Gita Dusk Geetruida
Invasion

After breakfast, Mangata sat in his living room and returned to Geetruida's heart notes.

"Good morning, ma'am. Dinas afternoon what evening, today."

Greet a middle-aged woman while entering her house.

"Eh, morning is also mbok Nah. Today still wants a holiday" said Mangata.

"Oh so, I clean first yes, mas .. if there is anything needed, just say," said the woman who used to come to Mangata house to clean every 2 days.

"Ok, mbok."

Despite having given a crease mark to the end of the paper he read last night, Mangata deliberately reread the previous chapter a little.

Chapter 7

That afternoon we had a guest we had never seen before. Papi introduced us to one of the guests he referred to as 'Om Hendrick', papi said he was his elder brother from Epen, papi's homeland. Epen is a village in the southern part of the Dutch province of Limburg. Although his face and physique were quite similar to papi, but I didn't like him, I somehow felt that he was different from my papi. Or maybe it's because I don't know him yet.

"Adolf, home. Don't you know that the Dutch East Indies are not safe?" hendrick said directly to his goal, without much pleasantry.

"For what? My life and death are here. You don't see them as my spirit veins" said papi, glancing at his son and wife.

"Take them to the Epen as well, mama and papa will be very happy," said om again trying to negotiate.

"No, Hendrick. I won't lead them to anything uncertain. After all, Sekar is pregnant with our fourth child, I don't want anything to happen to the womb."

"The fourth child? Which one of your kids?"

"Clay has been married for almost 1 year and lives in Batavia with her husband" he said.

"Oh so, but staying here is equally uncertain, Adolf!" The intonation of the man's voice began to rise and my mother asked me and Gerry to stay away.

I chose to go to my mom's office to meet the boys who were learning to sew, and Gerry played in the living room, there might be something important that the parents would like to talk about that we don't need to know, I thought.

From the mami's workspace, still being sent from the voices of people quarreling, rumbling and cursing each other in Dutch that even I just knew, papi was never so angry and loud when speaking.

Then I heard the sound of guns being detonated 2 times followed by a loud thud. What made them get all hit, even if Hendrick came with some bodyguards? Until I heard a shrill mama voice, shouting the name of Gerry, my 8-year-old brother.

"Honey, wake ... Gerry, forgive the papi who can't protect you" said papi in a weak voice. From the door frame I saw Gerry struggling and crying in Hendrick's arms. They kidnapped my sister. What can I do?

"Yes, please call me Abbe," said papi before falling face down while hugging my mother.

I just realized that there's blood pooling, who's hurt? Mommy or papi? Then I rushed over to Abbe who was in the back garden. Mami had told him to pick young coconuts to be served to the guests who came.

"Om, down. Papi and mami are bleeding!" my yelling.

"What?"

"Fast om, papi and mami are bleeding," I repeated with an even louder volume.

Om Abbe came down the coconut tree very quickly, then ran towards the restroom of the other papi guards and banged on the door loudly, "Wake up. Fast forward, emergency," he said then darted toward papi and mami.

Soon, papi and mami were escorted to the hospital. It turned out that papi's leg was hit by a shot and mami fainted from shock.

The target of the bullet is actually mami, because it is considered as a barrier to the return of papi to the Netherlands, but papi had driven so that he was hit by gunfire. Hearing there was a commotion, Gerry ran to the living room but was instead immediately pulled by om Hendrick.

After returning from the hospital, Papi said that when Hendrick came to bring SS Aramis boat tickets for him, to return home soon, but papi refused due to some considerations, because of some considerations, one of them is a mother who is pregnant.

Mami is very sad because Gerry was 'kidnapped' by Hendric and because of the pressure it makes mami give birth prematurely. She gave birth to a premature baby boy named Alderts Putra Vooren.

The birth of Alderts brought new happiness to our family but still could not cover up the grief of Gerry's departure. While Clay has just lost his first baby candidate, so he has not been able to go home to Magelang.

Clay also said the condition of Batavia is not okay, what does it mean papi did not want to tell us but approximately 2 months later heard the news of world war II broke, the collapse of the Dutch East Indies began when the German army invaded and launched a lightning war. After fighting for 4 days, the Dutch army surrendered. Losing to Germany, the Dutch East Indies again had to face failure when Japan made its invasion in 1940. This is where the suffering continues.

Again papi got a message from his family asking to return to the Netherlands immediately, but papi continued to refuse. Papi said, no matter what happens, we can't be separated except for Clay because he already has his own family.

I am very sad that the state has overturned everything, including the expectations of our family. I was no longer able to sleep comfortably in my room, there was no glass of warm milk before going to bed even I stopped going to school because we and our family were forced to leave Magelang and stranded in an internment camp in Batavia.

Papi, whose leg has not recovered from gunshot wounds, did not escape the target of torture, our lives depend only on my mother's income as a tailor and taking wages as a traveling laundry worker as well as a cook outside the camp. It's really different 180° than the previous life where mommy who was a mistress.

I can't figure out why papi won't be evacuated back to his country, choosing to leave only until Batavia.

At the age of 14 I set foot for the second time in Batavia. But the arrival of our family this time is no longer for fun as before, because at that time the national situation was precarious, there was an emergency repratiation operation for Dutch citizens who required Dutch totok, he said, sinyo and Noni leave Indonesia. Many returned but not a few Dutch citizens who chose to stay in Indonesia for various reasons, papi Adolf Vooren one of them.