Cerpen

Nama   : Niki Purnamasari

Kelas   : 1EA19

NPM   :14210982

Life In Five Rivers

There are five streams flowing near the village Trinidad where Sam lived when he was a little boy. People used crystal-clear water for all purposes.

Those five streams were as much a part of the village as the huts and the people and the tracks they called streets. That was why the settlement was known as Five Rivers.

At that time, they didn’t have any school or police station or electric lights. Sam used to walk about five miles to the nearest school, carrying homemade bread and salted fish in his satchel to eat for lunch.

Every morning Sam waited for Popo, the little Indian boy who was his best friend. Sam was nine years old and Popo was seven, and because he was smaller than Sam, Sam used to make Popo carry his books for him. Many times Popo argued with Sam about this, but in the end Sam usually got his way when he promised to allow Popo to play with him and the older boys at school.

Until school closed for the August holidays, the children didn’t have much time to bother with what was going on in the village. Coming back from school that last day, Popo was full of excitement. He said to Sam,speaking in the kind of broken English they were used to,”Plenty holiday,we will have time to do plenty things.”

“Plenty things, yes!” Sam told him, “but I warning you in front, that I don’t want you hanging around me all the time. You still a little boy.”

“I won’t do anything.” Popo held Sam’s hand. “I just want to be with you, because you always doing brave things. And I getting big now.”

Sam flung Popo’s hand away. “Ah, you too small to have any sense, you always making noise, or starting to cry and say you want to go home.”

“I promaise you I won’t make any noise.” Popo walked backwards in front of Sam, so he could talk to Sam’s face. And Popo continued walking that way as they went home, trying to convince Sam that he would be no trouble.

Well , to tell you the truth, Popo really wasn’t. They hunted squirrels and birds, and bathed in the streams or went rambling in the bush. There were many things to do. One of their favorite pastimes was to tease More Lazy, but in his laziness he ignored them so much that they soon tired of that.

Popo was the only one who still found this amusing, perhaps because More Lazy was a coward and Popo could say or do anything to hom without fear.

But it was Popo who caused Sam’s greatest adventure that holiday. One morning Sam was going out to fish with some of the older boys when Popo ran up and drew him aside.

“I have a big secret!” he said.

“Ah,” Sam said, “you never have any good ideas. I going to fish, and I don’t want you to come.”

“But listen, this is a good thing! Is to look treasure!”

“Treasure!” Sam said, “who would have treasure in Five Rivers,where everybody so poor?”

Popo was so excited that he kept jumping up and down.

“This is a good secret! More Lazy say that Jagroop have treasure! He say all we have to do is look for it!”

Everybody knew that Jagroop had hidden his money somewhere, but the trouble was to find out where. He boasted that no one would ever discover his hidding place, and this was taken up as a challenge. No one wanted to rob the old Indian, but saying they could never  find his money was a dare that couldn’t go unanswered.

“I ain’t have no time for  that,” Sam said.

“And besides,” Popo went on, “Jagroop have a mango tree in his garden. You ain’t notice it? Is the only one that bearing now!”

Well, that was true, anyway. All the fruit trees in the valley were bare except for this one, which looked as if it had suched all the life from the other  trees, for it was in full fruit. From a distance, Sam and Popo Could see the mangoes dangling on their stems.

Sam thought it was a better idea to go after Jagroop’s mangoes than to fish,because it was the dry season, and the five streams around the village were mere trickles. So Sam decided to go, and of course Popo  went with him.

They went up the hill. The dry leaves and twigs crackled like shells under their  feet. There was no sign of Jagroop, and they managed to get behind his hut and right under the mango tree.

Sam hoised Popo up and when he was safe in a fork of tree, Sam went up after him. Soon they were feasting on the fruit.

They had filled their pocket with mangoes and were just about to climb down when Popo grabbed Sam’s arm and pointed.

Below them the bushes were so thick they couldn’t see anyone at first. Then they saw the bushes shake. It was Jagroop!

He was walking in a kind of half-crouch. With one hand he clutched a cutlass and tin to his chest while his other hand cleared the way of brambles. He stopped where one of the streams crawled through his land. Glancing around, he sat down on the bank, wet his cutlass, ang began to sharpen it on a stone.

The boys could see him clearly now, and it appeared to them that he was only pretending, or “playing possum.” For  all the time he kept watching the bushes, like a deer which had smelt man but wasn’t sure where he was. The boys were scared, for it looked as if Jagroop knew they were up in his mango tree, and it looked,too,the easy way he was sitting,that he was only waiting for  them to climb down to give chase with his cutlass!

The boys scarcely dared breathe,and you can imagine what a state Popo was in! he was squeezing and relaxing his fingers on Sam’s arm.

“You think he see us?” Popo’s whisper was hot in Sam’s ear.

“We just have to wait and see,” Sam whispered back.

Half an hour passed. Jagroop was humming a Hindi song as he moved the cutlass to and fro on the stone. The cutlass must have been as sharp as a razor,yet he went on. He struck it lightly at a hanging bamboo leaf. Then he tested the blade again by shaving an inch or two of hair off his leg. That seemed to satisfy him, for he got up at last.

Near a larger slab of rock which jutted out from the bank, he stood for a minute. Then muttering to himself, he gathered stones and dammed the thin tricle of water with them,digging carth from the bank and packing the wall. When the water ceased to flow, he began to dig in the bed of the stream it self.

The boys could see beads of perspriration glistening on Jagroop’s dark skin as he dug and dug,stopping at sudden moments and cocking his head sideways as dry leaves rustled or a dove flew noisily in the bush.

Then Jagroop stopped digging and reached into the hole with his hands.

He brought out two tins and he sat down and opened them.

The sunlight fell on silver. Hundreds of shillings and half crowns. They glinted, and the boys heard them ring as Jagroop let them trickle through his fingers and fall back into the tins. They had never seen so much money in all their lives.

Now they knew why no one was able to discover Jagroop’s hiding place. Who would have dreamed of digging in the bed of a flowing stream? Now, all the Indian had to do was bury the money, fill the hole firmly with stones and earth, and break the dam. The water would flow over the spot and keep his secret  forever.

It was too good. It was too clever. Sam and Popo couldn’t contain them selves. They were bursting to tell  the secret.

Scrambling down the mango tree, they be shout loudly to give themselves courage and, flinging mangoes left and right from their pockets, they ran down the hill to the village.