In this part of the city, there’s a pretty decent school called Merah Putih High School. Where all the students seem friendly, except for the unfriendly ones. They all look sweet, except for Boim and Gusur.
And among these friendly and sweet students, there’s one who stands out as the friendliest and sweetest. His name is Lupus. This kid is now seen having a great time hanging out with the little kids in front of the school gate. Checking out the street vendors lined up. There are vendors selling candy, snacks, pickles, bitter stuff, and other things. Next to Lupus’ school is an elementary school called SD Inpres. So it gets lively with the street vendors.
“What are you selling, dude?” Lupus playfully asks the fish vendor.
The vendor, who was initially indifferent, suddenly gets all excited and explains, “Fancy fish, kid. They’re really cool. We got goldfish, betta fish. Wanna buy?”
“Do you have chicken fish?”
The vendor is dumbfounded. Lupus, without a care, goes back to checking out the vendor selling snails. Amazed by their big, big feet.
“Can they bite, dude?” Lupus asks.
“Oh, no, kid. They’re harmless. Go ahead, touch them.”
“Can we eat them?”
“Nah, definitely not!”
“Then why are they being sold? This guy is something else. Better off selling ants. Even though you can’t eat them, they can still bite,” Lupus says as he adjusts the strap of his bag that’s slipping down.
The school bell rings in the distance. Lupus gets up and quickly buys a few pieces of chewing gum. But before entering the school gate, he hears a loud rumbling sound, like a war tank. Lupus stops and looks towards the source of the sound. What creature is that?
Turns out it’s just a small vehicle with an open bed. From the window of the vehicle, a familiar face appears, none other than Boim leBon, the infamous playboy.
“Hey… is that you, Lupus? Come here. I’ve got something interesting.”
Lupus immediately gets intrigued and half-runs to meet Boim.
“Damn, what is this, dude? It looks so trashy. Is it Mr. Erte’s garbage cart?”
“Damn it. This is my brand new car. Fresh from the junkyard. Pretty cool, huh? With this cart, my image as a rising playboy will keep soaring. As a good friend, can you help me push it a bit? The engine is acting up again!” Boim says.
“No way! Who do you think I am?” Lupus says as he walks away. He regrets approaching Boim earlier.
“Hey, wait… Oh, come on, Pus. Please, just this once,” Boim pleads.
Lupus looks at Boim annoyed.
“Besides, why would you buy this junk? It’s better to ride a horse-drawn carriage!”
But after being persuaded with sweet talk, Lupus finally agrees to help push.
“It’s like exercise, Pus. It’s refreshing.”
“Shut up!”
One, two… uh… Boim’s cart doesn’t move.
Lupus tries again with all his strength. One, two… uh!
Still no movement.
Boim looks back, “Hey, why isn’t it moving?”
“It’s too heavy, Im. Did you put your teeth in there?”
“Whose teeth?”
“The car’s teeth, you idiot!”
“Oh, right. Sorry. Now try again!” Boim says as he shifts gears.
Lupus tries. Now it starts moving. Slowly gliding and… grung-grung-grung… the engine starts. Boim shouts with joy. The car smoothly enters the schoolyard. While Lupus is running with sweat pouring down.
As a result, they both end up being a bit late for the first class. It’s physics!
“You go in first, Pus,” Boim instructs.
“No way. I’m extremely shy, Im. You go,” Lupus says as he forcefully pushes Boim’s body, causing him to bump into the classroom door. With a sheepish grin, Boim lowers his head to Mr. Punk, the physics teacher, because the classroom door was already open.
Luckily, they were only a few minutes late, so they were allowed to enter.
Turns out riding this car that loves to break down, just like Boim’s, is more annoying than riding a BMW. Imagine, just a few kilometers in and it’s already causing trouble. The door can’t be closed, the horn keeps honking like crazy, the lights suddenly turn on, it’s just one thing after another. The car is so overacting. Not to mention, at red lights, it often refuses to start. As a result, Lupus and Anto, who unfortunately hitched a ride with Boim, end up pushing the car. It’s so embarrassing. And to top it off, there are cute girls watching!
When they took it to the repair shop, the mechanic just made them annoyed. “Just put a padlock on the door. It definitely won’t open anymore,” said the mechanic.
Boim got furious. “What do you mean, gate door or my car!” he cursed.
“And the lights too, sir. They randomly turn on by themselves and are hard to turn off. What’s up with that?” Boim asked.
“Well, it’s like this, sir. Your car has a pretty big initiative. It’s creative, you know. If it’s not turned on, the lights can turn on by themselves. In that case, just turn them off with a wet sack. Maybe it’ll work…” the mechanic explained.
Boim was extremely annoyed.
But it wasn’t just Boim. Lupus and Anto, who were riding with Boim that day, also got annoyed. Plus, Boim wasn’t a skilled driver yet, so the car often went crazy when passing through potholed roads.
This carry-type car with an open bed was supposed to be for two people only. But they dared to squeeze in three. No big deal. It’s small anyway. And when they were stopped by the police at a corner, Lupus, who loved to joke, didn’t seem scared.
“What’s going on here? Why are three of you sitting in the front?” the police officer scolded.
“Well, officer, what can we do? If we sit four people, it won’t fit!” Lupus calmly replied.
The police officer nodded. They were let go.
But there was a reason why Lupus and Anto went through all the trouble to ride with Boim. After school, they had planned to go to Astri’s house, a sweet girl they had just met a few days ago at Svida’s birthday party. But since Boim’s car was busy breaking down all day, they could only go in the evening.
Astri’s house was quite far. At the edge of the city, near the border of Bogor. They said they had to go through some villages first. But since the three of them had a fearless spirit, they didn’t mind. They still wanted to see her. After all, Astri was really sweet.
“Damn, the road is so dark,” Boim said anxiously. Because the lights of his car seemed to be shyly flickering. Sometimes bright, sometimes dim. By then, the car had left the busy city far behind. All that was left was a dirt road with hills and bushes on both sides.
“Are you sure about the direction? Do you know the area where Astri lives?” Anto asked nervously.
“I think I know. But… ah, forget it. Just relax.”
And slowly, the rain started to fall, making the road muddy. On a slightly downhill road, Boim’s car was sliding a bit too fast. But… bam! Disaster struck. A sharp rock hit the bald tire of Boim’s car. Relentlessly, the tire burst.
“This is what I was afraid of, dude. I didn’t bring a spare tire,” Boim complained weakly.
Lupus and Anto exchanged glances. They were reminded of a similar incident in the past when they went to Puncak to watch the full moon. It felt like history repeating itself. Trapped in a remote area with rain starting to pour outside.
“Don’t worry, mate,” Boim said after inspecting the car tire. “It can still be fixed. I saw a tire repair guy about a kilo away from here. Who wants to accompany me to get the tire?”
“Me!”
“Me!”
Lupus and Anto fought over who gets to go.
“Just one of you. The other has to stay with the car. How about it? Anto can go, Lupus can guard the car.”
Anto immediately welcomed the idea. He jumped out of his seat and huddled under an umbrella with Boim. Lupus looked bewildered at the two of them.
“You’re brave, aren’t you, Boim? It’ll only take a little while. Just close all the windows so no ghosts can get in,” Boim teased.
“Don’t scare me!”
Boim and Anto chuckled. And off they went to take the broken tire to the tire repair guy.
“Don’t take too long, okay?” Lupus shouted amidst the pouring rain.
It felt like centuries had passed, and those two creatures still hadn’t shown up. Damn it. Where were they? Didn’t they know that Lupus was scared? How could he not be scared? Alone in the midst of wild nature that seemed untouched by civilization? What if the locals here were the man-eating kind? Eek, Lupus immediately dismissed those dark thoughts.
Suddenly, knock-knock-knock.
From the side window, a terrifying figure was tapping on the glass. Lupus was half scared to death. Who was that? Lupus’s mind started to panic. Cold sweat broke out, drenching his whole body.
Knock-knock-knock!
The person knocked again, pointing to their ugly and smelly mouth. Lupus shuddered even more. Was this the man-eating kind? What if they could break the door? Lupus cursed Boim and Anto for not showing up.
But luckily, Lupus regained his common sense. The terrifying person outside looked cold. Their face was pale. Could it be that they were just a regular beggar? With that assumption in mind, Lupus mustered the courage to open the window and calmly said, “What’s up, sir?” even though his pinky finger was trembling.
“I’m really hungry, kid,” the trembling voice of the old man made Lupus feel sorry for him. This person was truly just a beggar.
Lupus let out a sigh of relief and handed over a few pieces of bread he had brought from school. The beggar devoured the bread greedily.
They remained silent for a moment.
“Where are you heading, sir?” Lupus asked.
As if reminded of something, the man stood up. He thanked Lupus and was about to continue his journey.
“Aren’t you waiting for the rain to stop, sir?”
The man shook his head. But before leaving, he handed a small package to Lupus and said, “This might be useful for you, kid. Thanks for everything.”
A few moments later, the man left, and Lupus watched his departure with a sense of pity. The man looked so frail. Where could he be wandering in this rain?
Feeling tired, Lupus fell asleep in the car. Forgetting everything.
Lupus woke up when Boim and Anto were making a ruckus outside.
“Where have you guys been? It took forever!” Lupus scolded.
“Open up, Pus. Hurry. We’re in a bit of a pickle. We dropped the car key we had. So we’ve been busy looking for it. That’s why it took so long. The car tire is fixed though!” Anto explained.
“Well, isn’t that great. Why didn’t you lose the tire while you were at it?” Lupus grumbled.
“It’s not in the car?” Boim asked.
“Nope. You were the one who had it, Im.”
Boim’s face looked defeated, tired, exhausted, weak. No enthusiasm left. What could they do now?
“How about we double-check? Let’s retrace our steps and go back the way we came,” suggested Anto. Boim nodded weakly.
“I’m in!” chimed Lupus, busy searching for his sneakers that he had taken off in the car. Near the package. Oh, isn’t this the package that the beggar gave earlier? I wonder what’s inside. Lupus picked it up and opened it. Who knows, maybe it’s a lucky charm for finding true love.
Something shiny emerged from the bundle of paper.
“Wait, what’s this key?” Lupus exclaimed in surprise when he saw what was inside the package.
Boim immediately inspected it.
“You idiot! That’s the key we’ve been looking for. Where did you hide it?” Boim shouted with joy.
Lupus was just dumbfounded. Hide it? But it was from the package that the beggar gave, right? Maybe he found it?
Lupus didn’t know. Boim and Anto never cared. All that mattered was that they were now happy to continue their journey.
Sometimes, someone who seems scary can turn out to be our guardian angel.
