ONE HORRIBLE NIGHT

August 15, 2007

Lemme tell u ‘bout my last night’s experience…

Last night was my schedule to come to my private student’s house in Pudak Payung. FYI, Pudak Payung is soooooo… far away from my house, if you go there from my house you have to take approximately 40 minutes, and from Tembalang around 10-15 minutes. In short, people think that I was a bit crazy to take that private student. Including my little brother, well he wouldn’t complain if the fee was higher than what I got now ( he is the one who has to ride me there, he thinks that with that amount of money, the journey to Pudak Payung isn’t worth doing. He deserves to complain, though J )Uh, well..I have my own reason.

Anyway…

I got off LIA Tembalang at around 7 P.M. the journey was fine, but when we arrived at my student’s house my little brother felt there was something wrong with our motorbike’s back tire, but he wasn’t so sure ‘bout it, so after dropping me off, he continued his journey to my auntie’s house in Gedang Asri (a housing complex roundabout Ungaran).

He picked me up at around 9. Fifty meters from my student’s house, suddenly he told me that we had flat tire, right at the back tire he sensed earlier. Uh, well..I was a bit shocked, but I remained calm, no need to get panicky because of that. We walked with our motorbike, while wondering where we could find a tire man (you know what I mean).

Here comes the most frightening moment…

I have a traumatic experience with dogs..

We arrived to an intersection. There were lots of dogs ( roundabout 6, I presume ) right in the middle of the intersection. My heart was pounding bit by bit, I knew that to get to the other way, we needed to pass those horrible dogs ( they look hungry in my eyes). We asked people from that neighborhood if they happened to now if there was tire man nearby. And as Indonesian normally do, they deliberately informed us that there was a tire man on the main street, we only had to turn right a bit, went up, got to the main street, and made another right turn.

To do that, of course we had to pass those terrible horrible frightening dogs. My little brother left me just like that, I was very frightened to start walking. The gentlemen tried to comfort me by saying “ Hey, it’s okay..just ignore them, and keep moving “. In my heart, I grumbled “ How could I become so calm in front of those fierce faces? “

I think those dogs could sense my fear. They started barking, when I glanced, I could swear that some of them were ready to chase me. OMG, I was so scared I could barely move, but I tried not to run, because I knew if I ran they would think that I were their bait, so I kept moving. It turned out that I took the wrong side which made me had to go farther to reach the right way, and I didn’t have a gut to cross the street. Finally, one of the gentlemen decided to help me by assisting me to my destination. My legs were trembling when I reached the street. My brother was waiting for me on the half way to the top (it was rather a steep street). I stopped for a while to comfort my shaking legs, then I started moving. I was angry with my brother to leave me with those dogs ( how I hate them so much ). He said he had to move fast because of the steep way ( he was the one who had to walk with our motorbike ), if he walked slowly he would be much more exhausted. I understood and I forgave him. The dogs were not a matter anymore anyway.

The journey continued….

We reached the top of the street, and made a right turn. We had to walk up again, we couldn’t see any tire men nearby. We kept moving, and I was wondering if we could finally find one of them. After several minutes walking, I saw a tire man stand across the street, but guess what? It was closed!!

We kept walking until we find kind of factory or office I didn’t quite notice, and my brother asked me to ask a security guard in that building. I asked him, and he answered we could find a tire man before the gas station ( still in Pudak Payung ). Again, we walked up ( I couldn’t imagine how tired my brother was). Alhamdulillah, thank you Allah, finally we found Mr. Tire man right after Payung Asri Hotel. You couldn’t imagine how grateful I was to find our savior.

But again, we couldn’t go home earlier, the tire man couldn’t find the problem easily, when he was finished with one hole, and he tried to put the inner tire inside the outer tire, it seemed that it couldn’t get done. After several attempts, finally it could be done. Time : 23: 20. We hurried home, and because it was already late, there were only one or two vehicles passed the street, so we could arrived home fast. Time : 23:45. What a night!