The Lovely Village

The sunlight brightens up my days. I looked at the skyscrapers. Quite boring! I was thinking about moving from here to a village. I wanted to change my life for a while. Even though I had everything in my hometown, wealth dan glamourous life sometimes made me bored. So, I decided to live in a village with my driver and his wife. She was my servant actually.

“Do you really want to do this, Sweetheart?”, asked Mum.

“Yes, I do.”, I said firmly.

“Luna, everything that you need, just call me and mention it. Will you be okay?”

“Okay, Dad. Thank you.”

“Alright, off you go!”, said Dad.

It took four hours to reach to my countryseat in this village. I arrived there at night. It was a cold night. We did not need an air-contirioner here. I nearly could not sleep but I had to. I wore double blankets on that night.

In the morning, I went to my new school for the first time. My driver and his wife did not accompany me at all. I walked alone through a rocky path. There was no road here, only a rocky path. It was a country road. I enjoyed the fresh air and saw a wide rice field. The farmers were working at the rice field.

I read the school board. It was written “Nglawak Junior High School”. Yes, because this village named Nglawak so did its school. It was a weird name I thought. I was lost in a room until I met my teacher. She recognized me that I was new here. She guided me into my class and made me introduce my self.

“Hello Guys, my name is Luna Permatasari. You can call me Luna. Nice to meet you all.”

“Hi, Luna!”, said all of the students.

I was on the second grade of Junior High School. This school had only one class for each grade. People in this village rarely put their children to school. Some of them cannot pay the charge. How pity they are!

I sat beside a girl named Nisa. When the breaktime, the students came around me and asked me many questions. I answered it one by one. Then we went to the food vendors. They sold tempura, siomay, cilok, and batagor. I did not buy anything but they did. There was no canteen or cafetaria at this school.

After school, the girls asked me to gather with them at the field. They said that we would play traditional games such as dakon, bekel, egrang, gobak sodor, etc.

“Alright, but I will change my school uniform first.”, I said.

The girls agreed. Actually they wanted to wait for me when I changed my clothe. But I told them not to do that because it would take long enough time. After I ate my lunch, I asked Mr. Dadang, my driver, about where the field was. He explained completely but when I was looking for the field, I was lost. I was walking slowly and thinking hard.

“Hi, Luna! What are you doing here?”, suddenly a boy came up with his bike.

“Hi! You are my classmate, aren’t you? I am trying to find the field but I think I am lost.”

“Yes, I am. Let me introduce my self, my name is Suparno, but you can call me Vano. Well, I will help you to find it.”

“Thanks, Vano.”

“Okay, just get ride on my bike. We will get there faster than walking.”

I got ride on his bike. While he was riding, he showed me a beautiful view of this village. I could see the trees, hear the humming birds, and inhale the fresh air. It was awesome. I never felt like this before. One thing that made me giggle was people in this village were looking for louses on the other people’s head. They did it at noon in front of their house. A few minutes later, we arrived at the field.

“Luna, I thought you were lost.”, said Nisa.

“Yes, but alhamdulilah I met Vano. He took me here.”

“Do you mean Suparno? Wow, you are lucky. He is the son of head-village here.”

Then I played together with them. I was so glad. Not only girls in this field, but there were boys who were playing gasing.

At night, there was a movie outdoor on Vano’s yard, we called it layar tancap. Vano invited me there. At midnight, he took me home.

“Thank you for taking me home, Van.”

“You’re welcome. It is too dangerous for a pretty girl like you walking alone at night.”

I laughed and blushed.

“Lu, will you go out with me after school? I am going to show you something beautiful.”

“Yeah, why not?”, I smiled at him.

“Okay, I will pick you up tomorrow. We will go to school together. Good night, Luna!”

“Good night, Vano!”

œË›š

The next day, after school, Vano took me to the waterfall. I touched the water. It was so cold. He swam and he watered me.

“Are you happy?”, asked Vano.

“Definetely yes. You make me impressed with this awesome scenery.”

“Good. Because when you are happy, so am I.”

Vano invited me to his home. He said he wanted to change his wet clothe. I waited for him inside his home. His home was the largest among other people’s in this village, but he did not have modern stuff Iike I did in my home. A few minutes later, Vano called my name from the outside.

“LUNA!”, he shouted.

I went outside. Vano had changed his clothe and he was sitting on a horse’s back. Wow, I did not know he could ride a horse.

“Come on! Let’s ride a horse with me.”, offered him.

I moved closer to the horse. “Vano, I never ride a horse before so I’m a bit scared.”

“Don’t worry! Trust me, I will never let you fall. Here, take my hand.”

I was sitting in front of Vano at the horse’s back. He put his hand around my waist and held the horse’s rope. Everyone watched us. It seemed they were amazed.

“Why do people stare at us, anyway?”

“Because you are pretty, Luna.”

“Oh, come on, don’t be joking. Why?”

“Alright. Because I am the richest guy and the only guy who has five horses at home. They don’t. Yeah, because of my beloved father.”

After we had moved around this village by riding the horse, we stopped at a river. Vano gave his horse a chance to drink. He was sitting next to me at the riverside. I was so tired.

“If you’re tired, you may put your head on my shoulder.”, he said.

“How do you know what I feel?”, I said and then I put my head on his shoulder.

He hold my hand and said, “Because we’re created from one heart, Luna.”

š›Ëœ

When my neighbour held a wedding party in their home, it was so noisy. They played dangdut music all day long. Unfortunately, the diesel machine was put near my home. I cannot sleep well. It was their tradition when someone was married. But I respected them by not complaining. Then I thought about Vano. He was the most handsome guy in Nglawak village. I think he was very kind too. But there was just one thing which I did not like from him, sometimes he was conceited. I knew that he was the son of head-village so perhaps it made him like that. He often showed his wealth to people.

I had been at Nglawak village nearly one year. So, I would be at third grade of junior high school. I spent my days to enjoy this life with my friends, especially Vano. We played and studied together. Everything had changed when people in this village had known their head-village did corruption. People reported this case to the police. The police imprisoned Vano’s father and gave him imprisonment for two years.

All of the students in the class felt lazy to talk with Vano. He used to sit on the most front desk but now on the corner in this class. No one wanted to sit beside him. I pitied him. So I left Nisa and sat beside Vano.

“Vano, are you okay? You look so pale. Have you eaten your breakfast?”

I did not get any responses. It was already seven o’clock but the teacher did not come yet. Then I stood in front of the class. My friends were looking at me. I knew they wondered about what I was doing.

“Guys, listen to me, I know that Vano’s father was a corruptor and he has been in prison. I think it is fair and the problem has done. You don’t have to under estimate Vano. It wasn’t his fault. I beg to you all, please be nice to him.”, I explained.

After school, I was walking together with Vano. He became a very quiet person. Suddenly, there was a man who mocked him.

“Hi, Idiot! Your dad will have been in jail for two years I think that is not enough! He needs to be given a capital punishment. Haha.”, then the man ran away.

Vano did not say anything. He bowed his head. I felt compassion to him. I put my arm around his shoulder and slapped it carefully.

“Don’t hear that man. He’s crazy. You still have your mom and me. We love you and I will always be in your side, Vano.”

I wished he would say thanks to me but in fact he did not say anything as usual. It was okay. I understood the situation.

œË›š

Someday we got a bad news. Someone killed Vano at night when Vano was going out from home. His dead body was found at the path. When I got information about Vano’s death, I was really shocked. He was my closest friend in this village but today he was gone. Vano’s mother could not stop crying.

In the prison, when Vano’s father got information about it, he was not ready for it. He got frustrated and did not have a desire to live anymore. He decided to end his life by crashing his head to the wall. So, he was dead too.

Vano’s mother could not accept this situation. She lost her only son and her beloved husband. She still could not stop crying. Day by day, she was absent-minded. This village became a nightmare for me. After I did my final test, I wanted to be out from Nglawak Junior High School. I was going to continue my third grade at my old-school.

There were too many sweet memories between Vano and I in the village. I could not handle it. So I went back to my hometown. I realized that living in the village was not as good as I imagined and living in the city not as bad as I thought.

THE END