Antara Darah dan Hati: Dream Reality English Translation

Chapter 1 Part 1 "Morgen"

*play the song above

POV Karim

Ah! Hhh... Hhh..Hhh... That dream again? Why would she appear in my dream? Allah, why Sofia? I know she's trying to approach me but why? And why am I dreaming of Muhamed's death at the hands of Vinno? Ugh...I'd better go to the toilet and take ablution water. Oh Yes, Muhamed said he wanted to pray Tahajud, I should wake him up. I wiggle his body and plumping his cheeks, shoulders, arms and back.

Plak, plak, plak, plak!

"Oi, Med, Med, Muhamed, wake up broeder. "

"Ehm... Hmmm... What time is it now? "

"2 a.m."

"Ok, Hoahm..." He's yawning and wakes up from his sleep, rubbing his eyes.

Cklek, kliet, bum!

I went to the toilet leaving him, taking ablution water and returning to my room doing Tahajud followed by Muhamed. After we done with the Tahajud prayer, I asked one question to him. I was curious if he dreamed of me because there was a study that said if someone dreamed of another person then the person that has a dream about that person would appear in the other person's dream.

"Hey, Muhamed, I want to ask."

"Hm? "

"What were you dreaming last night? "

"I don't remember exactly about what have I dreamt but I remember standing in nowhere in a maze alley fighting Vinno, funny."

"you hate him don't you?"

"No, actually I feel okay-ish with him."

"Then how can you get that dream?"

"I do not know, it's just a dream, why are you asking?"

" I have a strange dream."

" What dream? "

"You die, in Vinno's hand."

" Astaghfirullaah, how can you get that dream?"

"I do not know."

"Well, let us hope it is not something bad."

"Aamiin."

"Aamiin, Aamiin."

"Soon it'll be 3 o'clock in the morning, do you want to prepare the foods for suhoor?"

"lead the way."

Me and Muhamed went downstairs to the kitchen to prepare for our suhoor meal. We made his favorite food today, Nasi Goreng with omelette .The food was quite simple and easy to make but for someone who just moved here from the Netherlands it seemed natural if he liked it.

Sreek, Sreek, tek, tek, tek!

We finished cooking and poured it on our plates along with the omelette and bring it to the dinner table, we did not forget to pour the water into our glass and puring the onion kroepoek on top of our Nasi Goreng.

"Ah, nasi goreng, alhamdulillaah."

"You do like fried rice so much huh? "

"Yes so far, this is the Indonesian cuisine that I like. Maybe, I'll get bored if I keep eating this repeatedly so maybe I'll wait until I get bored."

"And when will you get bored? 1 year has passed since your stay here for college and you haven't even got bored with this meal just like Wieteke van Doort and her fried rice song."

"Alhamdulillaah, that means I'm faithful, right?"

"So you fall in love with food?"

"Well I want to fall in love with a person but so far there is no one that I like."

"What kind of spouse that you would like to have?

"The one that has good faith and manners, alhamdulillaah if she is mooi. "

"Dutch or indigenous? There are many Dutch female muslims here who are good, too. "

"Yes, I know that, but there is no one that I know that well because it's only been a year since we enrolled in college. How about you?"

"The same as you, but for me in addition to manners and good faith, she has to have the same sense of love towards me. If there is no sense of love it'll be futile."

"Then how about you? If she love you but you don't love her back isn't it will be futile?"

"Then I will strive to fall in love with her, at first I might not love her, but just like plain bread. The taste is plain but when you sprinkle some hagelslag, muisjes or grated cheese or spread some jam on top of it, it'll have flavors. Striving for love is like that too, if at the beginning there is not any feeling it'll be tasteless but you just have to do little things that makes you and her happy and later on it'll developed into love."

"Yes, you are right. Well then, lets eat. "

We ate and finished our suhoor and washed the dishes we had used and returned to our room, we study a little to repeat the material that is already taught by our lecturers from our own major, preparing our books and equipments and then wait for the Fajr prayer, doing it in congregation with him as the imam because his tone when reading the surah is better than me. We then depart to the bus stop at 6 a.m. so that we can arrive early to avoid the road blockade because today there is a protest that will be conducted on the streets again.

Well, the protest is a result from the infighting between 3 big political parties who are ruling the Indonesian-Dutch Union Parliament. The extreme right wing conservative party Partij voor Nederlandse-Indische Democratie led by Willem van Huizen, the Islam Democraten party led by Alexander Maas or his muslim name Iskandar Maas which contains representatives from Indonesian Muslims and Dutch reverts and the socialist party Democraten Socialistische Partij led by Lodewijk Marijnissen.

This protest is caused by government policy that will tighten the reach of its power in the United States Republic of Indonesia, after Indonesia gained wider autonomy so that the cooperation between the Indonesian-Dutch Union only related to the field that builds its human resources such as health, education, defence, and culture only. Among these policies are policy about surveillance of religious activities and a demand for the public not to overdo in using and wearing religious symbols. This triggered the reaction of muslim community especially in the United States Republic of Indonesia.

The Democratic and Islamic Party opposed this new policy while the Dutch-Indies Democracy Party and other right-wing parties supported this policy where the policy on religion has been applied to several provinces in the Netherlands.

Never mind, me and Muhamed prefer to go attend our lecture and learn because both my parents and his parents who sent him here want us to learn well, besides they lost 2:1 because the Dutch-Indies Democracy Party and Islamic party opposed them. Hopefully today's protest ended well.