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“…datang tak dijemput pulang tak diantar
datang tak dijemput pulang tak diantar…
datang tak dijemput pulang tak diantar…”
In the dark room Lara chanted the mantra for a hundred times but there was no spirit came into the doll she called Jelangkung which stood with a raggedy smile in front of her. She stared sharply to the doll, hoped that the death spirit of her husband, Lana would come into it and talk to her but silence was what she got. The twinkle light of the candles around her gave a gloomy vision into her eyes. She was listening carefully wished that she would hear any whispering soul in that room but there was no sound.
She was at the end of her tether. She missed her husband so much. He died leaving too much memory in her mind and this night was the same date with a day he left her a year ago. Many mystical rituals she had done to call the death spirit of her husband including the mediation of Jelangkung and the doll of Ninik Thowok of the Javanese ceremonial but all of them were failed. She was distressed; she loved her husband very much until she couldn’t think that she would live any longer without her husband at the side of her.
She was tired with all those things. If she wanted to meet and live forever with her husband, she had to die like her husband did. She had to face a death. And the only way to accomplish that was to do suicide. She thought she had to do that. She couldn’t live without him it means that she had to die like him.
She didn’t want to waste her time she wanted to die like her husband. A year ago right in the time like this her husband died drowning in the deep river witnessed by her.
Then she put all the pictures of her husband and her into a box that would be brought with her.
***
Lara carried her box and dragged her foot into the bridge. Sorrow which stabbed his heart deeply was too heavy than the box she carried with. She stood there alone in the middle of the bridge; the cars went back and forth at around but she ignored them. She shivered from the cold and the full moon above could only stare what was she had done.
She gazed the cold water of the river down there. It was about 21 feet from the bridge but she could see the reflection in the water. The reflection shaped a shadow of the miserable past that always followed her in every second of her breath. Year ago right in the middle of this bridge, an accident took her husband’s life. Year ago was the third wedding anniversary of them. They were in the same car driving through the town to celebrate it. At the early of their journey Lana stopped his car in the middle of the bridge, he asked Lara to come out of the car to take a picture of a wonderful view with his camera.
Lara exactly knew that her husband loved the picture of nature so much. She told him to wait her inside the car while she took a picture in the edge of the bridge. Lara kissed him, got out of the car and left him inside it. “I’ll be back! Just wait here!” said Lara and went far from her husband. He had to stand in the edge of the bridge to take the good picture of the river.
In a few minutes later Lara didn’t realize that Lana’s car sped on with the full acceleration behind her while she was taking a picture. The car approached her. She thought that Lana would strike her violently with that car. She screamed but Lana turned the wheel sharply to the border of the bridge and hit it. The brake didn’t hold so that he with his car fell down into the river. The people came to see what happened and the police were too late to come to rescue him. He died drowning in this river.
The reflection of the accident haunted her along the year when she gazed at the water of the river. She threw the box full of their memories into the water. She let it disappeared. Now it flowed in silence but the shadow that was reflected called her to swiftly jump into it. She held her breath and closed her eyes slowly. She was sure that she will jump to the water quickly.
She climbed the border of the bridge and ready to jump. In one, two, three, “Lana here I come!” she whispered on her own. But there was a hand. A cold hand held her right arm.
The hand was very cold so that she turned her face back to see the one holding her arm. He was a man with a pale face pulled her body from the death.
“Who are you? Why do you save me? Let me go!” cried Lara.
“You will not meet your husband in this way. You are in the wrong way.” He said calmly.
“Who are you? How do you know if I …?” Lara wasn’t able to continue her words. She stared at the man vaguely but she was sure that this man wasn’t an ordinary man. The man stood right in front of her and spread a frozen silence.
“I know what you wish for and I can make it true.”
“Bullshit you’re not God or even you are a God I don’t believe in you! You can't make my husband alive again!” cried Lara with an angry face; this man was hindering her to see her husband.
“That was a simple thing to me. I can make your wish come true but there was a consequence you have to deal with. I can make your husband back alive again easily.”
“What kind of a consequence?” Lara asked him.
“Would you mind to sacrifice for your husband’s life?”
“I would do anything to make him back.”
“If I can make your wish granted, you make your life lessened a year. Can you face it?” said him.
“Well I am no doubt about it! Just prove it to me!” Lara said that with an angry face.
“Ok. Listen to me! Close your eyes for a minute, when you feel that the atmosphere becomes warm you can open you eyes and you will find yourself and your husband in a day when he faced a death because soon I will turn back the time into a year ago when your husband still alive right at this bridge.” The man gave Lara an instruction.
Lara closed her eyes slowly. Her heart was beating so loud. Suddenly the wind around her shoulders became warmer then she dared herself to open her eyes gradually.
Still at that bridge but…
It was the bright light of the sun she saw and a camera she held in her hand.
She did it. She knew that she did it.
She was very happy to know it that her husband still alive and was waiting for her inside a car.
She was back to a year ago when she was standing in the edge of the bridge ready to take a picture for her husband. She looked at there. Lana was inside a car. She grasped that she had to remind her husband not to approach her because the brake didn’t hold.
Lara tried to move towards the car but it was too late, the car was already to move approached her. Lara screamed, “Lana! Please don’t!” but it was too late. Lana sped on the car with the full acceleration towards her body while she was trying to warn him. Lana didn’t turn the wheel into the border of the bridge like he used to do but straight forward into her body. Lara looked the face of her husband turned into hatred of her.
Lana struck her rapidly with that car and left her corpse full of blood from the head. Lana was leaving her far away without turning back. Lara felt pain entire her body. She could feel that soon she would lose her breath.
She was lying there in the middle of the bridge with the body full of blood with no one care about her. With her remains breath Lara glared hazily that there was the man with a pale face stood next to her and looked at her.
“Why…? Why it could be like this…?” Lara asked him with a soundless voice.
“This is the sacrifice that I told you before! The sacrifice that you gave for the one you love. I have been telling you that your life will lessen a year if your wish is granted. You have to die a year later when you try to do suicide but it becomes sooner because you have deal the consequent with me,” said him.
It was too late for her to cry the blood of her corpse had already flown. She closed her eyes slowly. The wind blew its cold breeze flying the dust around the bridge and drying the tears of Lara.
***
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