Romance In Paradise

Epilogue

         Both Jaka and Bill did not see Heru for three days and when Heru came back he looked tired. Jaka ushered him to his hut as Bill was at the lodge checking the building design and its safety. Heru came back with some wounds but they were nearly healed. He was so smelly as if he had not had  bath for many days which he admitted. Jaka told him to take showers and washed his hairs!! Heru refused and asked Jaka to bath him. Jaka told him he can not stand the foul smell from Heru's body odours and asked him to take shower first and promised to join him later. This time Heru obliged and walked to the bathroom. As Jaka about to take off his clothes, Bill came in. Jaka told Bill that Heru was in the bathroom and Jaka was about to join him. Bill told him to do it straight away but Jaka tagged him along. They both got undressed and helped Heru had his shower. The three of them spent some times in the bath room before coming out with relief!!!

      Heru told about the battle between the two clans of human panthers. Before the fight, his clan killed all of their prisoners as they fear they will be outnumbered by the Pangrango clan!! So the two clans nearly had equal numbers when they fought and they fought ferociously!! The fight of the panthers were really brutal; ten were dead and the rest of them were seriously injured included Mang Soleh, the leader of MountGede clan but he survived. Heru's grand mother and the elderly in their clan nursed the wounded panthers using the medicine supplied by Jaka but they did not treat their wounded opponents. Because of this, many of their wounded opponents were so weak and unable to move afterwards!!

       The fight lasted for nearly 3 hours from 11 pm till 1am in the morning. After taking the medicine, the wounded panthers felt much better and able to move. They killed all their wounded opponents mercilessly to make sure that there will be no more threat from the Pangrango clan. They also killed all the seven human panthers they collected from the lodge later on. By doing this they nearly wiped out the entire Pangrango clan who were grown up panthers and were able fighters!! The MountGede clan decided to send ten men at night time to the den of the Pangrango clan to see what was left of them. Heru was one of those ten men.

      Jaka and Bill felt terrible and realised how cruel it was but decided not to make any comments. They did not even asked what the ten men will do to the rest of the Pangrango clan!! Heru told them that they thought the human panthers must be cruel but he reminded them that the rule of the panthers was passed through out generations from centuries ago. They were able to defend themselves to keep exist against all odds!! At around 5:30 pm, Heru left after kissing both Jaka and Bill saying good bye. From afar, his eyes looked like cats with its yellowy greenish glow. He kept waving and blew some kisses before the dark of thick bushes and trees covered his shadow and they were unable to see him no more!! Both Jaka and Bill did not know that it was the last time they saw Heru.

      Jaka and Bill had not seen Heru again but they kept waiting for him. Meanwhile they busied themselves with the lodge's repair since the attack of the panthers. They bought some new chicks to replace the dead!! They had around twenty of them by now including the little chicks!! They fixed the fence and thinking to have a higher fence to safeguard it against future attack from any other ferocious animals!! Bill was thinking to use barb wires around the fence for the chook's cage but thinking the look of it may be distressing and seem unnatural with the surrounding scenery, so they gave up that thought. A taller bamboo fence was later erected surrounding the chook's cage.

      A month had passed by and they have not heard nor seen Heru again. Both Jaka and Bill thought that Heru was forced to get married with the girl that was chosen for him but somehow they felt uneasy about Heru till one day an old panther appeared at the far corner at the campsite. Jaka recognised her as Heru's grandmother. He called Bill and took a few fresh eggs from the chook's cage and held them on his hands trying to be careful not to squash them!! Both men approached the old panther whom now sitting and posed like a gentle cat.

      Jaka gave the fresh eggs with his two hands and the old panther quickly took it. She crunched the egg's shell, gulped it and licked her mouth!! Suddenly she transformed herself into an old woman speaking in Sundanese. Jaka understood what she said and sobbed when she finished talking!! She changed back into a panther, gently walked leaving the campsite flicking its tail. Bill held Jaka and then put him on his back and took him back to the hut. Jaka told Bill that Heru was dead. He was murdered by poisoned knife by his own cousin who was jealous of him marrying the girl that he loved. That cousin of Heru now banished to Mount Pangrango and not allowed to return to his clan. Bill was saddened by what he heard and hugged Jaka.

        Heru's grand mother keep appearing to both Jaka and Bill at the corner of the campsite for a few times till she bade them good bye telling them that she was too old to move around!! They never saw her again since then. Some times they still met panthers in that area but unsure whether it was the real animal or human panthers but somehow whenever a panther saw them it hissed softly, shook its head then went away flicking its tail!! It seemed the scent of Heru was still with them, they thought!

      The lodge becoming more beautiful and bigger after Bill renovated it with a new design. They added two more staff to the lodge from the local village. International tourists were now seen in the lodge and they kept coming. They were charged a bit higher compared with the domestic tourists as they can paid in terms of foreign currency. Bill and Jaka became their local guide as they both conversed in English!! Bill lived in that place he called paradise for more than five years now since the last attack of the panthers. He never came back to Australia ever since but some of his relatives visited him at the lodge.

        Every day Jaka and Bill swam at the creek and had  water fight like children. They planted herbs with medical values besides their vegetable garden. There were so many flowers everywhere; planted at the banks of the creek, around the hut and the lodge. Sometimes they thought about Heru and felt sad about it. Every day they were busy at the lodge and wondered around the place they both called paradise holding hands and watched the sun set and rose again the next day. They were seen with smile on their faces as they felt the sweetness of love; savoring their days together as time goes by!!

THE END