03 - HELLO GOODBYE

“Knock, knock” a sound of knocked door heard in front of Mr. Faridi’s house. It was in the middle of the night that Pas arrived at his parent’s house. Since it took hours from the Spoorland City to Gemah Ripah village. If somebody from Spoorland wanted to go to Gemah Ripah, he should go through a river, a jungle, a pond, a jungle again, then he will be arrived at the village. Luckily it was Spoorland City where the main transportation was train so there were no traffic jams.

Pas knocked the door again and this time the light on the house went on, it meant his parents woke up. The sound of unlocked door made him smile, a second after he could hug his parents. It had been 5 years since he physically met his parents. Thanks to gadget nowadays, it helped him kept in touch with his parents.

“Long time no see, my boy!” yelled his mother after she released her tight hug on her beloved son. “I really missed you honey.”
“Me too Mom, I missed you.” Then he saw towards his Dad who stood beside his Mom, “Don’t worry Dad, I missed you too.”
Mr. Faridi smiled and poked his son’s shoulder. “Let’s continue our conversation inside” said Mr. Faridi.
They continued their small talks inside their house. As usual, Pas told his everyday life as a scientist in Norway and his family told him what happened recently in the village and of course about the festival. Pas was always curious about the festival, he never attended it since it just started 5 years ago when he was accepted in a laboratory in Norway. So this year was his chance to do his research.
“Well let’s sleep for tonight since I have to attend a batik conference at Spoorland.” Yes, Mrs. Faridi was a well-known batik influencer in Indonesia so she was busy each time she was invited to a conference about batik.
“Honey, can you drove me to the rail station tomorrow morning?” asked Mrs. Faridi to his son.
“Sure Mom, are you going to stay there?” Pas asked her back.
“Maybe three or four days. I’m so sorry honey, when you come back Mom is busy.”
“It’s okay Mom, I will be long here though.”
“How many days will you here?” asked Mr. Faridi.
“Up until the end of Gede-gedenan Festival Dad, I barely attend the festival since it was held.” Answered Pas excitedly.
“Nice, then you shall help me at the lawn start from tomorrow young man.”
“Absolutely old man.” Then the happy family laughed together.
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“Bye Mom, take a good care there and good luck for your presentation on the conference.”
“Certainly my boy. You and your Dad take a good care too in the house. See you.”
“See you Mom.” Pas waited his Mom until she got on the train safely then he drove back home and together with his father went to the lawn.
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“Wow Dad, why do you take the rifle with you?” Pas surprised.
“Ah I almost forget”, Mr. Faridi went back to his house and came back to the car. “Here. Take this with you.” Mr. Faridi gave Pas a shotgun.
“What are these things for, Dad? We are going to take care the plants right?” Pas still felt uneasy to bring guns with him.
“I told you right? Lately the situation in our village is not that safe, since the competition is about to reach its peak. The people said that they saw glimpses of bears around their lawns lately.”
“It’s not that I didn’t listen to your story. It just that there is barely a bear in this area Dad. This is not its habitat.”
Mr. Faridi started the engine and drove the truck to his lawn.
“It was not only a man who saw it, several villagers witnessed it too.” Said Mr. Faridi while he was driving his car.
“Well if the bear exists, we can use the fork or the scythe to beat the bear…”
“I’m not sure you are that brave to beat the bear with those lawn tools son. The bears were as tall as the highest banana tree.” Mr. Faridi insisted. As a scientist, Pas knew well about animals’ habitats and Gemah Ripah was not an ideal habitat for bears. But in order to respect his old man’s statement, he just gave it over.

Minutes passed by in silence. Then, Mr. Faridi asked something to his son.
“Your friend, AB, do you still remember him?”
“AB?” Pas tried to remember his friend named AB.
“Aditya Baihaqi. We called him AB now.”
“Ah I remembered him, what about him Dad?”
“He put electric fences around his lawn.”
It seemed that Mr. Faridi knew his son didn’t believe the story he told, so he gave another info as a fact. But for Pas, the info was just adding the rumor with humor.
“What? Why he is so exaggerated like that?” asked Pas disbelieved.
“He is going to be the chief of our village if he won this year festival so he really defend his banana with the electric fences.”
The car stopped in the middle of nowhere, far enough from the last house in the village.
“A village chief, well I can’t imagine that kind of guy to become our leader.” Pas laughed.
“Well, that little bastard seemed become a mature adult now.” Said Mr. Faridi. “Enough talking, let’s work. Bring the tools son.”

They started to take care of the lawn and of course Mr. Faridi’s biggest cucumber.
“Everyone on the town talk about this big guy.” Said Mr. Faridi while giving the cucumber plant some fertilizer.
Pas amazed by the cucumber’s size. “Wow this is so massive. What fertilizer do you use Dad?”
“It just a normal fertilizer for fruit and vegetable. I don’t know why but all of the plants in this village produce a fruit or a vegetable that is massive. You are a scientist right? Inspect this professor.”
“Well I’m about to Dad.” Pas started to touch the cucumber. He tried to lift it. Surprisingly it was not as weighted as he expected by the massive size. Then he knocked it. He surprised once more. It sounded like there was a room inside it.
“It is light and it seemed there is a small space inside it Dad.” Said Pas.
“As I expected, you’ll noticed those strange.”
“Did you or anyone in the village managed to open the biggest fruit or vegetable?” asked Pas curiously.
“No one ever opened it son. Every time Gede-gedenan festivals ended, there must be two mysterious men bought the biggest one with a fantastic amount of money and brought it with them. That is why this festival’s main prize is so big, it comes from their money.”
“Two mysterious men?”
“Yeah. One man is tall, and the other is tall and fat. The villagers call them Thin and Thick since we don’t know their names. Up until now, they come with an old-bad motorcycle, which I’m sure a little shallow hole on the road will knocked it down. The Thick ride it and the Thin behind him as the passenger while bringing a full of money suitcase.” Explained Mr. Faridi in detail.
“That is weird enough. Why they don’t buy a better motorcycle or car when they have such amount of money.”
Mr. Faridi shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t know”.

While Pas took out his devices to check the cucumber, suddenly a strange noise heard from the bushes near them. A huge shadow showed up from the bushes. Luckily, Mr. Faridi prepared for this. He jumped to his rifle and aimed at the shadow. Unluckily, it was too close to use a long rifle.
“Dad! watch out!” yelled Pas as the shadow lengthened its hand and grabbed Mr. Faridi.
Mr. Faridi started to shoot at the shadow blindly, “Die! Go to hell ugly creature!” But the shadow didn’t take any damage from the shots since the shots barely hit it. In seconds after, it started to drag Mr. Faridi.
“Son! Pick your shotgun!” Pas remembered that he left his shotgun in the truck. He didn’t answer his Dad and quickly ran to the truck. He picked his shotgun and ran as fast as he could back to his Dad.

As expected, both Dad and the shadow were gone.

Next: 04 - ANGGITA