5

If Tera explained how the portrait of a happy family was, then Tera would describe it now.

Tera has parents who love their children unconditionally. She has a father who works in the Military Forces Unit in a prestigious position. She has a very good mother with a heart as wide as the ocean. Her sister is very beautiful. She is married and has two very beautiful daughters. Her husband works in the same place as Mr. Tera. Her little sister is also very pretty. Her father who serves as DanKorSis* also has an income that fits her family portrait, which should be happy. What's more, seeing her sister is married and her husband also has a classy position. Everyone, if they see Tera's family portrait, will surely be jealous.

Now Tera is 27 years old, and next year Tera will be 28 years old. She still dreamed that the family portrait she had dreamed of could come true.

Her family has fallen apart. Now Tera does not know the condition of her sister and father. She took her little sister and mother away from the problems that occurred in her family. At that time, everything went normally. As usual, Tera acted like an innocent child who didn't understand what was going on in her house. Whenever Tera felt things weren't going well, she would go and stay at Ghina's apartment, then come back a week later and act like she didn't know anything. The incident kept repeating since Tera was allowed to stay at her friend's house until she went to college. She continued like that until then her family was completely broken and out of control.

Tera knows that so far her father has never provided a living for her mother, her mother is struggling to earn money by opening a business or helping her friends and ends up getting paid. Even though her mother was called an official's wife, she never felt it. Tera's life continues to depend on the results of her mother's sweat, from the first time she enters school until she graduates from school. Her father and brother have a lot of debt everywhere, Tera knows that the one who pays everything is her own mother, her mother dares to borrow from Persit, her friends, or also the bank, in order to pay off the debt that her father and brother have earned. When it should be Tera and Bulan, her little sister, who feel the results of their mother's sweat because they are still her dependents, they have to swallow the bitter taste because their mother has to help their father and brother pay their debts, without thinking about anything else. All of Tera swallowed the bitter taste secretly. Until the climax came, her litlle sister had just gone to college and Tera was going to trial, the mother told her that her father ran away with her mother's savings for the future of her two children, her father took her mother's money and left her mother to go to her sister who was in Jawa Tengah, and never come back.

Tera slumped, really. How's her little sister? Who knows. At that time Tera was busy calming her mother who was stressed and severely depressed. How about her college? Tera had classed herself to get out of college even though she was only one step away from graduating. Then, just as she was trying to find a job, tragedy struck again. Tera fell which resulted in her right hand could not move for months. Is she depressed? Don't ask. She was hysterical every night, crying when she was going to bed and waking up, then acting as if nothing had happened, and getting hysterical again, it went on and on for months on end. Until then, Tera, who has a hobby of writing, tried her luck by selling her book to a big company in Singapore via email, by waiting for a few months, finally her email was approved and her life returned to normal.

Don't forget Tera, who immediately took her mother and sister out of the house and moved to Jakarta after she graduated from college, without telling the rest of her family. She would go back to acting like everything was normal and nothing happened.

"Mom, I'm leaving!" Tera said goodbye to her mother who was having breakfast with her little sister at the dining table.

Today, her best friend Alessa is having her son's birthday party at BSD Tangerang, her home area. Even though this is the child's party, Alessa advised that she and Dina should also attend because it has become an obligation for the three friends.

"So early," Mom glanced at the clock in the dining room. It's still half-past eight in the morning. "Do you want to come to clean up the stand?"

Tera glared. Her mother didn't seem to know the ritual before meeting her friends. "Pick Dina with her child first, right?"

Her mother laughed. Her mother always liked the friendly behavior between Tera, Dina, and Alessa. They are very strong, with a friendship that has existed for almost 20 years apart. In fact, in one year, the three of them had been separated for several months, when Tera was trying to mourn her fate, and her two best friends were working in Jakarta first. Even though at that time Tera seemed to have disappeared, she didn't tell her friends at all, but their friendship remained strong and grew stronger every day.

"I'm going, okay? Assalamualaikum."

"Waalaikumsalam. Be careful!" Her mother reminded which was answered with a shout by Tera.

*

Adi waited patiently for the call. He has called Tera more than five times, who has not picked up. He was heading to Tera's home area at the moment, he didn't make an appointment with Tera, but he was trying his luck. Tera is indeed busy, but, Adi remembers, today it turns out that Tera doesn't have an appointment with anyone.

Actually, he didn't know, it's just that his heart said so. He deliberately came from Bogor to approach Tera. He don't know why he's back to doing things like this again, but, considering Tera still doesn't have a boyfriend until this moment, he has a little hope for him.

"Hello." Finally, Tera's voice was heard on the other end of the phone.

"I've been calling since earlier, it took you so long to pick up. Just woke up, huh?" Adi asks even though he hears a noise from Tera's phone and Tera's voice doesn't sound like someone waking up.

Tera didn't answer, but, from the noise that sounded like she was moving away, Adi thought Tera was walking away from the crowd.

"Sorry, sorry. What's wrong, Di?"

"I'm on the way to your house. Send your home location."

"Wow!" Tera sounded surprised. "Why didn't you tell me? I had an event already."

"You what?!" Adi doesn't need to be so surprised, because this is his fault. But, why didn't he think of the worst? "I'm already near your house."

Tera scratched her hair that didn't itch. She was confused. Why did Adi suddenly come to Jakarta and say he would take her for a walk without her knowledge?

Adi hears Tera's name being called from a distance.

"Yes, Aunty. Okay!" Tera shouted. "Duh, Di. I have to go. I'm sorry? Maybe next time we can meet. See you next time?"

Then the connection is lost. Unlucky. So where should he go now? His visit to Jakarta was not very far away. However, the traffic jam on Saturday, especially now that it was late in the afternoon, managed to make Adi curse in his heart along the way. So, after Tera refuses his invitation, where should he go? After his struggle to get a car from Bogor to Jakarta disappeared, where should Adi go?

Oh, Gina. That's right, he can meet Gina. He didn't meet Tera, but he was able to dig up information about Tera from Ghina.

Without thinking, he dialed Gina's number on his cell phone. Without waiting long, Gina immediately picked it up.