Home. It is not just a shelter. It is not necessarily a house. It’s a place of happiness. A place where we enjoy the love with person/things that you care. It maybe a castle, or maybe it is not. Or it can be a non existence space. But it is a place that makes you feel comfortable. It is a place that makes you feel belonging. It is a place that you can be you. It is a place for you to laugh to cry to share everything. It is a place for you to love and to be loved. It is a place for you to come back. It is a place of you.
Living in a sub urban area, in a big house far away from the rumah panjang community never makes me feel that I'm not one of them. I live in a quite modern family with my parent and six other married sisters except for Aeryn. I'm the seventh soul, the only guy, the peacemaker of all girls in my house-whole.
There's a warm living room with sofa set and tv where I can see my niece and nephew play while I'm watching tv. From there, I can smell Aeryn's cook. Mom is doing chores and the others are working. My elder sister, Pai, she seldom home as she work at the big city, 4 hours travel from our place.
There's a deck at the back yard where I normally spend my time with my guy friends, drinks and chitchat-ing. It has a very nice view as our house located at a hillside facing a green mount.
My room is located at the upper level, next to Aeryn's room. It's a warm room where I can spend days in it by reading books.
Aeryn is the closest sibling. We shared almost everything. We consoled each other and we have each other. I always help her to cook for the whole family. She always comes to my room to nag and to read books.
And everything is changed since the day she found Al-Quran on my book shelf. No more family hours at the living room, no more guys talk between me and dad, no more nagging from my sisters, no more drinks at the back yard. And the house looks empty.
"I'm an orphan, even before my parent died. I'm losing them"-Endy
"My home? I live at the center of two different places, the truth and the false. And my home is no longer my home, because my home is currently become a place for me to escape"-Serene
