The Day of Jono

Malioboro is a famous street full of classy shops and restaurants, which are marching and facing each other, on the left and right. These luxury buildings stretch for about a one kilometer from the north to south. Half kilometer more to south there is a Palace; belong to the Sultan of Jogjakarta. This shopping place offers a great luxury for those who have a lot of money. The buildings are closely spaced, no space for street vendors except on the sidewalks. Here, capitalism makes money to become a crucial thing in life. Money means power and prosperity. Here the rule is for those who strong will survive. No money means any food to eat; you will die fast without money. Money also, brought Jono, unemployment, standing in front of one prestige shopping mall on the north side of Malioboro street.
“I must do it now or my family will not have meals for dinner tonight. This is the first time and maybe the last because maybe I will find a job tomorrow.” Said Jono quietly talking to himself. His eyes are staring to the crowd of people.
“Hey, do you want to buy something?” said the street vendor.
“No.”
“Then, what are you doing here? Get lost!! You make my costumers leave.”
“I am sorry.”
Jono walked slowly. His eyes were looking for something. There in front of a seafood restaurant, he stopped. He saw an old woman, with a black leather bag hanging on her shoulder.
“Ok, this is easy, just an old lady, take the money quietly and go.” Jono speak to himself.
He came closer when the old women take a paper out from her bag and read it. Jono moved closer to her back, then he saw the old woman’s wallet in her bag. He looked around to make sure that no one would saw his act. By his right hand, he tried to take the wallet very carefully. Suddenly, the old woman turned around then faced him. His face turned to red and his hands trembling. The old woman begun to stared his eyes.
“Exuse me sir, do you know where is this?” she showed the paper to Jono.
“Oh, thanks my God, I am safe.” said Jono in his heart.
“sir!!”
“Yeah… I am sorry, let me see it ‘Coffin and Cemetery’ Malioboro street 13, errr… oh there Madame, across the street you can see the shop from here.”
“Oooh… yes I see it, thank you. I’ve been looking that shop for an hour.”
“It’s nothing Madame.”
“You know sir, I planned to reserve a piece of land in cemetery and a coffin for myself, I don’t want to be cremated like a fish in this restaurant. So, I will die in peace if my day had come.”
The old women walked to cross the street. Jono called of his plan to steal the old woman’s wallet. He would feel very guilty, if he had stolen the wallet. Looking forward, he saw an old man with nice clothes walking. It seemed that he was a rich old man.
“This is my target, don’t fail.”
He walked slowly, followed the old man on the back. Quietly, he moved closer and closer. His hand tried to take the wallet in the old man’s pants pocket. When he had the wallet on his hand, suddenly…
“Pickpocket!!” someone screamed, and then everyone looked at Jono.
He was shocked. In a second, he put the wallet inside his shirt then run.
“Hey… you stop!!”
Many people shouted to Jono, Like a blind pig Jono run very fast. He pushed some people to clear his way.
“I’ll die, I’ll die…. Please help me God, they chase me. To the station, maybe I can hide there. Oh …..Damned!!! ”
He saw some police in front. Feeling worried, he crossed the street then run to the opposite direction.
“Oh mama, everyone in this town wants to catch me. No escape for me, no place to hide”
He runs in a high-speed, but something happened in front of the ‘Cemetery and Coffin’ shop.
“Die you thief.”
Someone, with a baseball stick, smacked Jono’s head strongly. The blood oozed from his head. Jono felt down on the ground.
“Dark… dark” cried Jono, then unmoved.
“He is died” some people begun to speak.
“That is my wallet, please take it for me!” the old man came closer.
Someone took the wallet from Jono’s body and gave it to the old man.
“Thank you, I need the money to reserve a piece of land in cemetery and a coffin from this shop.”
The crowd dispersed when the police arrived.

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The Irian Fish

the Irian Fish

Human struggled to seek happiness sometimes found some obstacles. But occasionally happiness came without any obstacle. Every person in this world had different destiny, some people had bad luck and others people had good luck. However, the destiny could be change. Lets us see a river, the river flowed from mountain to the sea. It could be straight, or it could be turn onto left or right. As Abrohm saw the river, he knew that someday his destiny could change, just he, himself who can change the destiny. He was a factory worker and his wife, Seiroh, just worked as a laundress. Even though, both of them worked, they still needed some more money to pay their 10 years old son’s school fee and repair their broken old house. When he saw a fish swimming in the river, something came into his mind. In a hurry, he left the river behind his house and went inside to meet his wife.

“Seiroh … Seiroh, I have a good plan, a plan that will make our life change”
“What plan?”
“Do you know Mr. Abuloh?”
“yes….”
“Do you know how he became so rich, have a big house, cars…. Everything”
“He had a large pool with a lot of fish, err… Irian fish, our neighbor, Mr. Malikha works there”
“That is what I mean, you see our back yard is large enough and there is a river, and the water always flows, never stops”
“What will you do with that?”
“uhh … You so….! Listen, this is my plan; I will dig our back yard, so I am going to make a pool. I’ll do the same like Mr. Abuloh did”
“But, Do you know how to raise those Irian fish?”
“It doesn’t matter I’ll learn from Malikha”

Irian fish, new kind of fish from Irian, was always on Abrohm’s head. Alone, He went to Mr. Abuloh’s house to meet Mr. Malikha. He was Mr. Abuloh’s assistant, worked to raise the Irian fish. Abrohm wrote every detail about the fish, what was their favorite food, how to raise them, etc. After thinking that he got enough information from Mr. Malikha, Abrohm went home. Hoping became rich, everyday, after working he dug his back yard. The soil was solid because there were so many river rocks inside.

“I was told that the Irian fish ate everything and the fish had some big and sharp teeth, and the fish were able to eat a big sheep just in minutes”
“Yes, You are right, but I’ll fed our fishes with grass not sheep. Tell Iskha to come here”
“He is playing with his friends now”

In a week the pool was finished, ready to use. Abrohm bought little Irian Fishes. They raise the little fishes carefully. They fed the fishes regularly, and never late. Sometimes they gave the fishes a dead cat. It seemed those the Irian fishes prefer to eat meat rather than eat grass. The Irian fish similarly like Piranha from Amazon River, the sharp teeth, both liked to eat meat, and flocked together all the time. Conversely, the body was different. The Irian fish is bigger than the Piranha, and it also grew faster. The color was red, like a blood. The appearance of the fish looked very scary. On the other hand, many people liked to eat this kind of fish. Some people said that the fish was very delicious, more delicious than others kind of fish.

Two months latter the fishes had already big, and ready to be sold. Abrohm felt very satisfy with his work. He saw the fishes swimming in crowd. It was not useless he worked hard to fed the fishes.

“Look to them Iska, soon you will have your own bicycle, if someone buy our fish”
“Someone is coming dad”
“Come Iska” grabbed his son’s hand and went inside their house.
He was Mr. Abuloh, came with his luxury car.
“Good afternoon Mr. Abrohm”
“Good afternoon sir, please come. What make you came here sir?”
“I heard from my assistant, Mr. Malikha, about your Irian fishes”
“Yes, sir. They had already big, and I want to sell it”
“May I see the fish now?”
“Of course, this way sir”

Mr. Abuloh seemed very interested to Abrohm’s Fishes. He watched the fishes. There was something with them that made Mr. Abuloh wanted to buy them.

“How much do you want to sell?”
“About 1 million rupiah, it can be cut”
“I’ll send the money this afternoon, tomorrow morning my assistant will come here to dry the pool”

No bargaining, Abraham’s dream came true. One million rupiah was four times his salary in a month. After receiving the money, Abrohm immediately brought his family to eat in a luxury restaurant in town. They were very happy that night. That was the first time in their life eating in such an expensive restaurant. That night also, they bought a new cloth and a bicycle for Iskha.

“Mom, my stomach is hurt!”
“How many glass of ice cream you eat in restaurant?”
“I don’t know”
“Do you want to go to the back”
“No…!”
“What’s wrong Seiroh?”
“Iska ate to much in restaurant”
“To much…” he laughed.

In the morning Abrohm found something strange happened in his pool. The water turned to red and it stunk like a decaying fish. But the fishes were still there, swimming aggressively. His wife came toward him.

“Where is Iskha, he should have take a bath now”
“I don’t know. I haven’t see him this morning”

Sairoh walked to their neighbors. She looked for Iskha everywhere, but she never found him. She began to worry her only son. Sairoh went home. Meanwhile, Mr. Malikha and others workers had came to Abrohm’s house.

“Can we dried the pool now” asked Mr. Malikha.
“Yes, You may do it now”
“Lets work guys” He gave instruction to the others workers.
“What smell is it? Did you feed the fishes a sheep?”
“No I didn’t. It is unusual”

When the water begun to dry one of the workers saw something horrible on the bottom of the pool. He shouted to his boss.

“Mr. Malikha!! We found something here”
“Oh … God, My Lord….”
“My son Iskha…” Abrohm shocked.

On the bottom of the pool, lied Iskha’s skeleton among the Irian fishes, still wearing his new clothes, which was bought the night before.

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