I don’t know what was going through my mind at this point, as I seemed to have lost not only the ability to speak but that to think as well. I just stood by mutely as the three of them discussed the matter and tried to reach some sort of consensus. Finally it seemed that Mr. Simon reluctantly accepted what my dad was saying after he had given him and the village chief permission to come and search our house and grounds for any sign of the missing money or equipment.
My dad wrapped his arm around my shoulders and led me back to our house. On the way we didn’t exchange a word, and when we arrived home he saw that I was about to speak but he raised his hand to stop me and said, ‘I know, son, I know.’ He told me he knew I was blameless and that he was proud of me and loved me very much, but that now it was time for me to go and join my brother in the big city. He told me he would find out exactly what happened to Mr. Simon’s business and then would get word to me when it was the right time to come back, but that I shouldn’t worry about it and he would ensure that there was no stain on my character or lingering suspicion.
I don’t think I had ever heard my father speak for so long or so passionately. I looked into this kind, gentle, lovely old man’s face and I knew I was blessed to have such a person for a father, and I resolved there and then I was really going to make him proud of me.
The next day I started my three-day journey to Jakarta.
As soon as I arrived in the city, I went and stayed with Heri. He was staying in a small boarding house, or kost as we call them, in the middle of the city in a place called Tebet. It was a very small room in a house and there was barely room for one person inside, but he was still delighted to see me and he made it clear he expected me to stay with him.
To be honest, I’d thought he was living in better accommodation than this, and if I had known the conditions of his place I wouldn’t have dreamt of imposing on him. However, I didn’t know beforehand and besides, I really didn’t have any other choice, and so I reluctantly agreed.
I told Heri what had happened to me back on our village and how our father had spoken to me and told me to make something of myself in the city ‘the way that brother Heri is already doing’. At this Heri offered a wry grin and muttered something about not knowing if that last part was exactly true.
He did, however, share my frustration and feeling of unfairness at what had transpired, but he told me that for now I just had to put it behind me the best I could and try to get on with things. He said he would help me to find a job and then, when I was ready, a place of my own to stay, and that one day he and I would both return to our village and make sure things got ‘straightened out’ with Mr. Simon.
I had so many questions I wanted to ask Heri. I wanted to know, for instance, how his plans for owning his motorcycle repair business were progressing, if he was rich yet, when he was coming back to build the big family house in the village he had promised our parents, and about a million other things. Heri merely smiled at my excitement and told me things were proving a bit more difficult to get started than he had anticipated but that he was ‘working on it all’ and that everything would be fine. He told me he still planned to open a motorcycle business when he had the opportunity, but for now he was working as a labourer. I was a little confused when he said this, because in his letters home he had told the family he was at least working in a motorcycle shop, even if it wasn’t his own business. Nevertheless, I decided not to press Heri on the matter, and took myself off for my first night’s sleep in Jakarta.
The next day he took me with him to a building site he was currently working on and helped get me a job there. Jakarta is always developing and new buildings are always going up while others are being pulled down. Sometimes a brand new hotel or office building can be constructed in just a matter of weeks, only to be bought and sold and demolished again eighteen months or so later. It really can be perplexing at times, the thinking of people here.
Anyway, as I said, Heri managed to get me employed at this site on a casual daily basis. It was my job to do little more than fetch and carry things for the other workers there, Heri included, and I also got to learn how to do simple things such as chop bricks into the right size and mix cement. It wasn’t exactly an intellectual challenge for me, but I enjoyed the work while it lasted. Most of the men there were Heri’s age or older but they were very friendly and funny to me.
In the evenings
