Jonathan G T Tan, Short Story, The Jakarta Post

Home Sweet Home

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After the stroke, her granddad’s hair turned sullen white overnight, barely able to speak, mouth looped sideways, eyes retreated into somewhere that was not quite him anymore. For the rest of the two years he was alive, he was mostly confined to the bed in his study on the ground floor of the house, because he could no longer make his way up the stairs to his bedroom. Now, Edemi could not reconcile the image of her dad — who always thrived on picking a good fight — now sitting defeated on the edge of the bed; the dare in him leaking into a kind of resignation or surrender. At this thought, it saddened her that it had come to this: Wouldn’t it be such a fake to make up with her dad at his most feeble?

Standing her luggage on the ground, Edemi pulled it along as she headed toward the washroom. Just a puff, perhaps that would clear the head, then she would know what to do next.

Read also: The Old Pu Tao – Short Story by Teguh Affandi (The Jakarta Post, July 16, 2018)

Latching the door behind her, she lifted the luggage onto the toilet seat and unscrambled it as she searched for the pocket penknife in flap pocket. Using the blade, she carefully unstitched the seams behind the flap and took out the small packet of pot stash concealed there.

With the seams torn, Edemi suddenly felt a sense of relief. Now, she could no longer conceal it back where she put it, so she would have to dispose of it.

Baca juga  Beautiful Tomb

The right thing to do.

She rolled a little of the stash deftly on the tobacco paper and lit it, filling her lungs to the brim before she exhaled the anguish and all that was locked inside her.

As the high kicked in, Edemi felt it was somebody else’s experience she was having, like an actor in character — smoking pot, living life.

Edemi was vaguely aware of the rapid knocks that came raining hard onto the door, as she sat slumped on top of her luggage above the toilet seat. Her mind had descended into a swirl of cotton.

Read also: A Love Story – Short Story by Anton Kurnia (The Jakarta Post, July 02, 2018)

“Madam, can you please step out of the cubicle?” A voice, firm and steely, ringed on the other side of the door.

Edemi could not make out whether it was a woman or man standing outside. Moments before the rattling stopped and the latch gave way, there was a quiet few seconds where her mind trailed off. Then, just like that, the seconds were gone: the door sprang open and there were faces staring at her before she got dragged out of the hole. Edemi finally realized why she loved flying — you never really knew what there was to embrace until you embraced it fully. ***

 

The writer is currently working on a novel in his spare time with mulish determination and self-doubt. His stories have appeared in the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, New Asian Writing and Azuria Australia, among others, and has been made into a short film, as well as appearing in educational textbooks.

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