Mr. Tambourine - 1 (Fiction)
1
Nuruddin stood at the end of deck. His hand like a man who saluted because of glare.
Darussalam Harbor still a couple miles ahead. Nuruddin boarded a merchant ship from Gujarat. Nuruddin tried to see someone who has been waiting for him when the letter sent from South Gujarat a few months ago reported his arrival. The guy would have received the letter. But the harbor was really crowded. He could not see the guy. He only saw workers and pairs noble families who brought their children to see foreign ships docked. Suddenly, he heard the sound of falling objects. His thought was shattered. A worker had dropped the Persian rug was awarded to the Sultan Thani. Then the captain scolded the worker.
The ship has been docked. Nuruddin has come down from the ship and saw someone trotted toward him. Nuruddin smiled. The guy who had been looking for. After kissed Nuruddin’s hand, he apologized for the delay. Then the guy was carrying Nuruddin leave the harbor.
2
I have spent a glass of lassi and a bowl of chicken curry in a tavern in Gujarat. I was waiting for merchant ships sailing into Darussalam Harbor. It has been five days I waited while spending glasses of lassi and bowls of chicken curry. But none of the rich merchant ships would sail through the Indian Ocean. I kept looking further east, hoping there was Arab ships layover in Gujarat and continued voyage to my country.
Since I received a letter from one of my fellow who reported the death of Sheikh Kamaluddin - chairman of our association and our teachers - have made me worried. In the letter told that Sheikh Kamaluddin was arrested and paraded to the sea. His body was tied at the top outrigger canoe, and then burned alive.
At first, Sheikh Kamaluddin’s body spared from the fire. But somehow, after two hours later his body fused with embers. Then the burner Sheikh Kamaluddin angrily, they burned the whole carcass of the outrigger canoe. No traces of blood, no smell of charred body, there is only black dust that float along the sea. I was strongly believed; my teacher’s soul has been fused with the sky and the sea.
In the letter also contained a mandate from Sheikh Kamaluddin before being captured where I was supposed to go back to Darussalam. Based on the result of deliberation and consensus our organization, then I was appointed as a substitute Sheikh Kamaluddin. This Decision absolute. Of course, this decision made me shocked. Indeed, as the disciple of Sheikh Kamaluddin, I considered worthy to lead them. But some doubt in my mind caused not finish a secret mission.
I was read the letter many times. Maybe I could find a little secret behind my fellow's handwriting. This was a doubt that I was experiencing. Suddenly my fingers touched the gold coins weighing 17 carats in pocket, coin given by Sheikh Kamaluddin. I watched the coin. Two sides of the coin depicting the problems I had at the moment. Coin with a side Seri Sultan asserted that this mission must I found essence. While coin with side "Johan Berdaulat" insisted that I must abide by the result of deliberation and consensus. My inner fight between doubt and belief that has set me up in a maze. I seemed to get lost in the maze. Meanwhile, the owner of the tavern that has understood my misery for days, he let me sit outside the tavern. While the tavern sealed because the night was late.