One day after Eid al-Adha, precisely on Saturday, my mother went out of town with the principal of the school where my mother taught to attend a meeting of teachers from all over the district about the acceptance of new students and the new school year with a new curriculum at the school.
Last Saturday night, the atmosphere in my village was very quiet. The cheerful laughter and random songs of young people who usually hang out on the side of the road near the shop were not heard. The voices of small children who usually play fireworks near the yard were also not heard.
"Maybe they are busy filling Saturday night with their families at their respective homes by grilling goat satay," I said to myself
Usually every Saturday night, my sister and I or the three of us with my mother like to watch an old horror film series called Supernatural on television. But last Saturday night I was alone at home. Initially, I invited my friend and neighbor named Sari to sleep at my house. But Sari couldn't accompany me because her grandmother was sick.
This was the first time I was alone at home. Usually when my mother had business out of town, Sari or my sister were my friends.
Last Saturday night was very boring because there were no friends to accompany me to watch a series of horror movies or just chat randomly. Finally, after I finished reading Nietzsche's novel, then I scrolled back and forth on social media between Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.
After I felt bored and my eyes were sore enough staring at the cellphone screen, I intended to just go to sleep. I put my cellphone on the small table next to my bed. I turned off the bedroom light and the small lamp on the bedside table and then I tried to sleep. But instead of feeling sleepy and sleeping, the atmosphere that night actually made me quite scared.
I had turned off all the lights in the house except for the lights in the bathroom and outside the front and back of the house. The quiet atmosphere of the night did not make me calm but instead made me start to get tense and tense.
Because it was so quiet, the sound of the wind blowing from outside entering the gaps in the bedroom window could be heard very clearly. The dripping of water from the faucet in the kitchen where I wash dirty containers also added to the quiet atmosphere but it was very scary for me, a girl who is easily paranoid.
Small animals that usually make noise at night are absent except for the sound of frogs in the fish pond and the sound of insects that often nest in bamboo trees.
The wind outside is getting stronger so that the bamboo leaves can be heard rustling. Dry leaves falling onto the roof tiles of the house are also very clearly audible.
I immediately hid under the blanket, the more I hid the clearer the sounds of the night in the silence could be heard. Whether it was real or just a suggestion, when I tried to close my eyes to sleep, from outside the house I heard a distinctive sound of footsteps touching the ground.
"Tik tok tik tok tik tok" plus the sound of the wall clock in the living room could be heard very clearly breaking the silence. From under the blanket I thought hard about how to make that night not be disturbed by the night atmosphere. To dispel a little fear and the tense atmosphere, I intended to listen to music with a headset.
But, oh, damn, my headset was next to the television in the family room. I began to gather courage and try to calm myself by thinking positively. After a while I struggled with my thoughts, feelings and suggestions, "One, two three" I said while running from the room to get the headset then back to the room and closing the door with my foot until I myself was surprised by the loud sound of the door closing.
I buried myself back under the blanket and started listening to a lullaby with a full bass headset until finally I fell asleep by myself and was woken up by the sound of the neighbor's rooster crowing loudly and by the light of the sun shining on my face from the direction of the bedroom window.
