THE HATS STORY

[7/30] THE HATS STORY

1996, on one fine sunny Sunday. Our family before my brother: Bapak, Ibu, my sister Mbok Tu, and little me. We were joining the regular company outing of the bank at where my dad used to work. That day, we went to see the greens at Eka Karya Botanical Garden. It's still inside the island, it even belongs to the same regency as our house but my child sense back then felt that place so far away. That means...EXCITING! Yes, we barely did such family outing, but no, we did not lack in recreational stuff. The things that I could remember, our family excursion was not typical: it could be playing with our cows while my parents harvesting the cacao fruit, could be fishing at the river right at the bottom of the hill behind our house, or could be playing around the pounds while waiting for my mom afternoon shift to be over. We merely seldom traveling for long distance.

Back to that fine Sunday, 1996. One pearl of visiting that botanical garden is that it's commonly tandem with Beratan Lake, located only less than 10 minutes by car to the north. That day, we took the chance to explore the lake by motorboat, I was so excited. As I said, the sunshine was beautifully overwhelming made the day as a perfect day for a picnic but also an excellent day to get sunburn. We were not well prepared, so my dad had to run to the nearest stall and bought us, my sister and I, two hats. Nothing was wrong with that but the fact that my sister got a pretty rounded hat in cheerful colors while I was getting a not-so-ugly-but-not-pretty-sun-hat-with-neck-cover in a combination of abstract blue-white-black colors. I questioned my dad with repetitive why; why sister got that princess hat?; why I should wear the boy hat that I don't think any boy would be happy wearing that?; why couldn't we get a pair of pretty hats? I am almost sure that I cried a little at that time (we had a group picture, with the caps, and I wasn't looked delighted).

My dad, he never really answer the 'why' questions. I'm not so sure if we still keeping the hats or not, maybe somewhere at my parent's house. Up till today, the hat story is still occasionally come up at any family gathering (but it brings me no hurt feeling but laughter). Perhaps the only thing doesn't change at all, as well as the reasons behind the hats, is how tight dad's love always hug us.

* * *

Tahun 1996, satu hari minggu yang indah. Keluarga kami sebelum kami memiliki adik yang paling bontot: Bapak, Ibu, Mbok Tu, and si kecil aku. Hari itu kami ikut serta dalam acara tamasya perusahaan oleh bank swasta tempat bapak bekerja kala itu. Acaranya adalah acara kumpul ceria di sekitar area Kebun Raya Eka Karya, Bedugul. Masih di Bali, bahkan masih di kabupaten yang sama, namun pikiran kanak-kanakku kala itu meyakini bahwa Bedugul itu jauhnya menyaingi jarak inter galaksi (hiperbolis, ding!) Intinya, aku bersemangat luar biasa. Tamasya dan sejenisnya bukan bagian dari rutinitas keluarga kami. Jika pun iya, maka wujudnya sangatlah berbeda: mulai dari main bersama sapi sementara bapak ibu panen buah kakao (bukannya membantu malah main), memancing di kali di bawah semacam bukit yang bisa dicapai dengan menggelinding dari belakang rumah kami, atau bermain di sekitar kolam ikan (yang mungkin sekarang sudah tidak ada) sembari menunggu waktu pergantian jaga sore ibu. Ya, kami hanya jarang bepergian jauh untuk urusan rekreasi. Sekalinya iya, wajarlah jika semangatku luar biasa.

Kembali ke hari minggu yang indah, 1996. Ke Kebun Raya Eka Karya tidaklah lengkap jika tidak mampir ke Danau Beratan dan….naik perahu bermotor keliling danau. Karena hari itu sangat terik, demi tidak terpanggang gosong, bapak pun membelikan masing-masing satu buah topi untuk aku dan mbok tu. Tidak ada yang salah, kecuali bahwa Mbok Tu mendapat topi bundar yang warnanya cantik sementara untukku adalah topi semacam topi baseball yang ada pelindung lehernya dengan corak abstrak biru-putih-hitam. Kalau kata anak millennial, seperti luka tapi tak berdarah. Kenapa Mbok Tu topinya bagus dan centil? Kenapa topiku malah topi untuk anak laki-laki yang aku yakin bahkan tidak ada anak laki-laki yang tertarik memakainya? Kenapa tidak dibelikan topi kembaran saja? Dan seterusnya. Bahkan di foto pun wajahku terekam gundah gulana (mungkin bisa juga lapar).

Bapak tidak pernah menjelaskan dengan lugas perihal topi. Aku sendiri tidak yakin jika kami masih memiliki topi tersebut. Sampai kini, cerita tentang topi kadang masih sering menjadi pengisi sesi cerita lucu di acara keluarga kami. Mungkin salah satu hal yang tidak kunjung berubah, sama halnya dengan alasan di balik topi dari bapak, adalah bagaimana sayangnya bapak selalu memeluk erat kami semua.

Love,

A.

Foto hanya ilustrasi semata, diambil saat tahun kemarin mengunjungi Gili Trawangan