But Satya did not see any land, nor anything he could use as a buoy to support his body so that he could last longer in the middle of the ocean.
This is not good, he thought. After all, Satya was quite tired. He remembered for sure that he had not slept after a day of cleaning the old house and its grounds, that the fact that a minute earlier he had still been in the living room of his ancestral house, and that it was still night.
Now the conditions around him are bright, whether it's morning or afternoon, Satya doesn't know for sure.
Not wanting to stay in the middle of the sea any longer, Satya swam towards the sun which seemed quite close to the line where the sea surface met the sky. Anything can happen in this vast expanse of water, and the threat of deadly shark fangs is one of them.
I wish there was an island!
Satya has been swimming for a long time, and so far, he has not come across an island, not even a small one. He continued to pedal his arms and legs even though he already felt at the threshold of his ability.
His tired body and mind finally made Satya unable to move his arms and legs anymore.
"H—Help…"
Satya was only able to say softly before finally losing consciousness, and he slowly sank.
*
The afternoon sun shining its orange glow on the edge of the sea made Satya wince a few times. Each time he winced with a soft moan from his half-open mouth while his eyelids were still closed.
The seagulls flew above the sea surface, adding to the beautiful panorama in the afternoon, except for Satya who was lying on the beach face down.
The wash of water from the waves breaking on the shore did not wake the man even though his half-down body was wet with seawater.
A seagull perched on Satya's back, pecking at something moving slowly down his back.
The eyes suddenly opened, Satya immediately frowned and coughed, and the seagull flew back.
Satya sat, still coughing, then he threw up. The seawater that had been swallowed by him when he drowned earlier, was now expelled with his vomit.
"Land?" he muttered.
He looked around, occasionally he still coughed by feeling a very dry throat.
"What has happened to me?"
Whatever it was, Satya still felt lucky because he didn't drown even though he didn't know anything about this beautiful area with beaches that were reddened by the light of the setting sun.
Satya tried to stand up even though he was quite weak, and he was still wearing knee-length pants without a shirt.
"W—Where am I?"
He looked at the wilderness in front of him, it looked quite dense, and the wilderness was dominated by coconut plants. Maybe there was a village, a residential area, or at least a house belonging to someone he could turn to for help.
Before things got darker, Satya forced his feet to move even though he was very weak and thirst was rampant.
Every ten steps, Satya stopped and leaned against the coconut tree to gather the energy. Although he realized that he had not gone very far, with his weak and thirsty condition, Satya did not know how much longer he would have to go, or when he would lose consciousness for the umpteenth time.
He kept forcing his feet, limping with every step he took until his feet were in a stream of water that was very shallow, only up to his ankles.
Is this freshwater?
Yeah, that's for sure!
Satya bent down, touched the surface of the slow-flowing water with one hand, then licked his fingers. Once, twice… until finally, his tongue gets back to its senses.
That's right, fresh water.
With a feeling of emotion in his chest, Satya just sat in the flow of water that led to the beach. He scooped up the water with his palms, sipping the clear, fresh water several times.
Between holding back tears and laughter while enjoying the fresh water, Satya suddenly choked, coughed again, and finally passed out again. He just crashed into the shallow water flow.
A pair of feet approached the shallow stream, paused for a moment, then approached Satya who was unconscious in the stream.
*
A girl about seventeen years old brought a wooden container filled with water and a piece of cloth, she took them all into a room in a hut with woven bamboo walls, the hut was roofed with thatch leaves. The floor in every room in the hut was just a dirt floor.
In the small room, there is a bamboo table, two pieces of tree trunk that serve as a seat, and a bamboo divan. On that bamboo divan, Satya was lying on his back, still in a state of unconsciousness.
The girl who only wears a kemben—a type of traditional Indonesian women's clothing, uses two pieces of batik cloth, one part is used to wrap around the chest, and the other is used to cover the stomach to the knees—using a cloth that she has soaked in water in a container to wipes Satya's face.
Not only the face but the entire chest and stomach of the man were also cleaned very gently by the girl. However, it was a little difficult for her to clean Satya's body from the waist down because it was blocked by the pants.
The girl frowned. "Is he from a different region? Far country? Why is the shape of the pants so different?"
The girl shrugged her shoulders, then, she tried to remove the pants on Satya's body. However, the pants were still wet, it wouldn't be good if the man wore them for a long time let alone wore them to sleep.
Although a little tricky, in the end, the girl managed to take off the man's pants. It's just that, when the pants were taken off, she found the man's other pants, boxer shorts.
Again the girl frowned. "What kind of little pants are those anyway?" she muttered. "It isn't the custom of men in this land… Who is he?"
The girl also released the boxer from Satya's body. After taking off the boxers, the girl's face suddenly turned red. She smiled as she looked away.
However, the temptation to look again at the man's crotch was strong enough to make the girl take the opportunity. After all, the original goal was only to clean the part below the man's waist.
"So clean and…" the girl smiled shyly.
Holding back the intense turmoil within her, the girl swept the wet cloth in her hands up to the waist, groin, to the ends of Satya's legs.
Good thing he's still unconscious, she thought.
After cleaning Satya's body, the girl grabbed a long batik cloth she had prepared on the short bamboo table. She uses the batik cloth to cover Satya's body.
"Hopefully you'll wake up sooner," she muttered half inaudibly.
The girl cleaned up all the things she used to clean Satya's body out of the room. Also, the man's pants and boxer.
***
Morning comes like the previous days which always faithfully accompanies the whole life to start each activity with the gentle light of the sun that gives passion to live itself.
The chirping of wild birds sounds quite beautiful and soothes the hearing and the mind.
Satya opened his eyes, blinked a few times, and squirmed. Then, suddenly he realized that something had happened to him. He got up and sat on the bamboo divan, the batik blanket falling to his waist. He looked at the condition of the room with woven bamboo walls, and thatched roofs.
Satya still vaguely remembers that earlier he had fainted again in that shallow stream of water in the middle of the wilderness.
Where am I now?
With a sudden movement, the man checked the condition of his body, and his face, he let out a sigh of relief to find that he was fine and no longer thirsty.
Then, his brow furrowed because he found a blanket in the form of a long batik cloth covering his waist. When he took off the blanket, he became gasped at the fact that he was not wearing any clothes under the blanket.
Satya gulped. Who took my pants?
And he gulped again when he was about to get off the bamboo divan, a lovely girl entered the room.
"Aah, you already awake," the girl smiled.
Satya just nodded like a fool on the bamboo divan, and he piled a long batik cloth to cover his crotch.
"W—Who are you?"
"I'm Lathifa," said the girl, placing the wooden tray in her hand on the low bamboo table. "You can just call me Lathi."
On the tray was a plate made of woven coconut leaf sticks, and two pieces of boiled sweet potato. And a bamboo cup filled with water that still gave off a thin layer of steam.
"I found you passed out in the stream yesterday. Oh, sorry, I washed your pants and the weird little pants of yours."
Satya cleared his throat, he looked down with a red face. It was the girl who turned out to have stripped me, and she didn't seem bothered by it.
"By the way," the girl sat next to Satya on the edge of the bamboo divan. "What is your name?"
"Satya. You can call me Satya."
"Satya," the girl nodded. "Okay. I've prepared breakfast for you. Do you like noni leaf tea?"
Aryan frowned. Noni leaf tea? he thought. What does it taste like?
It's just that, feeling bad for the girl's kindness, Satya just nodded.
"I don't have clothes for men in my hut," said the girl, "you just use the batik cloth to cover your body."
After that, the girl came out of the room.
Satya scratched his head. This is very strange, he thought. Is there still a girl in today's dress like that? Doesn't she realize that the top half of her breasts are exposed, and her cleavage is narrow?
Then, Satya's eyes fell on two pieces of boiled sweet potato and a cup of steaming tea on the bamboo table.
Who has breakfast with boiled sweet potatoes and a cup of noni leaf tea on this day?
Where am I really now?
***