The body was shrunken. The vein minimized, protruded and became black in every single body. I did not understand whether the theory of Darwin revolution really happened to me and to the people around me. The concentrated smoke always became our consumption every day and made us survive the body adaptively. It was not important to me why it could happen. The most important thing was how we could survive in this situation.
I did not ever think if i was different from the other people in the other regions. I thought that it was just about an ethnic differentation. It was so real when the other people from the other regions and countries came in my region. Eventhough it was just a visit or an observation to look the oddities around me. One of the people was coming to my region named Sarah. At the first time, she said one of the regions as her origin area. In that time, I did not believe that her gaze was a love. I meant that it was just a gaze of something sad or even a scary thing in my self.
I had tried to avoid her in a few times. Call, sms and other social media which i had were contacted repeatedly and she said that she wanted to make a friendship with me. I did not even believe to my self when i had known that my society and i were grouped in a unique ethnic of the social community. They called us as homo asapiens. The ethnic people have been degeneratif because we inhaled the smoke everyday.
The smoke in my region had turned into the friend of cloud. It could not stop using many things, even the longer, the crazier. We meant that it had the couple feet of ballerina which could dance happily. The plant was green before the accident. Now, it had turned into plants with black spots fully. It was caused by chlorosis and necrosis.
Many technologies, nations, traditional ways and modern ways were done to reduce the smoke in our area. In the fact, God had not given his approval to reduce the smoke of his creation so finally all were handed off. The government that once promised to solve the problem of smoke that had been inhaled dozen years left and pretended behind the name of God.
My community was evacuated largely to other areas. Some had been adapted to the local population but many people still remembered the memories of their homeland same to me, my parents and my family. I really could not bear to leave pieces of memories at home, on the ground, on the banks of the river, and in the middle of the smoky air.
Back to Sarah, because of her effort, Jamal, my best friend, he opened my mind to accept the friendship that she offered.
“accept, please!! She just wanted to be your friend, why do you reject? Forget our differences from her!.”
“Wise advice, i meant. No problem, it’s okay.”
Since then, our friendship had walked over time while enjoying the smoke that never went away.
“Use the masker! The air concentration in our area was always above 300 psi. Imagine! It is dangerous but we always inhaled everyday. The dangerous air had been kind to us. Our bodies had adapted well to that danger. The city would always be smoky. The hot spots had been strongly embedded in the ground of earth. In addition, the wind direction from the north and south would slow down and turn around when it passed through this city. Naturally this city would become a city which had a new tour, smoke tour….he he,” my joke.
“Does not it ever rain here? you ask me surprisingly.”
“for us, rain is a something scary. The concentration of SO2 and NO2 is very high because of the smoke. When the rain comes, it will turn into a very strong acid rain. Do you know if it is contamined to us? This skin will blister, Sarah. Can you imagine ?” i say while i show my hand which has contamined that strong acid rain.
“Scary … please be careful friend, i can not bear to see you like that. It is very painful.” Your sympathy makes me fly.
“Forget that! I will invite you to enjoy the city which the poets say like the land above the clouds.”
I invited her to talk casually while enjoying foods in the ampera restaurant in the corner of traffic light.
“What is the special menu here?”
“The salai fish, as far as I know.”
You really like the salai. You look at me with smile.
“What happen to you?” I ask to her.
“May I be honest?” she said.
I nodded to her. The meaning was I was okay.
“You look like a salai fish. May i call you as the salai people.”
Your forefinger casually pointed right at my nose.
I was silent while deeply interpreting her joke.
“Are you angry?”
I did not answer. I kept her question and i asked her to enjoy the best view of the smog.
“It is beautiful, isn’t it? Look that smoke! It is like a ballerina dance that rotates irregularly.” I danced like a ballerina.
“It is right, friend. It ws really beautiful as yourself who has turned into the salai people, ha ha,” you laugh again.
“Look that! The environmental monitoring system always stay on “DANGEROUS”, so under respiratory infection (URI) is not only a disease for us but also our identity!’ I said firmly.
When she laughed happily with his beautiful eyes, it made me dance through the day with the smoke dancing that surrounded me.
In the front of glass, i looked my self whom Sarah meant that there were any beautiful things from my self.
“Really?” I was curious and I tried to compare photos of people who used to appear in the newspaper. I looked my head which was really smaller than the other people who came to my region. My eyes shrank with the position into the socket. My eyelashes and eyeball had turned into thick and webbed. My eyebrows became thick and my hair was not as black as their hair. Other than that, my nose was similar to mask, my lip har turned dry and broken, the teeth were rare and small, my spine was bent and the nail fingers were broken off easily.
The next day was the togetherness day. There was no day without Sarah. Our photo with the smoke background, the recording of my daily activity, everything about me specifically, and my friends were documented by her.
“It become my memories as far as my life.” she said while holding the handycam and recording my body specifically.
I didn’t care about her photo and recording that she did. For me, the important thing was that i wanted to always be around her.
“Sarah…Sarah…Sarah…,” my deliriums always mentioned her name. My longing to her was same as my longing to enjoy the sun that had disappeared and had been hiding behind the smoke.
I did not know which smoke has brought Sarah. Since that day i did not find her beautiful eyes. I did not hear her joke that called me the salai people. I have contacted all the communication media and social media which she had. There was no response from her.
My friend, Jamal, said, “Never mind…it is not important to think about her.” “It is not easy bro,” I said. Then i walked along the bridge ledge forming a cloud of opacity.
I just spent the day, with a smoke dance, on which it reminded me to her. The time was something that made memories gone. The night continued morning and morning welcomed the night. It made me forgot about those memories slowly. When the memories had gone, suddenly my friend surprised me by his calling.
“Open your TV on 9 channel, now!” he said.
I watched that channel. A program TV shows about me and my region. That i watched was really similar to everything that Sarah recorded. I looked the scenario that was in front of me nervously. I heared the voice that i used to know.
“I am Sarah as the correspondent from 9 channel reported to you”.
“Is that you mean?? Sarah! Shit !!!”
Bambang Kariyawan Ys., a teacher in Pekanbaru. WA: 08117595971.