around to confirm his senses that he was sane and that the scream was real. There is no sound! He assures himself by eyeing from the west where the ocean sleeps, to the north where the shore meets the forest and the rest of the island, then to his east, where mountains with moonlit peaks stretched and bow to the southern valley where the insects ringing slowly struggling to harmonize, defeated by the gurgling western waves.

The rain-cold winds throbs his garments, piercing the skin underneath, swingin under his robe, fighting the warmth of his air. A blow from the west combed out his hair to the back, its sharpness entered his body without invitation which to be exchanged with a warm small slump of clouds. All is clear, he thought. He turned back, following the pathway trail into the house. He tip-toed and put his belongings with prudence to not rouse anybody. As he entered his bedroom, Aeti was already seated against the wall below the window, looking intently and curiously at him.

“What was it?” She said, as she already knew what his husband arose for and she had been looking at him from the window.

“Nothing, probably some animals” his voice was flat.

“Come!” she welcomed with both of her arms, the man crawls onto the flat wooden bed with thin layers of cotton garment, hesitantly slips under her embrace, gushing away all the coldness on his back.

“It is beautiful outside,” confessed the man softly.

“The light that comes between the walls is enough for me to be convinced” she stroked his cheek that has started to regain its warmth. They continue to sleep.

It is very distinguished when the morning arrives even before the first cock crow. Where the breeze that comes from the sea strokes towards the shore, carrying out the scent of the leaves of grass that were cut because of the weight of the bead from yesternight’s collected dew. Despite her sleep being compromised the previous night, the morning call snapped Aeti awaked. She walked past the bed from his husband that had untangled her in her sleep and stood in the doorframe. She comes to wonder again, how strangely she is acute to new smells and sounds, but impaired to his husband’s snoring?

She brought the lantern and left the bedroom, trailing her feet against the soft wooden floor and went to the front door. She opened it thinly like her figure, a sharp cold hurrying inside, she quickly stepped out and closed. She went leftwards then following the house’s southern wall. Upon the southern facade of the dwelling, a tiny aperture of a room is situated precisely at the wall’s central point, where a mountain’s spring passed underneath it. As her day started, Aeti always rinsed her face to reclaim consciousness. She took out two buckets of water. One is for her refreshment, and the other for later use in the kitchen. After the contained water was below the raised stove, she revisited the southern facade and took five logs of wood that were stocked among hundreds which stood against the wall.

Aeti arranged three logs into the stove in front of her stomach, leaving enough space for air to breathe in. From the thick grey ashes of the burning woods, she raises a hand-sized bowl, the surface of its content had completely covered by dust. She then poured the content to the tip of the logs, the dust slowly fell with the revelation of yellow liquid, it was thick and descended gracefully, thenit glued on the woods. She then crushed two fire stones in one, two, three times before a burning spark was licked by coated logs to create a fire; then a slow and steady fire turned the wood to amber.

To the right side of the raised hearth is a deliberately placed wooden wall in perpendicular angle, entirely covering the view of the stair and where its length ends in the edges of the front doorway. On it is the most expensive item in the house, a steel pot sat on the planted shelf along the wall. Aeti raised her hand to reach its mouth, dragging it to the front absentmindedly. The pot’s edges had not dried since yesterday, it slipped and fell from her hands. Her heart watches the headless tube fall to the ground. A heavy thud followed by a ringing clang echoed as the steel pot struck the ground, Aeti’s gasped almost in scream. Her precious one.

Akbi jolted by Aeti’s loud gasp, he followed the attenuated dawn light to walk to the kitchen.

“Akbi, you are awake!” she said while cutting up the herbs. Her lips pale and her face is still sweating.

“Not long ago, but I overheard a noise in here”.

“The pot fell, but luckily it did not break. Darling, worry me not, you can go back to your room” she took a long exhale.

“You cook earlier, the sun has not even begun to rise” Akbi said.

“I could not sleep”, her mother continues to cut the lemongrass and chillies. Akbi did not back to his room, he sat on the chair and watching her from behind.

“My dear, can you dig out a finger of turmeric, please? I must have forgotten it yesterday as it was part of the recipe. Let your brother come with you” Akbi stood immediately.

“He is sleeping, I’ll take it myself”

“It is better to be not alone, wake him, for him will understand”, said Aeti, pouring the cut shallot to a bowl.

Rather than a direct call, he chose to awaken him by degrees, moving about the room and creating a gentle symphony of domesticity. He started by opening the window in the west that is adjacent to his bed, the gust of the wind devoids dusts as he beat his clothes against it. He let the room went cold at once. Farid turned over, his back stood facing Akbi, with noiseless steps, Akbi went to the ledge of the bed and began stroking Farid’s shoulder delicately.

“Brother, it is time for us to awake, I need your help”

Farid faces him, looking from his eyelash and grunts twice, nodding in obedience, but he flips his body to the bed.

“Mother needs us to find turmeric. You might bring the lantern and I will do the picking” said Akbi in annoyance.

“You can go first, I will follow,” answered Farid, his voice muffled. Akbi knew that it was lazy dodging to answer his request, he would sleep back eventually.

“No I can not, you must bring the lantern” Akbi insisted. Farid silent before grunting again and closing his eyes.

Not working, thought Akbi. He then opens the southern window just right in front of Farid’s face, exposing their farm field in the embrace of mountain high, Farid choked by the harsh winds, he moans and finally wakes himself to close the window. But before he sleeps again, Akbi pulls Farid’s loose body and carries him on his back. Akbi dropped him at the stair and guide his hand to the kitchen, Farid immediately alert on Aeti’s view.

“Now, grab the lantern and off we go, little man!” Akbi chuckled

“Off we go” he repeats, ignoring Farid’s protesting gaze, Akbi lit the lantern and hitched it to his grabbing. He led the way to the front door.

The cold pavement strike them to immediate readiness, the lantern almost fell as Farid jumped by surprise to the ground just in his first step on the stones, but the soil is not much better, his body near fell twice as the adhesive mud on his feet make them slither expeditiously back to the pavement. Akbi amused and his laughter roars as it coincides with the first cock crow, he enjoys bothering Farid’s manufactured indifference by silliness. He walk two steps at a time, desperately wanting Farid with his petulant whine, but instead he follows Akbi’s pace by fastening his walk beside coldness draws pain in his face. Farid is not interested

“It is beautiful,” said Akbi slowing down, tilting his head towards the transitioning sky.

“But it’s cold..” he emphasizes, staging a shiver in his voice. But he met no answer. They arrive at the middle of the pavement, their feet meet the soil as they walk in the direction where the sun was rising, far they go inside to find the bed of plant with large leaves in the height of the ankle.

“Very well, we have arrived. Who’s the one to dig?”

Farid pulled his head by the look of expectancy that lies on Akbi’s face. “I carry the light,” Farid exclaimed.

“Very well, I thought that you want to switch. Please guide me so I can excavate the root, bow deep enough, it will drown the light. Don’t you afraid if any night vigor come here and sucks your blood?”

“I will not” Farid says coldly.