Dan Datanglah Malam

I didn’t know how to answer my mother’s question. She was asking where Uncle was. She had looked everywhere for him. In his room on the second floor, in the garage where he kept his assembled cars, by the swimming pool, even in the house next door that was occupied only by the maid. She still couldn’t find him.

“Why are you just sitting there?” she snapped, frustrated to see me sitting on the living-room sofa, chewing an apple.

“I’m not good at finding things.”

Mother let out a short growl. I knew she was confused and anxious—so she became irritable. She didn’t usually get angry.

She was just quiet. She could spend hours in her room doing

who-knows-what, leaving me to be bored alone, eat alone, watch movies alone.

A year ago, Uncle came and lived with us. He made the house feel less empty. He would watch interesting TV shows with me, play cards, chess, Monopoly, read me the storybooks he used to read when he was my age, swim with me, and then somehow started doing many other things with me—things I didn’t want him to. He began wanting to eat with me, bathe with me, and sleep with me.

One day I made a new friend. She said she often saw me daydreaming in my grandmother’s room, the pavilion near the swimming pool that had been left unused. She was pretty, though her skin was too pale. Her hair was shoulder-length and black.

I wanted to introduce her to Mother, but she said, “Don’t. Then she’ll forbid you from playing with me.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because she used to be friends with me when she was your age. And she once told me she didn’t want to see me be friends with anyone.”

I didn’t really understand what she meant. But that didn’t matter to me. Something else interested me more: my new friend stayed with me whenever Uncle wanted to be near me. She could accompany me without anyone seeing her. Only I could.

With her advice, I finally took Uncle to the garage where he kept his tools. He often liked tinkering with Grandfather’s old cars. It was in that garage that I took Uncle apart—with my friend’s help. I placed each part of him in different places around the house.

So when Mother asked me again where Uncle was, I finally said, “He’s everywhere, Mom.”

***