6. Two Lost Steps

“If you’re not feeling well like that, you don’t need to come here,” Gabe said with an exasperated look directed at Warih.

The Batak man noticed his fellow illegal parking attendant once again sitting in pain on the outskirts of the empty row of shops in the Bandengan area where they worked.

“Pfft! As if we’re going to make a lot of money today. Everyone’s still in holiday mode because of the new year. It’s just our kids who have to attend school on a day off like this,” Gabe remarked as he handed Warih a plastic cup filled with hot tea.

“Look at you! You bought that marijuana from Alip’s friend until all your money was gone! Now you have no marijuana, no money to buy your medicine, you’re finished! How will you feed your daughter? Salted rice again?! Warih… Warih… Now I feel sorry for Mala!”

“Let me ask you,” Gabe continued, “I’m the one that people are afraid of, but have you ever seen me wanting to buy things like that? I’m a brawler, but I don’t want to use drugs like you. I still have to see my son grow up; I don’t want to be arrested by the police for something so small!”

Warih did not reply to Gabe’s scathing remarks, instead choosing to sip his hot tea with his head down. Observing Warih’s thin body and the more pronounced hollows on his face, Gabe couldn’t help but soften the expression on his face.

“If you’re genuinely sick, buy your medicine properly,” he said later in a quieter tone. “That marijuana might make you less painful than before, but it will have more adverse effects on you. It will damage your brain. If you do the math, you’re also spending more on this marijuana, right?”

“Now your money is gone, you don’t have any side dishes at home, no money to buy medicine, and your illness keeps recurring. You were calm when you were using marijuana, but now I see you’re starting to get weird. It’s easy for you to get angry if you don’t have your marijuana. Your work also becomes less focused.”

“To add insult to injury, a lot of people here already know you use marijuana,” Gabe continued relentlessly. “To be honest, Warih, I’m worried about you. What if you’re framed by certain people later? You know how easy it is for people like us who don’t have any money to be scapegoated, right?”

“You want to end up like Arul, who was riding his taxi bike and suddenly stopped by the police? There was marijuana on his motorcycle, and the aftermath… he was accused of being a dealer. The poor boy was beaten up at the police station. His dad and mom cried until they fainted when they saw him in jail.”

“Ah, am I getting on your nerves?” muttered Gabe later, realizing that he had been nagging Warih, who was sick. “Come on, let’s just work. If you can’t manage today, then go home. I’ll take care of your area for a while until you get better.”

The man then stared at a car that suddenly came from a distance with furrowed brows.

“Rih, I think that car is coming here. Should I handle it for you, or do you want to do it yourself?”

Warih also turned his head slowly and immediately exerted effort to stand up, reaching for his cane with difficulty.

“I’ll do it,” Warih answered, still in a weak voice. “Mala has her Quarterly Exams coming up. I need money to pay her monthly school fees that were overdue last month – so Mala won’t be embarrassed when she gets her Report Card.”

Gabe looked at Warih in surprise. “Are you sure? You look like you’re about to die to me.”

“It’s okay. I can do it,” Warih replied with a faint smile.

The man then stepped toward the center of the street again with his cane. Only moments later, he had assisted a fairly luxurious car in parking on the side of the road in their area. The driver, a slightly overweight woman with sunglasses on her face, opened her windshield halfway and turned to Warih behind her.

“Can I park here?” she asked, half-shouting at Warih.

“Yes, ma’am, feel free to park here. The road is empty,” Warih responded, gesturing for the car to move back to the left.

“Can I simply park like this?” asked the woman, her face expressing fatigue. “It’s challenging for me to park tightly to the side. If it’s empty like this, my car shouldn’t have any issues, right?”

“I’m just concerned that a larger vehicle might pass by, ma’am,” Warih said with a cough.

“No problem. Instead of struggling to park backward so tightly,” said the woman as she turned off the car engine. “I’ll only be a moment. I just need to grab a few things from my relative’s house over there.”

Warih, who was still in the process of raising his hand to ask the woman to move the car closer, was forced to remain silent when he saw the woman suddenly get out of her car. She immediately waltzed towards the house she was heading to without paying any attention to Warih.

Gabe observed as the woman distanced herself from them and commented sarcastically from behind Warih. “Are there really people like that? Someone selfish, only capable of moving forward, but utterly clueless when it comes to going backward—such individuals don’t deserve to be behind the wheel! Winning money, yet lacking in common sense!”

Gabe pointed to the position of the car’s tail, angled towards the center of the road, and exclaimed, “Look at this! Does that woman think this is an angled parking lot? Does she believe this street is her personal garage?”

Warih offered no response. He simply stood at the side of the shop, his hand on his throbbing thigh. However, within just a few seconds, the event that he and Gabe had been dreading unfolded.

A motorcycle, exceeding the speed limit in a densely populated area, abruptly confronted a larger car on the opposite side, traveling head-on. The motorcyclist, who had already moved forward to use the lane on the other side to pass the woman’s car, instinctively collided with her vehicle to avoid a crash with the larger vehicle.

Warih and Gabe were both stunned at the sight. Just as they were about to approach the fallen motorcyclist, he, noticing the damage to the woman’s car, hastily returned to his motorcycle and fled. Meanwhile, the woman, positioned in front of her relative’s house fence, screamed hysterically as she witnessed the situation from a distance.

“My car got hit!” the woman shouted in a super panicked tone, while running back towards her car.

“This doesn’t look good, ma’am,” Gabe responded as he inspected the dented bottom of the car’s bumper, accompanied by a lengthy scratch on the side where it had collided with the motorcycle. “The person who hit your car just took off, but I strongly suggest you get this serviced as soon as possible, ma’am.”

“Why didn’t you guard my car earlier?!” the woman suddenly turned to Warih and snapped at the stunned man. “You’re responsible for overseeing the security of the cars parked here. Why didn’t you prevent this from happening?”

“Me? Preventing it?” asked Warih with a confused look.

“Yes! You’re a parking attendant here and earn money from guarding cars! You should have been able to prevent it from happening or at least run after the motorcycle!”

“Ma’am, my friend has a problem with his leg,” Gabe interrupted with a hint of annoyance. “Telling my friend to chase that bike with a leg like that is outrageous.”

“Well, if he has foot problems, then tell your friend not to do this! The world of vehicles is a world that needs legs!” snapped the woman in a tone that was not to be outdone by Gabe. “Besides, if your friend does have a problem with his legs, why didn’t YOU chase the motorcycle?”

Gabe, a hot-blooded man by nature, suddenly flared up. “You’re blaming our side all the time, ma’am! You’re parked on the street, not in a designated parking spot! Anything can happen here! You should have followed my friend’s instructions to park more appropriately. Even if the streets are empty, there are usually other vehicles that suddenly appear and speed through!”

The woman suddenly looked furious. “Let me ask you, does your friend even own a car? Do you have one yourself? I’m annoyed with most parking attendants who don’t own a car yet pretend to teach people how to park properly! Do you realize that the dynamics of cars and motorcycles are different? It’s not just a matter of saying ‘backwards and forwards’! Haven’t you attended any driving school?”

Gabe took a deep breath impatiently. “Do you know how long I’ve been a parking attendant in Jakarta? It’s been more than 20 years! Even my friend has substantial experience! This is the first time in our history of parking people’s cars that we’ve been told we don’t understand the logic of parking a car! If you’re the one who’s stupid, don’t insult other people!”

The woman shot Gabe a sharp glare. “Did you just call me stupid?”

“Yeah, you’re stupid! Did you just learn how to drive a car or something?!” Gabe scolded nonchalantly. “Besides, if you think you’re smart, how come you can’t see the source of your own problem? It’s evident that the position of your car and the speed of the motorcycle were both wrong! Why would you blame my friend and me?”

“Don’t you see what’s on the front dashboard of my car?” the woman suddenly inquired, her tone shifting to a deeper pitch.

“Why would I be looking at the dashboard of your car?” Gabe retorted, growing even more annoyed.

Nonetheless, the man then glanced in the direction the woman was referring to and instantly fell silent. On the dashboard of the car, there was an Official Cap of a certain government agency that displayed the rank of someone around the woman… which was evidently quite high.

“What’s your name?” the woman asked abruptly, directing her question at Gabe. “What’s your name?! I’m going to report you to my husband and see… if you still have the guts to open your mouth in front of him! What’s your name, huh?!”

Warih, who also saw the same thing, promptly stepped forward to shield Gabe’s body from the woman.

“Ma’am,” he said, sweat started to drip down his forehead, “let’s just say it’s my fault. My friend had nothing to do with what happened earlier. Let’s forget about this.”

“How could you say that after my car was dented?!” the woman retorted with a raised intonation. “You two must not have a license as parking attendants, right? I’ll inform my husband about this later, so you can suffer the consequences! If you know you can only depend on your livelihood as an illegal parking attendant, don’t be a smart ass to people! I will make you can’t work here anymore!”

“Ma’am, I beg you not to escalate this issue; I-“

“For you, it’s easy to say don’t escalate it! It’s not your car that’s being damaged by someone! Unless you’re willing to pay for the car’s damage, I’m going to report your friend to my husband! You see, I will inform him so that he will be pursued by my husband’s people in this area later! He has insulted me!”

The woman was on the verge of getting into her car again when suddenly, Warih’s hand held her back.

“I will cover the cost of the damage,” Warih said suddenly.

“What?”

“I will cover the cost of the damage to your car,” Warih repeated.

“Warih, don’t do that!” protested Gabe from behind. “You can’t even afford your medicine, so why bother telling her not to report me to her husband! I don’t even care about her and her husband! Who the f**k are they?!”

Warih remained motionless. “Allow me to cover all the damage to your car, but please don’t jeopardize my friend’s livelihood. Both he and I have children, ma’am.”

“Warih!” Gabe shouted again.

“That was your relative’s house, wasn’t it?” Warih asked, pointing to the house the woman had visited earlier, ignoring Gabe’s protests. “You can come there tomorrow at this hour or seven at the latest. I’ll bring the money to pay for the damage to your car. As long as you don’t escalate this case, I’ll pay for it.”

“Okay,” the woman replied, pausing momentarily. “If you’re not there tomorrow and lie to me, I’ll make sure you and your friends regret it!”

She then swiftly closed the car window again and drove away. Meanwhile, Gabe, still agitated, approached Warih and pulled at his hand.

“Warih, why are you the one who….”

Gabe’s words were swiftly swallowed. He fell silent abruptly upon realizing that Warih’s eyes were already glazed over.

“This is the only way we can provide for our children,” Warih said with a trembling voice. “So please… please let me solve my problem myself. If we lose our livelihood, what will happen to our children?”

“Warih, you can’t even afford your medicine and a side dish for your daughter,” Gabe said again. “How are you going to find the money to pay for that woman’s car?!”

“I will sell my radio and fridge this afternoon,” Warih replied with his head bowed.

“Your favorite radio?” asked Gabe with a shocked look on his face. “You–“

“Om Warih!”

A boy’s voice in the distance suddenly startled Gabe and Warih simultaneously. They both turned around and saw Togi running towards them.

“Om Warih, Mala was caught stealing! She took goods from Nyai Imas’ shop secretly and got caught!” said Togi with drops of sweat pouring down his body.

Gabe’s eyes widened in shock as he questioned his son, “What did you just say?”

“Mala was caught stealing. Now she’s in Nyai Imas’s shop… and there are a lot of people watching Mala being scolded by Nyai Imas.”

Warih, grappling with the agony in his leg, suddenly felt like his heart got ripped out. Eyes teary and face pale, he pushed his tingling legs to move quickly towards his nearby house.

The moment he reached the store Togi had mentioned, Warih fell silent. The sight that greeted him stung – his daughter, with a frightened expression, stood crying in the front corner of the shop as she was told.

“Nyai,” Warih whispered to Nyai Imas, glancing at the onlookers witnessing his daughter’s humiliation. “Nyai, Mala—”

“She’s got the nerve to steal now!” exclaimed Nyai Imas, the shop owner, who was three years older than Warih. Annoyance etched across her face when she continued, “Your daughter, putting two boxes of milk in her bag and making a run for it! If my son hadn’t spotted her from below, I wouldn’t have known about this either!”

Warih, still gasping for air with sweat drenching his body, turned towards his daughter, who promptly lowered her head to the floor.

“Nyai, I’m sorry. I’ll cover the cost of whatever Mala took,” Warih apologized, feeling a sudden heat in his head and a pulsing ache in his legs. Moreover, he noticed numerous other children and mothers in the vicinity, all casting curious glances at his child who remained standing, still under scrutiny.

“That’s not what I want!” Nyai Imas replied even more angrily. “Money’s not the issue here; I know you’re going through a tough time. What irks me is that she’s starting to steal! If she’s pulling these stunts at her age, what’s she going to be like as she grows up?! She needs to learn the consequences of her actions from now on, so that she–“

Bam!

A resounding smack reverberated, abruptly silencing Nyai Imas. Unnoticed, Warih swiftly closed the distance to his daughter, delivering a sudden, forceful blow to her back that sent her crashing to the floor.

“Who taught you to steal?” Warih suddenly exploded in anger at his daughter on the floor. “WHO TAUGHT YOU TO STEAL ALL THESE YEARS?”

“D-dad?” Mala looked up at her father, her eyes wide with wonder and an expression of extreme shock. The little girl, who had been crying, now appeared both stunned and astonished in her place.

Bam!

Once more, the child was struck forcefully on the back by her father, causing her shoulders to hit the floor. Caught off guard, Nyai Imas swiftly intervened, pulling Warih’s arm away from Mala, who, in reflex, wet herself on the floor—a manifestation of her old habit triggered whenever extreme shock and fear took hold.

“Masha Allah, Warih, have you lost your mind?!” Nyai Imas shouted in panic. “Didn’t you notice your daughter frozen on the floor, shocked to the point of wetting herself because of you?! That’s your own daughter, Rih!”

Warih did not answer him. The man’s face was now flushed red and his whole head seemed to be filled with fog. He would have moved to hit his daughter again, had something not taken him by surprise.

Togi, Gabe’s son accustomed to his father’s harsh discipline, abruptly stepped forward, positioning himself to shield Mala from Warih’s impending blow. Consequently, it was Togi who tumbled to the floor, landing directly on top of Mala.

“To-Togi?” Warih murmured as he suddenly grasped the situation they were all in. “Why did you…?”

Togi promptly shifted his gaze toward Warih and compelled himself to swiftly rise, adopting a posture of strength.

“It’s okay, Om. I’m used to taking hits, but Mala isn’t,” he said with a smile. “Besides, Om already gave me permission to protect Mala. I’m her big brother.”

The boy then lifted Mala’s shoulders from the floor to assist her in getting up. It took a while for him to coax the terrified Mala into standing again. Eventually, he succeeded in guiding her out with the little girl’s skirt already damp from the ordeal.

In that moment, what struck Warih like a slap was Togi’s swift and considerate response. The boy promptly approached Nyai Imas, extending a polite apology on behalf of Mala. Following the apology, he gently led Mala away from the scene, discreetly covering her body as they made their way home.

Half an hour later, Warih reached his house, having concluded a more composed conversation with Nyai Imas. Upon arrival, he found Togi still seated politely in the front room, yet Mala was conspicuously absent from his company.

“Since you’re already here, I’ll head home,” Togi said, standing up from his chair as he saw Warih enter the house.

“Mala…?” Warih asked in a hushed tone.

“She’s crying in her room, Om,” Togi replied. “But Mala has already taken a shower.”

Warih nodded, then made his way to another chair in the room and lowered himself onto it. The man, appearing weary and vexed, took a deep breath in an attempt to regain composure.

“I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but when we got here earlier … Mala told me while crying why she stole two boxes of milk,” Togi shared from the front door of Warih’s house. “It turns out, some people here said there was a drug testing operation in this area to check for people who use drugs. They say the police are intensifying their efforts here because there are rumors of marijuana dealers.”

“Perhaps because she was afraid that suddenly you would be caught,” Togi continued, “Mala tried to find milk in a panic. She thought milk might help you clean the traces of marijuana in your urine. Mala didn’t have any money at all, so she was desperate to do that because she was too panicked. She hadn’t even eaten anything, but … she didn’t take anything for her own stomach.”