The Sacrifice

The Sacrifice

Oleh: Selli Tiolita Hasibuan

Langkah kakinya tegas melewati koridor kampus. Seperti biasa, ia menyempatkan diri untuk sekadar membaca mading untuk mengetahui informasi terbaru di kampusnya. Tas ranselnya menggembung, sepertinya mata kuliah hari ini sangat padat. Bahunya yang kekar tentu saja mampu menanggung beban yang tak seberapa itu. Ia membenarkan letak kacamatanya agar dapat membaca dengan nyaman.

 Seketika matanya tertuju pada satu kertas pengumuman. Ia membacanya dengan cermat dan tersenyum simpul. Tampaknya itu adalah sesuatu yang tidak biasa. Ia membaca pengumuman itu dengan seksama dan penuh dengan konsentrasi.

“Baca apa, San?”

Wawan, yang merupakan teman sekelasnya menepuk pundaknya dari belakang.  Lantas ia tersentak dan langsung menoleh.

“Ini, Wan, ada beasiswa S2 ke Australia. Kita kan tahun ini wisuda, jadi gak ada salahnya kan kalau kita mencoba melanjut ke jenjang studi selanjutnya?”

“Iya, San. Aku juga ada niat mau nyambung S2, San. Tapi kayaknya mau ngambil di dalam negeri aja. Ya sudah, aku masuk dulu ya. ”

“Oke, Wan.”

Ia kembali membaca pengumuman itu dan mengambil android dari saku celananya. Ia mencatat hal-hal penting di notes androidnya. Ia bergegas memasuki kelas, jam tangan hitamnya telah menunjukkan angka 07.28 sementara kelas akan dimulai pada pukul 07.30. Ia melangkah dengan tegas menuju ruang kelasnya di lantai tiga.

Sudah hampir sepuluh menit mereka di ruangan, namun dosen mereka belum juga datang. Hasan yang merupakan komisaris di kelasnya segera menuju ke depan kelas dan memanggil satu per satu nama yang ada di absensi kelas mereka. Setelah itu ia memberikan info yang ia baca di mading kepada teman-temannya.

“Guys, udah pada baca info yang ada di mading?”

“Info apa, San?”

Rafa yang duduk di bangku nomor dua dari depan segera menyucurkan tanya.

“Tadi Hasan baru baca mading, ternyata ada beasiswa ke Australia. Cuma mau bagi info aja ke teman-teman, manatau ada yang berminat untuk ikut.”

Seisi kelas mulai riuh. Hasan dihujani puluhan pertanyaan dari teman-temannya.

“Udah, gini aja. Nanti setelah selasai kelas ini, kalian lihat aja mading yang ada di lantai satu di depan Open Stage. Disitu ada info lengkapnya. Oke.”

“Thanks ya, San.”

“Sipp!”

***

Hasan pulang dengan perasaan bahagia. Ia tak sabar untuk memberitahukan kabar gembira ini kepada ibunya. Pasti ibunya akan sangat senang mendengar kabar dari Hasan.

          “Assalamu’alaikum, bu.”

          Ia mendapati pintu yang tidak terkunci dan segera memasuki rumah. Ternyata ibunya sedang memasak di dapur. Ia mengucapkan salam kepada ibunya dan duduk di meja makan.

          “Kok tumben pulangnya cepat, nak? Baru jam 12 sudah pulang.”

          Wajah tua ibunya diselimuti oleh kepulan asap masakan.

          “Ibu masak apa?”

          Hasan memegang perutnya yang menandakan bahwa ia sudah kelaparan.

“Hasan sudah lapar ini bu. Bau masakan ibu membuat cacing-cacing yang ada di perut Hasan jadi kelaparan.”

          “Kamu itu loh, San. Bilang aja kalau kamu mau makan.”

          Ibunya tersenyum menanggapi candaan anak laki-lakinya itu. Hasan memang suka bercanda dengan ibunya. Karena ibu-lah yang satu-satunya ia punya saat ini.

          “He he, ibu tau aja. Bu, Hasan mau ngasih kabar gembira untuk ibu.”

          “Kabar gembira apa, nak?”

          Ibunya segera duduk di samping putra semata wayangnya itu.

          “Bu, Hasan dapat beasiswa S2 ke luar negeri, bu.”

          Hasan dengan bangga menunjukkan surat pernyataan kelulusan kepada ibunya. Ibunya perlahan membukanya dan membaca isi surat tersebut.

          “Australia? Kamu mau kuliah di Australia, nak?

          “Iya, bu. Hasan udah diterima dan besok mau wawancara, bu.”

          Ibunya terdiam, air wajahnya menunjukkan kesedihan yang mendalam. Putra semata wayangnya akan meninggalkannya sendiri.

          “Ibu kenapa? Kok sedih? Hasan bakalan kuliah ke luar negeri, bu. Pasti ibu bangga kan?”

          “Iya, nak. Ibu sangat bangga sama kamu, nak.”

Ibunya langsung pergi menuju ruang tengah dan meninggalkan Hasan sendiri di meja makan.

“Ibu kenapa, bu?”

Hasan menghampiri ibunya yang sedang duduk di teras rumah sambil merenung. Mata ibunya sembab, sepertinya ibunya baru saja menangis.

“Nggak kenapa-kenapa kok, nak. Ibu sangat bangga kamu bisa mendapat beasiswa ke luar negeri, nak.”

“Ia, bu. Hasan pasti bakal membuat ibu bangga. Hasan janji, bu. Oh iya bu, Besok Hasan berangkat ke Jakarta, bu. Ada pembinaan yang harus dilakukan disana.”

“Iya, nak, ibu akan selalu mendo’akanmu.”

“Makasih ya bu. Hasan sayang banget sama ibu. Hasan janji akan membanggakan ibu dan membuat ibu tersenyum. Hasan janji, bu.”

Hasan segera kembali ke kamar dan membereskan barang-barang yang akan dibawanya ke Jakarta besok. Ia harus tiba di bandara pukul 07.00 pagi, sehingga ia harus segera bergegas malam ini.

Ia sangat bahagia karena mimpinya untuk melanjut S2 ke luar negeri segera terwujud. Tinggal menghitung beberapa hari lagi ia akan segera tiba di Australia. Ia tak sabar untuk meneguk manisnya ilmu di Negeri Kangguru itu.

***

Suara alarm membangunkannya dari tidur yang lelap. Ia segera bergegas mengambil wudhu’ untuk melaksanakan Sholat Tahajjud. Ia berdo’a kepada Allah untuk memudahkan langkahnya dan memberikan yang terbaik untuknya.

Setelah sholat, ia berniat membangunkan ibunya untuk melaksanakan Sholat Tahajjud. Namun saat ia ingin mengetuk pintu kamar ibunya, ia mendengar suara tangisan ibunya.

“Ya Allah, betapa putraku sangat bahagia karena Engkau mudahkan jalannya untuk meraih mimpi-mimpinya. Tapi Ya Allah, apakah hamba yang sudah tua ini harus tinggal sendiri? Namun betapa ia sangat bahagia, Ya Allah. Itu adalah mimpi terbesarnya selama ini. tolong mudahkan jalannya dalam meraih mimpi-mimpinya, Ya Allah.”

Seketika jantungnya bergemuruh. Ia bagaikan tersambar petir di tengah badai. Ia tersadar akan sesuatu yang terlupakan. Ia tersadar bahwa ada sosok yang lebih berharga dari segala-galanya yang harus ia jaga dan lindungi. Namun mengapa ibunya tidak melarangnya untuk pergi? Mengapa ibunya tidak menyatakan penolakan terhadap kepergian Hasan?

Air matanya menetes. Ia duduk di ruang tamu menunggu ibunya selesai shalat. Tak lama kemudian ibunya keluar dari kamarnya dan mendapati putranya sedang duduk di ruang tengah.

“Sudah mau berangkat, San? Kok cepat sekali?”        

Hasan segera menghampiri ibunya dan mencium kaki ibunya.

“Ibu, maafkan Hasan. Hasan gak akan pergi ke Australia, bu. Hasan gak akan ninggalin ibu sendiri. Hasan akan tetap menemani ibu disini, ibu jangan khawatir ya, bu.”

Ibunya heran melihat perilaku putranya.

“Loh, kamu kenapa, nak? Kok tiba-tiba membatalkan keberangkatan ke Australia? Itu kan mimpimu dari dulu, nak?”

“Gak, bu. Hasan gak mau pergi ke Australia. Hasan cuma mau disini menjaga dan merawat ibu. Maafkan Hasan ya bu, karena gak mikirin ibu. Hasan memang egois, bu. Maafkan Hasan ya, bu.”

“Ya Allah, anakku. Semoga apa yang kamu korbankan diganti dengan yang lebih baik oleh Allah, nak.”

Mereka hanyut dalam kesedihan masing-masing. Itulah ibu, ia akan sebisa mungkin membuat anaknya bahagia, walaupun hatinya terluka.

Yuk, Perbaiki Diri!

Aku tak pernah tahu kapan rasa itu menghampiri, sebab ia sangat misterius. Ia bisa datang sekenanya jika sang maha pencipta rasa itu menghendaki. Sebab Allah lah sang maha pencipta, termasuk rasa itu. Allah lah sang maha membolak-balikkan hati setiap hambanya. Yang tadinya dekat, bisa saja menjadi jauh. Yang tadinya jauh bisa saja tiba-tiba menjadi dekat.

Cinta, sejatinya ia adalah anugerah dari sang maha cinta, Allah SWT. Cinta itu suci, sangat suci dari sang maha suci. Jangan salahkan cinta jika ia mudah datang dan pergi. Jangan pula kau salahkan sang pemberi cinta. Berbahagialah karena kau masih bisa merasakan cinta.

Namun tampaknya definisi cinta telah tercemar di zaman ini. Ya, mereka mengartikan cinta dengan pacaran, malam mingguan, makan bareng, bahkan ngerjain tugas bareng. Jangan kau artikan cinta dengan kacamata kudamu, Sobat. Karena cinta itu luas. Cinta pada Allah, Rasulullah, Ayah-bunda, Adik-kakak, saudara seiman, dan masih banyak lagi, yang diwujudkan bukan dalam bentuk pacaran.

“kan gapapa sih, soalnya gara-gara dia aku jadi rajin sholat. Gara-gara dia juga aku jadi makin semangat belajar.”

Kalimat diatas adalah dalil bagi para aktivis pacaran. Jadi kita sholat gara-gara pacar, gitu? Bukan karena Allah? Itu mah namanya nggak ikhlas. Walah..

Terus, yang katanya buat makin semangat belajar, yakin tuh? Nanti malah galau dan gak mau belajar? Emang orang tua gak mampu untuk membangkitkan semangat belajar kita? coba deh dipikir-pikir, kalo pas berantem sama pacar, emang minat belajarnya makin tinggi? Yang iya makin kacau balau kan? Hehe, coba deh dijawab pertanyaan-pertanyaan diatas :

“aku kan pacarannya islami, gak malam mingguan dan gak pakek gandengan tangan, kok.”

Lohh.. emang ada ya pacaran ‘ala’ islam? Maksudnya apa tho?? Pacarannya di mesjid gitu? Dibawah bedug, diawali dengan bismillah dan diakhiri dengan alhamdulillah, gitu? Sedangkan pacaran dalam islam hukumnya haram, kok ada pula pacaran islami?

“kalo nggak pacaran gimana mau nikah? Nanti nyesel dong karena belum mengenal dia seutuhnya.”

Ini mah namanya ngawur. Emang kalo pacaran, si cowok atau si cewek bakalan nunjukin sifat aslinya? Enggak kan? Apa bisa mengenal sosok seutuhnya lewat pacaran, yang mereka akan menunjukkan sifat yang baik hanya saat ketemu sama kamu. Apakah pacaran satu-satu nya cara untuk menikah? Yakin, yang udah pacaran berpuluh-puluh tahun pasti menikah? Enggak menjamin kan? Udah deh, gak usah banyak alasan, dan gak usah pakek tapi-tapian.

Mendingan perbaiki diri biar dapat yang baik. Karena perempuan yang baik hanya untuk laki-laki yang baik, begitu juga laki-laki yang baik hanya untuk perempuan yang baik. #YukPerbaikiDiri

and, Finally~

Setelah sekian lama menunda-nunda untuk membeli meja belajar, akhirnya kebeli juga. Alhamdulillah :) Akan ada sosok baru –sosok?- yang akan setia menemaniku begadang mengerjakan tugas atau bahkan menulis. Kini notebook ku telah berada di tempat yang kokoh dan juga anggun. Meja belajar ku bergambar micky mouse dengan paduan warna pink dan hijau yang juga adalah  warna kesukaanku.

“berapa harganya, mbak?”

“Rp 40.000 aja dek” Ia tersenyum ramah saat berbicara.

“kok mahal kali, mbak?” protes ku.

“ini sudah murah, dik. Coba dibandingkan sama yang ini –sambil menunjuk meja jenis lain yang tak jauh lebih kecil daripada meja yang menjadi targetku-

“yah.. kurangi lah mbak, 35.000 ya mbak.” Aku menawar tak mau kalah.

“enggak kurang lagi, dik. Ini kualitas oke punya.” Mbak tadi masih dengan pendiriannya untuk mempertahankan harga dan dengan memuji barang dagangannya –hal yang memang biasa dilakukan oleh para pedagang-

“ya udah deh mbak, 37.000 aja deal ya..” aku juga masih tak mau kalah.

“ya sudahlah, 38.000 aja dik.”

Akhirnya si mbak mengalah dan mengurangi harga mejanya walau hanya Rp. 2000. Tapi lumayan lah.

“oke, mbak.”

Dan disinilah aku menuliskan cerita ini, diatas meja belajar baru ku. Sepertinya meja ini memberikan semangat positif untuk terus berkarya. Kadang hal yang sepele –contohnya meja belajar- punya faktor yang sangat penting dalam pencapaian jutaan target.

MOTIVATIONS TO WRITE SHORT STORY

A.   Finding the object

In our daily life, we will find the people who like talking, especially in communication process among them. The speakers sometime make their story over, so that they are called “si pembual”. “si pembual can be said as “the oral man of letters” because they can entertain the listeners by their stories. 

By reading more, someone can have a wealthy of spiritual more than others. Person who has a wealthy spiritual also has a higher consideration with their environment. From the experiences of reading, realize or not, their language skills will be developed. They have more vocabularies more than average.

The spiritual experience, the consideration of environment, and the wealthy of language are the assets that can be used while the impuls of writing comes. There are many short story that take a theme of imbalance social status that comes from the the critical thinking of the authors. In their story, they will take a position as the third person as the observer. But they also can be as the first person as the actor. 

In writing a novel or short story, it is better if we have had the experience before, so that our works will be more life. But it is not always like that. We also can search from the internet to find out the things that are related to our story. Emile Zola is an author who takes that experience. He lived with the ferryman to write his novel, Germinal.

As many experts said that literature comes from sources of the authors’ experiences. It can be from physical or spiritual (Semi, 1984: 14). The spiritual experience is also the priceless wealthy. It can be found from other media, such as audio or audiovisual, or from the books. Actually when we want to find the object of our writing, we do not need to go faraway. We just need to observe the exiting object.

B.    Inducement

It seems like the guns that full of bullets, it will be soon shoot. This statement is populared by an author named Budi Darma. Someone will be started to write if they find the inducement. Inducement is actually the inspiration that make someone start to write caused by something. How little the inducement is, it can be sharpen someone’s imagination to write.

C.   Imagination Changes

Most of the authors did not make the concept before they start to write. They will be directly write it down. After finished the writing, they just make correction about spelling or something that must be repaired. For the author, making concept of their works is strange, because they have had their own concepts or imaginations in their mind. Imagination is not come without experience, wheter is it physical or spiritual. The expert of literature said that literary works do not come from the empty mind. It means that literary work is the expression of the real life.

3rd CHAPTER

THE TRICKS TO WRITE SHORT STORY

“The essence in writing short story is not about the short or long the opus, but it is about how the authors describe the simple story with a touched plot”. (YB. Mangunwijaya, 1995: 7 in choosen short story by KOMPAS 1995). 

Writing the short story can be said as writing the legend. The legend that close to the daily life and fantacy of the readers. It also needs to have its enchantment, so that the readers will have a high desire to read the short story. It can be reached with the writing tricks.

One of the tricks while writing the short story is engineer the story, so that the story more attractive, and up to date. There are many things with the same theme that have written by some authors. But we can make the new one based on the same theme. Same, but not seem. From the same object, we must have the different point of view. It depends on the authors critical thinking to make something different from others.

The tricks in writing are:

A.   The Opening Paragraph

Beside the title of the story, the opening paragraph is one of the important thing that needs to pay attention. When the first paragraph starts to read, it will be the factor that will decide wheter the reader will continue to read or not. The opening paragraph is like the opening key. The opening paragraph must be entered to the point of the story. In the opening paragraph, the readers need to find the new information and something that is pleasure to be read.

We have known the three kinds of paragraph. They are opening paragraph, content paragraph, and closing paragraph. Those three theories are not occur as in short story. In the paragraph of short story, we need the description, not the argumentation. In the other word, short story is different with scientific work. In short story, something is explained by an action. But in scientific works, something is explained by arguments and causality based on the sources. Meanwhile the sources of short story is imagination.

B.    Considering the Readers

The readers are the consumers, meanwhile the readers are the producers. Producers must consider the quality of their product to be sold. More over, the rivalry of the products have been increased. For example, love is something that have been taken as the theme of the story. How to make it different from others? We just need to study the tricks to make the story surprised the readers.

C.   Digging the Nuance

The nuance of the story is playing an important parts in the short story, because the readers need something different in describing something. For example, how someone describes the crowded of Jakarta with the different point of view.

A writer of short story is demanded an essentialist, which means the writer must be able to catch the essence of the reality. To make the essence of the event in the story, we must be able to choose the right words to be used. Wheter from dialogue, description, or narration. 

D.   Effective Sentence

The sentences in short story must be an effective sentence. Effective sentence is the sentence that can make the good impression to the readers. Long sentence or complex sentence will become a burden for the readers. But it does not means that we can not use it, but we must know when should we use it. The experts said that an effective sentence has more power that impacted to the psychological readers.

The sentences are devided into three kinds based on the structure. They are: (1) simple sentence, (2) wide sentence, and (3) mixing sentence. Simple sentence is the sentence that stand alone. That only consists of subject and predicate. For the example: she is a writer. In developing the paragraph, sometimes the writer continue the simple sentence become mixing sentence and wide sentence.

Beside using the effective sentence, the writer is also demanded to have a wealthy of vocabulary and language metaphore to make the short story running well and not make the reader feels bored. The repeating words will make the readers feel bored. But it does not mean that we can not using the repeating words, but we must using it in the right place.

The conclution is, the effective sentence for short story is the energetic sentences, rich of vocabulary, and plastic. It is prominent than using the scientific words.

E.    Seasoning

The figure of seasoning is needed in short story. It can be sex or humor, but we do not need to make the exploitation in them. They play as the maker of living nuace. The humor in short story is not a joke, but it is the nuance of humor that caused from the story itself.

F.    Moving the Character

Short story is not an objective reality, or something that really happen. If it is the real accident that can be proven , so it can not be said as short story. Short story is not telling the true event, but it just showing the things that related to the real event. Directly, or not.

The characters in short story must be moving in physical, because human is a dinamic creature. The character will be stronger if they are alive. It means they are not like the chess that only be in line.

G.   Focusing Story

In short story, conflict must be there.  At least, there is a problem in that story that need to be solved. The most important is how to make the problem become attractive. Basically, there is only one main problem in short story that named as focus. The other problems –beside the main problem- are as the supporting.

The conclution is, short story also needs focus like the result of a good photo. If the focus is unclear, or the object is unseen by other object, that photo is not a good photo. A good photo is the photo with a sharp focus, meanwhile the other objects are as the supporting factors. 

H.   The Last Touching

Short story must be ended while the problem has finished. Sometimes the ending of short story seems not clear, that make the readers think the story did not finish yet. Actually, while the main problem has been solved, the story must be ended without continuing the sentence. The ending must make the reader surprised. 

I.     Editing

Editing means repaired the result of work, is there any mistake or not. The main mistake is spelling. The first step in doing editing is reread the whole of the story carefully. The second step, after you finish reading the story, maybe there is any sentence that is not appropriate, or there is a sentence that oppress the readers . It also needs a repairment.

Editing also means recorrect carefully the parts that must be given the bigger space between flash back with the main plot by giving the architecture sign. Editing process is a must if someone want to be a good writer. After finish writing the story, you do not need to make the editing directly. Wait until tomorrow after you finished it in the night.

J.     Giving the Title

Title has its own way to attrack the readers. Reminding that title is the reflection of the story, it is better to give the title in the end. But there is no rule if the writer want to make the title in the beginning.

The attractive development from the titles is by choosing the ambiguous title. For example, the title of short story “Ngarai” that published in Kompas 1992 that has the ambiguous meaning.