The Life of Amat Rhang Manyang || Aceh Folklore || Part 3

To read "part 1" click here!

To read "part 2" click here!

Sooner after he thought about his father, he fell asleep. The rain was falling outside. One day, in the morning, Amat went to the harbor, and he found that the harbor was more crowded that usual. Some ships were docking on the harbor and lots of people looked busy doing their jobs. Amat was standing alone watched them. Lately, Amat frequently came to the harbor by himself.

Their friends preferred to play kite, or wrestle in the beach, or play football in the open field located not far from the village. Sometimes, their friend would like to watch peupak leume (cow’s fighting) held in the rice field that had already been harvested. For Amat, what his friend did would not catch his attention because he would choose to go to harbor to see the ship and everything related to it.

That day, Amat embraced himself to meet someone that worked in the harbor. He knew him as he lived not far from his house. That man’s name was Kamil, but he used to be called by others as Mr. Agam. Amat walked to the harbor and he saw Mr. Agam walking from the harbor toward the mosque. He wanted to pray Dzuhur. The situation in the harbor was not as crowded as before as most of workers were having their lunch and some of them also having a dzuhur pray.

Amat approached Mr. Agam. The he greeted Mr. Agam “Good day Mr. Agam” . Mr. Agam stopped walking and he looked at the source of the voice. “Hi Amat, what’s going on?” said Mr. Agam and he walked toward Amat.

Talking stutteringly, Amat said”Mmm…… Sir! I would like to day that…..mmm…………I wanted to be one of…..mmmmmmm…….your ships’ crew”. 

Then Mr. Agam replied “ Hahaha….you are way too young to be able to join as the ship’s crew. I am afraid that you cannot handle a hard job in the ship”

Amat stood silent as he get the reply form Mr. Agam. He was disappointed of it. 

“Oke, I will pray at the mosque.” Said Mr.Agam and he walked away while Agam still stood silent.

Since that day, Amat became a moreose. He seldom played again with their friends. He was not as diligent as before in helping his mom at home. He also often made mistakes while reciting Al-quran. All people surrounding him noticed the change and wondered what happened with him. 

Every time people asked about what happened to him, Amat would say that everything was alright and he was okay. Thus, no one know the casue why he became a morose. In his mind, Amat still wondered why Mr,Agam that he knew as a good person didn’t want to help him work in his ship. It was disturbing him and made him hard to sleep at night.

Every day, Amat would come to the harbor alone, Sometimes he would stay since morning until night. He didn’t come home and he missed his lunch. His eyes always focused on the ships that docked and sailed.

Some of his friends that noticed what Amat doing felt pity, but some also mocked him. Those who said that Amat was waiting for something that would never come. Amat didn’t care about what his friends said and he always prayed to God that one day his dream would come true. 

Without noticed by Amat, Mr.Agam also always noticed that Amat always came to the harbor. He felt pity at last to him. Still, Mr. Agam couldn’t agree to himself if he hired him to do a difficult and hard job at the ship. He didn’t know what he should do.