Leila Chudori - Home

Aji knew that to get a job in a state-owned company, a prospective employee had to go through a barrage of bureaucratic procedures that had been established by the government specifically for the purpose of ascertaining whether the prospective employee was free from the taint of blood relations with a political prisoner or political exile. Suddenly, for Aji too, the nasi uduk on its banana leaf lost all appeal, as if it were rancid and left over; as if the fried shallots and shreds of omelet had suddenly turned black. How could the color of food change, chameleon-like, with the mood of one’s heart?

No one — not Aji, Retno, nor even Andini — knew how to react to Rama’s announcement. Of course they should be happy and proud that he wanted to marry. But he intended to marry the daughter of a director of a state-owned company. What was the implication of this?

“So, Rama, when would you like to bring Rininta here to introduce her to us?” his mother finally asked.

“Anytime, Mama. Anytime the three of you are all here together, I can bring her by.”

Aji knew there was a subordinate clause as yet unspoken. “But…?”

“But besides introducing you to Rininta, I’d like you to meet her parents as well.”

That was it. That was the sentence that had been sticking in Rama’s throat. That is what had forced him to come here and to make his mother work so hard preparing nasi uduk with all the fixings for him. Rama wanted the family to meet Mr. and Mrs. Priasmoro!

“Ohmygod, ohmygod!” Andini got up to take her plate to the kitchen. “Ohmygod, ohmygod!”

“Shut up, will you!” Rama snapped in irritation.

In the kitchen, Andini cackled as she washed her hands. In the dining room, Aji, Retno, and Rama sat in silence as they listened to her noise. Her voice was a foghorn, loud and shrill.

Aji pushed his chair away from the dining table and stood. Retno called to the back for Mbak Irah, the housemaid and helper, to come help her clear the table and carry the rest of the dirty dishes to the kitchen.

Rama followed his father as he walked towards the living room, his heart beating faster.

Andini grabbed a towel from a stack beside the drying room next to the kitchen and went off towards the bathroom to bathe, even as she continued to intone “Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod!” which was making her brother feel increasingly irritated.

Aji looked at the wall clock. It was now 1:30. Suddenly he felt a throb of pain in his head, as if he had a pinched nerve. He felt his eyeballs being pulled in all directions. This had to be a psychosomatic reaction to Rama’s announcement, her realized. Rama’s heart must be set on marrying this daughter of the director of a state-owned company. If not, then why did he want to introduce his parents to them?

“Iraaaah!” Aji suddenly shouted.

Mbak Irah, who had just finished putting away the food from their lunch, scurried into the room. She had never heard her Pak Aji shout so loudly before.

“Please heat me some milk.”

“Yes, sir.”

For his father to want a glass of warm milk was a sign that he wasn’t feeling well — which made Rama feel distinctly ill at ease. Then, as his father kneaded his temples with his fingers, Rama became even more reluctant to continue his unfinished announcement. His mother came into the room carrying a glass of warm milk. The look she gave him told him that he was not to do anything to make his father more upset.

“Would you like to lie down and rest?” Retno asked Aji.

Aji drank the glass of milk, one sip after another. Gradually, the throbbing in his head began to subside and his stomach feel settled and warm again. Retno sat down beside her husband on the couch. Both braced themselves to hear unpleasant news. Finally, Retno nodded towards Rama, who was seated across the coffee table from them.

“I know this is all of a sudden…” Rama began.

“What’s all of a sudden?”

“Well, this meeting I mentioned.”

“What is it you’re saying, Rama? You’re just asking us to meet Rininta’s parents, aren’t you?”

“Well, not just to meet them, Papa. There’s also…”

“ Masya Allah! ” Aji quickly gulped the rest of his glass of milk. Milk dripped from the glass and dribbled from his lips.

Retno stared at her son, suddenly finding a headache coming on as well. “So what you’re saying is…”

“What I’m saying is that Rininta and I intend to get married, sometime before the end of the year.”

“Ohmygod, ohmygod!” came the shriek of Andini’s voice from the bathroom followed by a gale of laughter. How could she hear them speak when she was taking a bath?

“Just a second here…” Retno was becoming upset. “You haven’t been to this house in more than a year and now you’re telling us that you’re going to marry your director’s daughter. Am I hearing this right?”

“But it’s still a long ways off, Mama. The end of the year.”

Aji continued reclining against the back of the couch, a mustache of milk on his upper lip, as he stared forward in a daze. Retno took a tissue from the dispenser on the coffee table and wiped her husband’s lip.

“The important thing here is not when you’re going to get married,” Aji said in a slow and even voice. “If you want to get married tomorrow, that’d be fine with me. What’s important is whether or not, when you started to date Rininta and then came to be accepted by the Priasmoro family, they knew who we are.”

Rama’s face grew pale. He hardly knew what to say next. He was coming to the most difficult part of his mission.

Andini came into the room to join the family circus with a towel wrapped turban-like around her freshly washed hair. She put her hands on her hips as she faced her brother.

“Is she pregnant?”

Andini look very much like their mother, with fair skin, a pointed chin, and small eyes. They also both had long straight hair. But unlike their mother, when Andini spouted those sharp words, she resembled, in Rama’s eyes, a she-devil.

“Of course not,” Rama growled.

Andini undid her towel and patted her hair, spattering her brother’s face with water.

“Well, then, answer Papa’s question,” she demanded. “Does your girlfriend’s family know that ours is categorized by the government as coming from an unclean environment? That we are an E.T. family? And you know I’m not talking about ‘extra-terrestrial’ or ‘entertainment tonight.’ E.T. — Eks Tapol— former political prisoner! Do you understand? Even though Om Dimas was never arrested and never imprisoned either, his name is the same. He’s an E.T. too, a former…”

“Yes, God damn it, I know!” Rama yelled at his sister.

With her wet hair unkempt and in a mess, Andini remained steadfast. Her small eyes bulged, just like their mother’s did when she was angry.

“And who the hell are you to shout at me? You disappear for years and now suddenly show up wanting to get married because you feel the need for a family. Where were we all this time!? And now you’re swearing at me?!”

Rama said nothing, but he could not check his rising emotion. He too felt like his pride had been stamped on. Rama didn’t know how to explain this to his family, but he had never wanted to deceive either his friends or the family of his girlfriend.

Aji guessed what his son was thinking. “So, the problem now is that you’ve never told them about your family background. For all the years you’ve dated Rininta, you intentionally hid our identity…”

Rama bowed his head. For Aji and Retno that was the answer: Rama had concealed his family’s identity. Even though Rama didn’t say it out loud, Aji, knowing his son’s character, knew that what Rama most wanted was for his family to bury its history and life story as deeply as possible.