My parents warned me about walking through the forest by myself, but I decide to try it anyway. After all, it wasn’t like I had other things to do, like having a nearby pool I could jump into.
Mama told me, “There are many dangers in the forests of Indonesia. Too many for a 12-year-old boy.”
My ayah agreed with Mama, like he always did. “We have been married for twenty years. We always agree on everything, JR.” He told me as he lifted me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes early that morning.
My name is JunaidiSitumorang. It was a popular name. One night, while watching a television show from America, my parents learned that in families with the same name they often called the younger one Junior, written as JR.
So, everyone called me JR.
The only danger I see as I walk is the garbage, especially plastic, left by careless humans. A plastic bag can be found every few meters that you walk. I plan to be king of the world by the time I am twenty. So, I can use this walk alone to plan what I will do when I am in charge.
First thing I will do is get rid of plastic. I hate plastic pollution and I will put an end to it when I rule the world. I blamed all the plastic garbage for being unable to find a place to swim.
Three months ago, we moved to a suburb outside Wawasan Nusantara, or ‘Vision of the Indonesian Archipelago’ in English. We just call it Nusantara. It is a great place! Nusantara is in Indonesia, in East Kalimantan province, on the island of Borneo. However, Indonesia shares Borneo with two other countries, Malaysia and Brunei. Nusantara is a newly built town and is set to replace Jakarta as the capital of Indonesia.
I eat a mango I found growing on a nearby tree. I shook the tree just once and it fell to the ground near my feet. It was ripe and juicy. “Hmm! Good!” I say to myself as I peel the mango with my teeth and take a bite.
At about the same time, I hear several gunshots and one of the bullets bounces off the mango tree. I am curious and go toward the gunshot. I know this is not wise, but I am a curious kid. If I am late getting back home, I will tell my parents I got lost.
I immediately come to a small body of still water. I go around it as I have been warned to stay away from water. This is unfortunate as I love water and swimming. I was unable to swim in waters around Jakarta as they were full of germs, especially plastic.
I love swimming and water sports and I am eagerly awaiting the building of our community pool in Nusantara. Hopefully it is built during my lifetime. Sigh!
As I get past the small body of water and re-enter a wooded area, I am knocked off my feet by a powerful force. I am laying on the forest floor, dazed but uninjured. I raise up my head to see a wounded jaguar next to me, struggling to get up. It had knocked me down as it ran through the forest.
The jaguar makes a gurgling sound and limps away. I see a wound from a bullet that entered it’s back. I do not think it will last long in the forest with those injuries.
I slowly get to my feet and look at my fallen mango. I am alone again.
Then I hear voices quickly approaching. I think that maybe I should leave this place, so I run in the same direction as the jaguar, away from the voices.
The voices get closer. Apparently, they are also running in the same direction as the wounded jaguar. I should use a different route but I do not want to get lost. I decide to hide and let the voices go past me. That is when I trip and fall over some vines. I struggle desperately to get the vines off of me but too late.
Three men appear with long guns and stop in surprise when they see me. They are all ancient, well over twenty years old. The two in front have moustaches. They wear T-Shirts with writing. I am immediately drawn to the T-shirt worn by the guy at the back, which says Save The Planet (STP).
They speak in one of the local languages that I understand.
“He caught us poaching.” Says the first one, who was leading as if he is the boss. Poaching is not legal. I decide not to remind them of this. I usually let people know when they have done something wrong but decide to let it pass this time.
“He looks too little to report us,” says STP, the guy with the Save the Planet t-shirt. I enjoy giving people nicknames.
“Yes, it is just a stupid kid,” says the guy acting as boss.
Stupid! Did he know I was one of the smartest kids in my school?
“You are a simpleton.” I yell back at him.
“What?” He does not understand English.
“You are orang bodoh,” I yell back. My ayah used the word simpleton a lot. He learned it when he was working with a United Nations agency on a project. I liked to use it as many people did not know that it meant they were idiots.
“What did you call me?” The leader raises his gun and aims it at me.
Oh no, this is the end of me. I should have shut up and listened to my parents.