Merlinda (Ranging Back)
The Elin

Elin rubbed her face inside the dim light. His bedroom lights had been turned off for the past two hours, and Daniel was soundly asleep by his side, with his hands clutching tightly to his thin waist.

The clock above had already shown at two in the morning, and Elin was still not asleep for an hour. Every time he closed his eyes, he thought back to what happened a few hours ago. The incident at dinner in the little garden in his own house, and his eyes, were still puffy because of it.

His heart was still broken at the thought of his separation together to his two best friends. Green was right, all there was a phase of it and right now, they're getting to that phase. And he also said that, before dinner made as a release to move to New York it was closed.

He was no longer strong at the time. And he also did not want to make the night before his departure full of sadness, but the sentence that came out of his mouth, must be the closing of the night.

He stood at the end of the table, and everyone looked at him.

" Thank you Dad, Mom, for making me tonight" she said, "and my two sisters, thank you ", he continued to Tama and Seni, his youngest sister, all the time the show was silent.

Tama did not react to her words, but the man, no longer as brave as before to look towards her at this moment.

He stared for a moment at Mala who had lowered her face, "mom don't cry", her door was hoarse, but her own tears had already dripped by then, and Viona was seen directly rubbing Mala's back.

Elin paused her sentence to sigh, and then again ventured to lift her face, "Mom, has become the best Mother, and so has Dad", she said.

" I don't know what else to say. ", he muttered, his face lowered and his tears flowed back then, "a million times I said thank you, thank you, it won't be able to replace anything you've done for me" he said. Bimo looks start to lower his face.

" But Dad, Mom. Right now just saying that's all I can do. Thank you, thank you for taking very good care of me ", he said sobbing, "for the sake of the Great One, my heart is now broken, for thinking it will be really far away from you ".

Mala had already grabbed her face. The woman tried to stop her crying, but still couldn't, even to look at her own daughter she couldn't, "Thank you for everything Daddy." said Elin once again, with a voice that's been so hoarse, "Mom" she continued.

" And also for the Vernandes extended family. Mother, Father, you guys are amazing ", he said again, and this time his cries began to subside. He said the sentence solemnly and with pleasure, "all this time I have troubled you ", he continued with watery eyes. He was moved again when Wilna smiled and shook her head.

" I was so happy, when I found out that I was, you guys thought of me as your own child. Really am. Your home, like a second home to me ", he said wholeheartedly. Banyu nodded and replied to her expression by smiling shadyly at her.

" Again, thank you, Mother. I hope, my position will never change until any time ".

" Of course" said Banyu loudly, and Wilna nodded, but at that moment, her lips could not speak, "we are family, Dad", he asked Banyu again, with a tone of voice that was heard like a plea, and Banyu nodded quickly.

" And my two greatest brothers, thank you ", he said to Nathan and Alfin, "ah it looks like I'm going to cry again ", the murmur began to crackle. He raised his face up, and everyone's lips curved up to hear that, but the line looked very bland.

Elin sighed for a moment, "really you are no less important than all of them" he said earnestly. This time Alfin did not behave as he usually did. Which always suddenly interrupts to make people laugh. This time he's not.

Even her eyes began to water, as Elin began to reveal words of gratitude for her and Nathan.

" I've been missing you all this time, but this time I don't want to. " said Elin, "I don't thank you very often, but believe me, I don't, I know everything you've done for me. And tonight.... Tonight I want to say, Thank you, Brother Nathan, Brother Alfin. Thank you for giving up on your wife so often just because they want to be with me, thank you for always looking at me indirectly, but I also know that. You always ask me how I'm doing with Green and Amel... "

Elin paused her sentence again to sigh, "I know very well how you worried about me, the first time I went to New York", she continued. At that time Nathan was no longer able to lift his head. His right hand seemed to be moving around rubbing his eyes.

" Pardon me dear, for I must reveal this" he said to Daniel. With a shady smile, the man nodded.

Elin fell silent, her hands moved quickly wiping away the warm tears flowing down her cheeks, "it used to be when I lost Gery. "he said back pausing, and even back to sigh. His tongue still found it hard to move when he said the man's name, "I was so crushed, even you guys. Maybe more than I feel. But you never seem to want to grieve because of me. Because you don't want to make me cry. You hide your grief just for the sake of me recovering quickly. Sorry for being so selfish... "

" I just thought that I was the most broken person at the time. And after I realized, that you should have been the ones who were more broken. You guys were with him all day, while I, I was only through five percent, of the day you went with him. Right now I realize everything, brother. When I realized that I was going to be away from my best friend, I was so broken, I was screwed and I was confused, how my day was being away from them, while we were. "he said, back again paused to sigh, "while we were only separated by distance. So how were you at the time. By the time he left and the three of you separated forever ".

" I'm sorry for being so selfish" Elin sobbed.

Nathan clutched his face at that moment. Everyone heard his cries. He sobbed without being prevented. Her crying was like an overflow of sad feelings that had been held back for years. While crying, Green hugged her tightly. He knows best how the man loves his best friend, and how often the man still speaks the name of his best friend. Even though the man had been gone for years. But Green knows best, the only person who has ever seen her husband can't fall asleep because he misses his best friend.

What Elin said was true. All this time they weren't not broken, only they weren't crying. But this time, the tears that had been held back for many years finally broke.

Alfie doesn't cry like Nathan. But staring at him wasn't much more poignant. The man just lowered his head, with tears dripping down his pants nonstop. Although repeatedly wiping it, but the crystal circle did not want to stop dripping.

He was a humorous man, a man who always broke the silence and turned it into laughter. He was not happy to see others sad.

But tonight everything turned around, the man was crying, crying without a sound. And it looks a lot more painful.

Especially for Wilna. The middle-aged woman did not approach Nathan, her biological son, but Alfin. A man who has the same place in his heart as his own son.

His heart was broken when he saw that his humorous son was now crying. Crying without a sound.

His heart slashed, as he recalled the memories of the man with Gery.

The two men, were a couple who could make his magnificent house become frenzied by the sound of laughter. They were both men who were always joking, and Nathan was the most serious of them.

He remembered that his house was so quiet after the man left. No more laughter from Alfin. It was like a man lost his balance. His laughter was never as broken as it was when Gery was alive.

There is nothing more to lose between Nathan and Alfin. They had different memories of the man, and they all destroyed them. In fact, all of that could be seen from the way they were crying right now.

Nothing gets more broken when you see Nathan crying, and vice versa. Seeing their cries was equally heartbreaking. It's just, too slashing when he saw the humorous man's cry.

" Mother knows, you've been the saddest person ever" said Wilna, holding Alfin's body, "You hold him, for your lover's sake and for your best friend's girlfriend. You don't want to show your sadness, because you don't want them to get more fragile. Mother knows it, son... ".

Everything Wilna said was true. The man held everything back, for the sake of Amel, the sister of his best friend. He must not be fragile, because he must strengthen the woman. And also for Elin.

If everyone is sad because of the memories that the man left behind, of course everything is no more than him. What else is more painful than the passing of a person, other than the memory of the laughter he left behind, and Alfin is the one who always laughs with the man.

He clutched tightly to Wilna's body, he cried like a child who lost something that became his favorite, "I miss him Mother", he said hoarsely, and so sick when heard by everyone.

Meili now wiped her eyes. He was not among them, when the day of grief came. But she knows, she knows Elin lost her lover. Knowing that the man was part of the people before him. But she did not know, she did not know that the man had left behind such an overwhelming sadness. Even those who do not know, can feel it, feel the sadness felt by Nathan and Alfin, and he also cries because of it.

" Oh God, I'm not strong myself, how they are ", he muttered to Viona by her side. And Viona who was also the same as him, was not there when the sadness was, instead she first shed tears than her daughter.

" I'm sorry ", repeated Elin, "excuse me who only realized it at this time" he said regretfully. And he regretted it even more, after seeing Nathan and Alfin's cries all along. It turned out that what he had just thought was right. The two men were more devastated than him and had been hiding him very well, "excuse me" he said once again.

" I really love you both, really.

I got the big brother figure from you two. It's really to me that you're not just my best friend's partner, but my own brother. I promise you, if you fight later, I won't take Green and Amel's side. Not to you two. I'd be fair ", he said in earnest, but it sounded funny in the middle of the haru atmosphere that was going on, and managed to make Nathan lift back his head, even though his eyes were still watery at that time.

Elin sighed again, and was silent for a moment. Her nose was red and her eyes were watering again, "I thought, I was the only one who took out the old photos all day. It turned out that they were also ", he said smiling blandly, but his tone was clear, if he was holding back a cry.

" I find it very difficult to talk", he murmured, his tears flowing without his consent. He turned back to the sky, trying to make himself not too whiny. But her tears escaped without being stopped.

" Imagining going away from them really made my heart go awry" he said, referring to Amel and Green.

" Green is right, we depend on each other, we need each other....".

" And as Green said, "he said he stopped, his breath choked with sobs, "I was so stupid", he continued, "what he said was true. I'm nothing if there wasn't them then.. ".

" Maybe, someone else saw us people who were so lucky. Everyone thought we were friends because of the parents' possessions we had. We're rich girls, we're beautiful girls. But it's really not like that, our friendship didn't start because of that lucky thing" she said, shaking her head, and her tears were still flowing.

" We met when we were desperate for each other. "he said pausing for a moment, and looked at Bimo, "sorry Dad, maybe Dad will be discouraged by what I will tell you. But I really mean not like that. I am telling you this, so that you all know why the three of us are bound to each other, why we need each other so much, you should know the cause" he told Bimo, and the middle-aged man, nodding allows.

Now Green again could not lift his head to look at Elin, as well as Amel. Even the woman, looks fragile since earlier, when almost everyone cried because he remembered the story of his brother.

" A long time ago, " said Elin again, and paused for a moment, "as I said, at that time we were desperate, we met in a state of disintegration because of each other's problems. Strange indeed, such a small age but had a problem. "he said with a bland laugh.

" Green is desperate because of her Papi's insistence. Amel was devastated by his parents' divorce. And i'm.. I've always been a bully of my schoolmates, just because.... " Elin sobbed bitterly at the time, "just because I was the adopted son of my family.

" They excommunicated me. Not often do I hear them, call me ignorant, call me ungrateful. In fact, I never hurt anyone. And indeed what's wrong with being an adopted child ", he looks most devastated when he says about it. During this time, he never once revealed it to Bimo and Mala.He never told, how difficult he had been all this time, "I never asked to be an adopted child", continued sobbing. And this time Viona was really crying. A huge sense of guilt appeared in his heart.

" I really didn't mean anything, I didn't mean to hurt Mom and Dad, or Mommy. I just want to tell you what we've been through from our friendship, really it's just that ".

He sighed again, to speak again, "And at that moment only they accepted me. Only those who never brought up my status. And they, they're always angry when someone else starts touching it ".

" I feel protected because of them. That's why they're so valuable to me. I always felt safe with them. I always believed that I could do anything with them. Like Green said, I'm just a stupid girl, which they then complete. So how am I not ruined, when I realize, I'll be away from them".

" But Green is right, there's all the phases, there's all the time. I'm just afraid, I'm afraid things aren't the same when I get back ".

" I'm afraid my place will be replaced one day" he said.

" It would not have been possible for Elin" said Amel chimed in, with a hoarse voice he spoke and with the rest of his strength he ventured to look at the woman's face.

" Our friendship is not that low. Our bond is eternal and we are forever. Nothing can replace our place with each other. No one will be able to ", he said loudly, even though his words faltered.

Daniel moved closer to his wife, clutching her body so tightly, and repeatedly kissing the top of his head, "I never promised. There will be nothing different, my dear. Whenever you want, whenever you want, you can meet them ", he said, to Elin who was sobbing in his arms.

So did Green. He can always strengthen himself and others. This time it was destroyed. The memories they had gone through, had actually managed to destroy his fortress of fragility. He couldn't stand it, when it was about the separation of the three of them. His body, which had been weakened by tears that did not stop flowing, was now drooping in Nathan's arms.

Tightness in his chest due to this parting, made his tongue clenched to speak again. Only tears kept coming out, even he no longer had the strength to hug Elin any tighter.

This dinner, closed by Reymond, is the only person who still looks tough. Even the little Naina who should not understand, with what was going on, also cried because she saw the people nearby crying.

Reymond closed it by saying sorry and thank you to everyone.

" See you tomorrow" said Viona and all nodded weakly. None looked as cheerful as before the show began. There was not even a laugh to close the event.

Everyone became fragile because of the memories that were revealed. And no one intends to change that atmosphere, even if tonight becomes the last, before they are separated by a long distance.

" May I ask for something ", said Elin suddenly. Everyone who started to want to move, now stop his movement, "I want us to take a picture together", he said his wish, "we don't have that" he said. It all seemed to wake up, "let's ", ask Wilna impatiently.

" I'm going to frame this image very large" he added.

Even with puffy eyes, but no one wants to refuse the request. All moves set their respective positions.

Elin took the middle position, and at that time, Green immediately came squeezing his left body and Amel squeezed the right. They both seem to not care if at this time, is a family photo.

Daniel did not want to be selfish, to separate the three women. He took his place behind his wife's body, hugging her waist. So did Alfin, he immediately took a position next to Amel, and Nathan, holding his daughter, squeezed on the left side of Green's body.

Tama stood next to the man, then Art, Mala, and at the very end of Bimo.

While from next to Alfin, he stood side by side with Reymond's sturdy body. Meili who was in the middle, between her and Viona. The Lord and the great Lady of Vernandes, being closed from the left end.

The family photo was so full, but it looked so impressive. There was no happy smile there. But all the eyes were swollen, showing that they all loved each other and they were all FAMILY.