Hijau

Kasim heard the sound coming towards him, as usual, he tried to ignore it.

"Krshhh!!!" 

"Ayah! The boiler is broken again. How I am supposed to take my shower now? I am late for school." Tuah stutters as he complains.

Maria is making breakfast in the kitchen, her husband and son's favorite, lempeng pisang and hot teh o.

"Well son, maybe next time you should have woken up one hour earlier then you don't have to be late for shower and school." Maria says as she puts the breakfast in the table.

Kasim is concerned again today; he has two jobs now that his wife quitted her job few weeks earlier. Maria does not know anything about Kasim having another job apart from teaching at Tuah's school. Kasim has to be at the sate stall after he finished with school, but he ran out of excuses to tell Maria.

"Some students of mine insisted that I make extra classes with them in the lab, wanting to know how that formula works with another type of experiment, and such." or "Mr. Wan needed my help on the basketball team so I stayed until evening to help." Even though it does not make any sense at all that Kasim would do sports.

"I need to think of something. I think Maria is getting suspicious of me." Kasim eats his lempeng as he thinks.

Tuah Kasim has cerebral palsy; he is a sixteen-year-old teenager with crutches and still needs his dad to walk him to class every day. His speech is worsen day by day, one day he can utter words, another day he won't even be able to open his mouth to ask for a glass of water.

Kasim is a 54 years old school teacher. He teaches Science at his son's school in order to look after Tuah in school. Kasim used to have a partner back when he was doing his Master, a business partner. He and Azlan did a business together but the results were disappointing. He thought that it was a risky job, and he couldn't support his family with the money he barely owned. So he teaches, to look after Tuah. He got married to 20 years old Maria when he was 37 years old and they had Tuah right after that. Maria worked at many places after she gave birth to Tuah but that did not last long after they found out that Tuah has cerebral palsy. So Maria is a stay home mom, taking care of the family's financial, and doing things typical mothers would do at home.

Kasim is in the school lab when Maria called from home,

"Abang, I'm pregnant. We did it."

The couple had it easy with Tuah. They were married for one year and then had Tuah the following year. After three years, they decided to have another child but there's the financial problem and Kasim is getting older. Nevertheless, they never stopped trying. After years and years of trying, they think of giving up the idea of having another child. They focus more on Tuah. His treatments, therapies, and medical bills are what they have been living for all this while. Nothing matters more than their only son's future.

"Do you mean it?" Kasim's fatherly tears flow down his cheeks upon hearing the news.

"Yes. I checked with the clinic just now. We finally did it." Maria sobs on the other side of the phone.

At the age of 37, Maria is pregnant with a baby after years of trying. They thanked God for the baby but also are worried of their financial status. Whatever it is, Alhamdulillah. They could never been happier for the news.

In the morning, the sky looks dark but there is no thunderstorm. Maria is worried, with one month due her baby; the typhoon that regularly hits the town cannot be here. For the past eight months, Kasim has been working so hard day and night to find extra money for his family. His health is worsening; sometimes he skips the day at school and sleeps in his lab. He cannot take it anymore so he visits the doctor in the evening.