Memoirs - Skripsi

What a Jolly Good Day!
Today is such a great day! Why, you might ask? Well, it’s because I am finally able to eat
my favorite food! My breakfast today is so luxurious. Rice with a little bit of chicken floss and
crackers, my favorite! Not only that, my mother always tried her best to make it more interesting,
so she rounded up the rice together with the chicken floss and the crackers to make it looks like a
fish. If only I could eat this every day, then I would be as happy as a clam! But too bad, I am
regularly only able to eat rice with crackers. I am still ecstatic about it though, don’t get me wrong,
because I get to share my food with my brother and two sisters! We always fight to decide who
will get the most food for our breakfast, lunch, and dinner, all of us have a big appetite after all.
Still, that is the joy of having siblings, we get to share our happiness. The weird thing is, I don’t
understand why both of my parents have woeful expressions every time I saw them. They always
argue about something, sometimes it could take all night long. I wonder if they also argue about
who gets the most food like my siblings and I always do. Yes, that’s probably it! Sometimes I also
saw my mother crying in the kitchen. She immediately wipes her tear when I approach her. Hah,
I bet she’s flustered that she keeps on losing to my father so she puts a strong façade around me.
Enough about that though, because this story is not about her embarrassment, it’s about my
fantastic day. My brother and I would usually spend the rest of my day on the couch. Though,
today is different. The couch that was supposed to be there, is gone for some reason. I ask my
mother about it and she only replied that the couch is being “borrowed” for now, so I cannot use
it. Huh, strange, my family always let others come into our house, and then they “borrow” a lot of
things. Right now we don’t even have a dinner table, guess my parents are a real philanthrope. It
makes me so proud of them! Occasionally, my parents would cry when numerous people barge
into our house to borrow some things, I guess they are overjoyed? The strange thing is, every time
those people borrowed our stuff, Mr. Scallywag is always there. He always comes and has this
huge smirk on his face, as my mother succumbed to sadness. Weird, I don’t understand at all, if
only they could see that today is a jolly good day!

All’s Well That Ends Well?

I have the opportunity to see my mother work up close! I am finally going to help her in her catering
business. Though I cannot do anything really, All I could do is observe my mother and my uncle while they
are working. They always work tirelessly, and I often went with them to deliver the catering to one of the
biggest tv stations in Indonesia. My mother was able to work there as a food provider, because of my uncle.
He is making his way up from cleaning service and using his networking skills, he lobbied one of the
managers to let my mother make a contract with them as the food service provider. It all went extremely
well, you may even say that it is smooth sailing by now. At that time all I was thinking is that maybe, from
this point onwards, I don’t have to see my mother’s secret weeps and woes. What I love about going out
with my mother and uncle to deliver the catering, is that they will usually treat me to various kinds of food.
Some are extremely delicious, some are… not so much. Yet, It’s weird to see that they never eat together
with me. They either say that they have already eaten, or they don’t have any appetite. Strange, because I
never saw them eat. I then fell asleep during one of my trips to deliver the catering. I can hear faint murmurs,
at first I thought that it was part of my dream, but it felt… very much real. I then opened my eyes, realized
that the car has stopped moving. I then wake up, just to see my mother and uncle, sharing one wrapped rice,
with only one omelet and lots of sambals. They ate as if they have never eaten before. They ate a lot of
sambals to give the rice some flavor, so even though they only eat rice, it could still feel as if they were
eating something grand. I then faintly hear my mother say to my uncle “is it okay that we spend our last
5000 rupiahs for us to eat? What about the gas, what about the rice money for the children tomorrow?”. My
uncle then softly replied, “don’t worry about that, the gas is enough for our trip and today we will receive
our paycheck. Hopefully it is enough for the capital of our catering”. My mother then puts a huge smile on
her face as she cries, and only says two words over and over again “thank God”. I then forced myself back
to sleep, don’t want my mother nor uncle to see that I am hearing their conversation. We arrive there late
at night, probably at around 1 or 2 A.M, because the catering is delivered for the midnight shooting schedule
and I was finally able to see both my mother and uncle’s happy faces as they received the paycheck. I wish
that I could cherish her happy face, wishing that I could snap a picture of it and made it so that she always
stays that way. However, things never went exactly as planned, as we go make our way back to our car,
Mr. Scallywag is there, arguing with my mother and taking the hard-earned money that my mother just
received, leaving it as close as nothing. My uncle is only able to grit his teeth, holding his temper. And I,
was only able to stand there, struck by obliviousness, as I now lament myself of how powerless I am.