Enigma - Chapter 1.1
Chapter 1.1: Erika
[Two weeks earlier.]
Today, I was really unlucky.
Well, no wonder ‘No-luck’ was my middle name. Erika ‘No-Luck’ Guruh, in full. It felt like I was born in this world specifically to live a super-unlucky life. Something like Donald Duck in the Walt Disney cartoon.
Okay, before you accuse me of being overdramatic, first listen to my morning experience today. First of all, I got caught waking up late. Well, I had to admit, waking up late was my daily habit. I didn’t really like getting up early. Did you know the English proverb, ‘Early bird gets the worms’ ? Well, what if we played as the worms? We could die before the appointed time if we acted so diligently and woke up early. So, for the sake of protecting my one and only life, I chose to wake up late everyday.
So, it was not waking up late that I called unlucky, but getting caught waking up late. This morning, while I was enjoying my sleep, suddenly I heard a loud yell.
“ERIKA!!!”
Recognizing it as my mother’s voice, I immediately sat up straight—and my super wide forehead immediately hit my mother’s forehead.
Dug!
I could only gawk, while my mother’s face turned red with anger. When my mother swung her hand to hit me, I had recovered from the shock and had my reflexes back. I jumped from the top of the bed, then landed smoothly in front of the bedroom door,
“ERIKA! COME HERE NOW!”
No way! Did I look like someone who was willing to give myself up to be beaten?
“Sorry, Mum. I’m really late. Gotta go to school. Bye!”
“ERIKA!”
I didn’t care about my mother’s scream anymore. I grabbed my toothbrush, and my bag, as well as my uniform shirt and skirt that were hanging near the ironing board. Damn, my uniform is still wrinkled! I forgot to iron it last night!
Ah, whatever! Who was going to fuss over wrinkled uniforms? There were still many things in the world to think about. World peace, world hunger, overpopulation, contraception…. Yep, the problem of not ironing uniforms was just a small matter. Those who made a fuss over it must be narrow minded or have no other work to do.
I could hear my mother chasing me, so I galloped into the backyard, jumped over the fence, and looked left and right. Ah, f*ck. My personal ojek1 hadn’t appeared yet. I was forced to slip into the nearest rickshaw.
“Harapan Nusantara High School, bro!” I commanded arrogantly.
“Sure, Miss!”
The rickshaw driver immediately ramped up with maximum strength, leaving my gloomy house and my still screaming mother far behind.
Yes! The first hurdle was successfully passed! Leveled up!
Just when I started to breathe normally, suddenly the rickshaw driver screamed hysterically. “WATCH OUTT!!”
My mouth opened wide when a Kawasaki Ninja motorbike lunged at us. A second before the motorbike hit the rickshaw I was in, the motorbike took a sharp turn and stopped. That crazy motorbike driver took off his helmet. With a slight movement of his head, his front hair fell onto his face perfectly, like a superhero. Unfortunately, I estimated that he was twenty years old, maybe even more. In conclusion, he was too old to appear as a hero in teen stories.
“Sorry, I’m late.” He said with a sour face that made me suspect his apology wasn’t sincere.
“Get on!”
Grumbling, I got out of the rickshaw. I handed two-thousand rupiahs to the Rickshaw-dude who looked pale. Maybe, he thought his life was on the edge. That poor rickshaw dude.
“It’s over. Over.” I patted his shoulder, comforting him. “Dude, the danger is over.”
“Are you still wearing t-shirts and shorts?”
I turned to my regular ojek-driver2, grinning, “Haven’t brushed my teeth either. Try! smell it!”
Ojek3 immediately covered his nose as I approached him with my mouth wide open. “Dooont!! PLEASE!! I still want to live!”
Dammit.
“You talk too much, told ya.” I grabbed the helmet he offered. While putting it on my head, I perched behind Ojek. “Come one, Jek! Go! Bye rickshaw-bro!”
“Jek, Jek…” Ojek grumbled unhappily. “My name is not Jek, you know!”
“Like I care. For me, your name is Ojek, period!”
“Alright. Up to you, Ngil4.”
“Ouch, So I’m called mungil5?”
“Obviously not. It’s Tengil6!”
This d*mn ojek-driver!
“So, this is how you treat your customer?!”
“Only with you, Ngil.”
I still wanted to protest, but Ojek had already spurred his motorbike. As usual, our motorbike cut through the traffic with astonishing speed like being chased by hellhounds. At first, I always almost got a heart attack, but now I was used to it. Moreover, thanks to this kind of speed, I was able to arrive at school in no time.
“Jek, let’s just go through the back door.”
“Back door? Your school has it?”
“Eww. Please, don’t act like an idiot. It’s the back fence where I usually climb!”
“Ooohh… I thought that was an emergency exit.”
What a load of bullshit.
“Whatever. Hurry up, take me there!”
“Alright, Ngil.”
1. Ojek /ˈəʊdʒɛk/ : It is an Indonesian term for motorbike-taxi. The system is like a taxi, but with a motorbike. Nowadays, Ojek is rarely seen as it is replaced by Gojek/Grab; the online version of Ojek. It’s like Uber, but a motorbike.
2. Here, the Ojek-driver term is used for the driver.
3. Here, If I only use the term “Ojek” and with capital O if it’s in the middle of sentence, it means the nickname Erika used for the man (ojek-driver). She doesn’t know his real name, so for her the man is Ojek, the Ojek-driver.
4. Ngil = /ŋil/
5. Mungil /muŋil/ = small
6. Tengil /təŋil/ = annoying, obnoxious ; or it could be a similar vibe to “you, punk!”
*Those two words (mungil and tengil) have the same last syllable which is ‘Ngil’. Ojek uses ‘Ngil’ from the word Tengil. But Erika thought of the Ngil that Ojek used from the word Mungil.