What We See, What We Forget

Part 4

"GAH!"

Husni jolted up from his bed in horror. The mental image of Shasfa's disfigured face kept terrorizing his sleep. Nothing but nightmares occurred throughout the night; his dreams were filled with that just repeating all over and over; he realized he slept right next to the autopsy notes, having fallen asleep while reading them. It is a sorrowful thought if one were to think about it. She had passed just at the age of nineteen. It went from dreams and aspirations to nothing but a quick and tragic end to a once glimmering life. He checked his bedside clock, revealing a time of 4:05 A.M., just before the adhan for fajr prayers. After a quick face wash, he went off to the mosque for the prayers; after he finished, his phone started to ring; it was Hendra.

"Husni, I need you at the regional hospital at six. Both their parents are to arrive by seven."

"Along with the agency's representative, sir?"

"Probably so. Just be ready for all of their arrivals."

"Copy that, sir."

With that, he walked back to his house to prep for the day and woefully convinced himself that he could withstand the tears of parents who had just encountered a heavy loss, especially with Shasfa being an only kid. The clock struck exactly six when Husni arrived at the hospital, with Hendra following him later. An hour and a half passed until any of the parties showed up, the first being her mother. They both found it weird that the mother arrived separately from the father since there wasn't any record of Shasfa's parents' divorce. The mother appeared disheveled, being escorted by a nurse who was presiding at the lobby to the morgue where Husni and Hendra were. Without even minding the detectives, she pushed herself onto the glass entrance of the morgue. She then scanned the shelves of the morgue, trying to find the toe tag that identified Shasfa; once she saw it, she collapsed on the floor while hysterically crying. Husni and Hendra wanted to comfort her but to no avail. Not long after, an officer knocked on the door while escorting along a man, the man being the father of Shasfa.

"You are arriving separately today, sir?" Asked Husni.

"Yes, I had a business trip to Bandung yesterday, and I took the first train out of there; I just arrived." Answered the father.

He entered the room and saw his wife weeping on the floor and attempted to get close to her; upon noticing her husband's arrival, she abruptly got up from her curl and slapped her husband right in the face with all the power that she had, which at this point, not many left inside her. The husband jarringly only stood with no emotions while his wife cursed at everything that could be cursed; Husni, Hendra, the nurse, and the officer immediately pieced them apart, with the wife still trying her best to get more slaps and punches.

"YOU SPINELESS COWARD!"

"YOU SAID IT WOULD BE FINE!"

"YOU OKAYED EVERY SINGLE ONE OF HER WISHES!"

"YOU DIDN'T EVEN WORRY WHEN WE READ THE LETTERS SHE WAS RECEIVING!"

"YOU, YOU."

All those words were uttered in less than twenty seconds while the scuffle was still happening. The husband then left the room while the rest tried their best to reconcile with the wife; the husband headed to the end of the corridor and sat blankly and silently on one of the benches. Husni then told Hendra to stay with the wife while he tried to make sense of the husband.

"Good morning, sir. I am Husni Cakra, the detective in charge of this case."

"Detective in charge? You look no older than my girl!"

"Sir, I am only looking for your cooperation and nothing else; now tell me, do you know why your wife would attack you like that?"

"She is right. It's all my fault."