“We can only go there tomorrow, Mr. Pandu. Our car was sideswiped. Thankfully, we’re all safe, even though the car’s dented.”
What an awful day it had been for the Mangunwarya family. They should have arrived at their new residence by noon, but a minor accident forced the whole family to postpone the trip until tomorrow. Now all they could do was sit in silence at the hotel.
“We have to hold the thanksgiving ritual, Mas. Just look at us now. We haven’t even gotten there, and it’s already brought us bad luck,” a woman complained as she massaged her head.
“We’ll take care of that later. For now, let’s rest. The kids need it,” replied the man sitting beside her, helping massage his wife’s legs.
Yasodana Wijaya looked at his three children, who had been asleep for the past hour. Today’s misfortune had struck as they were moving to a new home: before they reached their destination, their car had been sideswiped by a reckless young man. Their car skidded onto a rice-field embankment, and they weren’t the only victims—two other riders had been involved as well.
“I’m sorry, Dini. You shouldn’t have to suffer because of me,” he said, looking at Anandini Ratih, the shoulder-length-haired woman whose eyes were filled with sorrow.
“You don’t have to apologize, Mas. It was a misfortune. No one could have known,” she replied, staring blankly at their three children. Anandini was grateful that they had survived, especially compared with one of the other riders, who had been carrying an old woman as a passenger and died.
“I should have listened to Naeswari and not left today,” he murmured, looking toward his youngest child, who slept facing the wall. It was a habit she could never break.
“Don’t believe what Naes said, Mas. She was only worried. She’s afraid of moving into the new house.” Anandini didn’t believe what her husband Yas was saying.
“I believe her.”
“Anandini, you still believe what your late father said? Our daughter has the same special ability as your late grandfather.” Yas reminded her of what had happened several years ago.
When Naeswari was five, Yas took all three of their children to visit Anandini’s grandfather, who lived in Istanbul. While they were there, they learned that someone in Anandini’s family line possessed a special ability.
But Anandini continued to deny that her little daughter had the same ability as her grandfather. She was afraid other people would take advantage of her daughter. Whenever Naeswari said something frightening, Anandini would scold her and pretend not to care.
“She’s just an ordinary child, not a special one. Enough, Mas. Don’t bring that up again. We should get some sleep. Tomorrow, we’ll leave for your village before noon.”
Yasodana was a general practitioner assigned to work in the village where he was born. The house they were leaving behind had to be rented out rather than left vacant. At first, he had wanted to be the only one living in the village, but Anandini was unwilling to separate from him and chose to come along.
Anandini shifted over and decided to sleep on the carpeted floor. They were staying in a hotel room because their house was already occupied by a tenant. Tomorrow, she and her family would face a new day and begin a new life in her husband’s birth village.
But they didn’t realize that something had been watching them all along.