Madin mendatangi seorang ahli nujum di kampung Pualam. Dia berkeluh kesah mengenai anak laki-lakinya yang saban hari duduk termenung di sebuah gubuk pinggir sawah di ujung kampung. Jika sore datang sang anak menunggang kuda yang terbuat dari anyaman daun kelapa. Dia berlari-lari mengitari pematang sawah sampai menjelang senja. Saat Madin mengutarakan masalahnya, ahli nujum itu segera memberi tafsir, “karena kau belum menunaikan nazarmu.”
“Saya tidak pernah bernazar, Teungku,” kilah Madin.
“Menurut penerawangan saya, ada. Setelah bertahun-tahun kamu menikah tapi belum dikarunai anak, kemudian kamu bernazar, jika kamu dikarunai seorang anak, setelah kauazani pada kedua telinganya, ia kaubawa keliling kampung dengan menunggang kuda putih.”
“Tidak, saya tidak pernah bernazar, apapun nazarnya.”
“Ya sudah, kalau kau tidak percaya akan penerawanganku, kenapa kau datangi pula aku.”
“Saya mau anak saya sembuh.”
“Tidak mungkin. Karena aku bukan dokter ahli jiwa, yang bisa menyembuhkan anakmu.”
Perbincangan itu pun langsung terhenti. Madin duduk termenung mematung diri, sambil mengingat kembali ihwal penerawangan ahli nujum. Setelah ia pikir-pikir, ia ingat-ingat ke semua peristiwa masa lalu, rasanya, apapun hasil penerawangan itu tetap tak mengena dengan apa yang ada di pikirannya. Bahkan hatinya sempat membatin, “dasar tukang nujum, ramalannya seenak perutnya saja.”
Setelah menyelip uang dua puluh ribu dalam telapak tangan ahli nujum itu, Madin segera pulang. Terlalu sulit untuk ia percayai apapun yang baru saja ia dengarkan.
“Bagaimana menurut Wak Dolah?” tanya sang istri, ketika Madin muncul di ambang pintu.
Kemudian Madin menceritakan sebagaimana yang disampaikan ahli nujum itu.
“Coba kita datangi Mak Limah, siapa tahu lain lagi ramalannya,” ujarnya istrinya, “jika ramalan kedua tukang nujum itu sama, baru boleh kita percaya.”
“Iya, benar juga pendapatmu, Bu.”
Pergilah Madin seketika itu juga, panas terik matahari tak membuatnya lelah menyusuri jalan kampung yang berdebu itu, sesekali ia usap keringat yang bercucuran di wajahnya.
“Kau dulu pernah bernazar, jika anakmu selamat dari wabah kolera, kau akan menyembelih seekor kambing berbulu putih. Karena kau tidak menunaikannya, maka anakmu jadi gila,” ujar Mak Limah, ahli nujum yang kedua yang didatangi Madin pada hari itu.
“Tapi saya tak pernah bernazar apapun.”
Mak Limah menggeleng-geleng kepala, sambil tersenyum getir.
Madin tetap tak mempercayainya. Tetapi, ke manakah ia akan pergi lagi untuk meminta petunjuk agar anaknya dapat disembuhkan. Hanya dua orang itulah yang dianggap Madin, bahkan orang kampung Pualam, jika tertimpa suatu kemalangan dari hidup mereka.
“Tapi, saya lebih percaya pada perkataan Wak Dolah, yah,” ujar istri Madin, setelah Madin menyampaikan hasil penerawangan Mak Limah.
“Kenapa?”
“Lihat saja, si Agam selalu menunggang kuda daun kelapa buatanya.”
“Iya...ya. Berarti, sekarang saya harus mencari kuda putih?”
Istrinya menggangguk.
KEESOKAN hari, setelah mendapat petunjuk Wak Dolah, Madin bersama anaknya menunggang kuda putih keliling kampung. Dan orang-orang pun bersorak-sorai seolah menyaksikan atraksi pacuan kuda. Namun tiba-tiba, kuda putih itu terperosok dalam lubang jalan, dan kedua anak-pinak itu pun terkapar; meregang nyawa. Menurut hasil visum seorang dokter, si anak mati, selain ia terluka parah di bagian kepala, juga karena kelebihan menghisap ganja.
ENGLISH
Madin went to an astrologer in the village of Pualam. He moaned about his son, who sat pensively every day in a rice-field hut at the edge of the village. If the afternoon comes the boy riding a horse made of woven coconut leaves. He ran around the rice field until late in the afternoon. When Madin expressed his problem, the astrologer immediately gave the interpretation, "because you have not fulfilled your vow."
"I never vowed, Teungku," said Madin.
"According to my observation, there is. After years of marriage but not yet a child, then you vow, if you are blessed with a child, after kauazani in both ears, you bring it around the village on a white horse. "
"No, I never vowed, whatever the vow."
"Well, if you do not believe in my sight, why do you come to me."
"I want my child to be healed."
"Impossible. Because I'm not a psychiatrist, who can cure your child. "
The conversation was immediately stopped. Madin sat staring at herself, recalling the astrology of the astrologer. After he thought about it, he recalled all the past events, no matter what the results of the sighting remained uninterested with what was on his mind. Even his heart had a thought, "the astrologer's base, his prophecy just as good as his stomach."
After twisting the twenty thousand dollars in the astrologer's palm, Madin came home immediately. It's too hard to believe anything he's just heard.
"What does Wak Dolah think?" Asked the wife, as Madin appeared in the doorway.
Then Madin told the astrologer.
"Let's go to Mak Limah, who knows the other prophecy," he said his wife, "if the two astrologers' predictions are the same, then we may believe."
"Yeah, that's right with your opinion, ma'am."
Madin went off at once, the heat of the sun did not make her tired down the dusty village road, occasionally she wiped sweat on her face.
"You once vowed, if your son survived the cholera epidemic, you would slaughter a white goat. Because you did not do it, your son went mad, "said Mak Limah, the second astrologer whom Madin visited that day.
"But I never vowed."
Mak Limah shook her head, smiling bitterly.
Madin still does not believe it. But, where would he go again to seek guidance for his son to be healed. Only those two people are considered Madin, even the Pualam villagers, if it struck a misfortune from their lives.
"But I'm more confident in Wak Dolah's words, well," Madin's wife said, after Madin delivered the results of Mak Limah's escort.
"Why?"
"Look, Agam always riding his coconut leaves."
"Yes ... yes. So now I have to look for a white horse? "
His wife nodded.
THE NEXT DAY, after getting the Wak Dolah guide, Madin and her son rode a white horse around the village. And the people were cheering as if they were watching the racetrack. Suddenly, however, the white horse was mired in a pothole, and the two children sprawled; dying. According to the results of a doctor's visum, the child dies, in addition he is severely injured in the head, also due to excess marijuana.
Tanah Luas, 2018
