My Papaya Story

My Papaya Story

I have been joining this writers community club on WhatsApp group, it has been going on for maybe a month or two. For the last two months, I have never even tried to write anything in the group, while everybody else there posted so many things including their blog's writing. I was a fiction writer when I was very young, even published one of mine in a teenager magazine, but, then I stopped writing, exactly why? believe me, I have No Idea. Few years since I stopped I just lost it, lost the ideas, the spirit may be even lost my mind too a little, ha-ha

Today, at 5 PM, the admin of the Writers group sends this picture of papaya, there he urges everyone in the group to write something about the picture and post it on the group, he even offers a reward for the best essay. I was encouraged, why ?? well, simply because papaya reminds me a lot about my late mother. yes, My Mama, when I was a little girl, we many times got a visit from my mother's older brother, wak haji , that's how we use to call him, He had a huge papaya garden, in Indonesian we call it Pepaya Bangkok. a sweet and large type of papayas, and every time he or his sons visited us they always brought so many of the Pepaya Bangkok, I love it a lot since it tastes so sweet. My mama used to peel, cut, and serve it for us, we had papaya and shared stories that time, stories like how I can play so far with my friends and how she always gets mad when I came home late, happy things, you know family time.

Yes, I finally write a little story about my papaya memories, it wasn't a good one, though, it was short and maybe a little boring story about sweet papaya and family time stories of mine. I wrote it in Bahasa, I did not win the prize, ha -ha, but after I wrote it, the memories travel to when my Mama was still here with us. I have three other siblings. two brothers and a sister, I am the second kid in the family. We don't really meet a lot, now that we have families of our own. My older brother is married and stayed in a different city, my youngest brother stays with me, he has been having problems with his health, my youngest sister is also married and now she's 7 months pregnant, living with her husband in a different town too. We are different people, we have minds of our own, you know it's different now after  Bapak and Mama passed away, things happen, and some said I am bad at choosing people. I never regret my decision, though. 

Yep, the memories travel to My mama and Bapak too, a father is the Pillar of a house, and a mother is a roof, when they are around, no matter how bad the house condition is, the wall always stands strong and the roof always protects us from the rain and storm. But, after they passed, it seems like we show who we really are, you know, the real you, the stubborn, arrogant, selfish, and grumpy us. perhaps it's true that all along our arguments stop due to our respect towards Bapak and Mama, now that they are not around, no one to respect, no one to ask solution no one to look up to anymore, By no means all I still respect them. Bapak, My father, he is this man I always look up to, my first love, the man who had never hurt me, he used to say " Kalau orang jahat sama kita, gpp, yang penting kita gak jahat sama orang " He can easily forgive people, even the baddest, he maybe was not a perfect person, but that is how I see my father, forgiveness, wild heart in soft emotions, a man that would smile when a neighbour friend, with his son's age, grab his collar and cockily tried to show him something. He is a wise man that would willingly open his arm to help people who hurt him. Mi Papa Mi Amor.

Still the memories travel to the old days, while my eyes focus on the three girls I have now, they are not only mine, my children, but they are also my teacher. I can live through the toughest times in my life, cause I have them. and I want to be the same person my father taught me for them, I want to be their first hero. I want to be their unforgettable story to tell, I want to be their papaya story, just like papaya you'll find a bit of bitterness outside, sweetness on the inside, and freshness all around. 

My Papaya Story

Sukabumi, July 5th,2021

Ms.Phia