October 21, 2014
8.0 pm
I was facing my laptop reading some articles on the internet when I heard a loud and stern voice of a man roared from my nearby vicinity. It sounded a man having a fierce fights with somebody as he muttered rough words while spoke as if he used a loudspeaker. It is past 7 pm and I tried to ignore the voice. However my heart refused to do what my brain told so. Instead of continue my reading I listened carefully to the voice. My heart beat so fast and I stood up to know more about the situation. I could assume that it was a fury of father to his son. I couldn’t help but walked out of my room just to make sure I heard it right. I forgot to wear my flip flop and realized it when I’ve gone halfway from my dorm.
I was looking around at the nearby place to detect where the voice coming from. I decided to turn left, assuming the source of the voice. Ahead of me, 10 meters away I spotted a child half running holding a plastic of drink in his hand. He was under the dark shadow of the night and I couldn’t see his face clearly. He looked at the road and suddenly ran away to a house.
A man in the late twenties appeared from the bend of the road with his hands on his hips while pointing out to the darkness. He scolded the kid and went after him. He was scary as hell. At a glance I could see that he was out of his mind. Amidst his loud scolding, he told the boy that he was “drunk” and crazy and he questioned the boy why he left him alone in the shop when he was waiting for him at the first place. My heart beat so fast and I was in the middle of walking. I tried to relax my self and passed the man. I raced to the nearby road and sat in the road lane for a while.
The man didn’t stop scolding his son with his loud voice. None of my neighbors came out to see what’s going on or just tried to calm the man off. I was worried about the kid, fearing that something bad might happen to him.
People said ignorance is a bliss. I knew the man shouting at his son was a business in his own family. I couldn’t step in when privacy matter took account so I considered to go home and let the man finished his own business. However, I couldn’t help when my feet refused to move.
Some passerby looked at the scene warily but didn’t do anything further. I was confused and numb, not knowing what exactly I should do in this situation. The man shouted again and threw something to the dark which caused a loud bang. I observed if there was any movements in the darkness but I didn’t see anything. A few seconds passed, and suddenly I could hear a soft cry from the darkness where the man threw something before. My heart stopped and I nearly collapsed.
…to be continued…
Written by Evi Baiturohmah (Sahabat Kapas volunteer).