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Dear Mr. Gates:
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Date: Sat, 7 October 2006 13:36 WesternIndonesiaTime Subject: Death of the Second Cat
Apparently my kind of worry like written in my previous letter, about "......my tip of 20.000 rupiahs could be assumed as my wish for the number two person in this country, or the vice president, to become zero or die....." regarding my giving a tip of 20.000 rupiahs to the graveyard officer on my visit to my mother's grave on September 29, 2006, was materialized in the death of the second cat in the house. Before October 4, 2006, there were two cats in the house where I live, both male, and adults. The first cat appeared around early 2004. One night there was a sound of a kitten screaming along the night from the front of the house. In the morning my niece took a closer look to the kitten and decided to take it as a pet in the house. Its color is white with some dark yellow spots, and short tail. My niece named him "Minyong". A few months later it grew to be an adult cat. The second cat appeared around early 2005, similar thing happened again, the sound of a kitten screaming all night. Again, in the morning my niece took a closer look to the kitten and decided to take it as a second pet in the house. Its color was white and some gray spots, with long tail. My niece named him "Miyu" yet I prefer to call him "Ndut", because of his rather fat body. A few months later it grew to be an adult cat. When he had grown to be an adult cat, it was clear that there was some strong differences between "Ndut" and other cats around the house. Because "Ndut" had longer hair in some part of his body, like in the tail, in the legs, and in the bottom of the body and the neck. Several months later I found out from a book about cat given for free by the Kompas newspaper, that it could be the semi long hair cat, "Maine Coon" cat from North America, or at least he was the breed of such cat. In the morning of October 4, 2006, before I started to go to the grave to get the prolong of my mother's grave license permit, as usual I washed the dish, spoon and glass that I used to eat in the early morning meal along this fasting month of Ramadhan. While washing the dish, I spot "Ndut" sleeping in the driveway under the Chevrolet Blazer. In the afternoon when I returned from the graveyard, with the license permit of my mother's grave, I should get the sad news from the gardener working in the house, that "Ndut" had died. His head was crushed after the Chevrolet Blazer ran over him when the driver was parking the car to close the gate before going to leave the house.
Date: Sat, 7 October 2006 14:00 WesternIndonesiaTime Subject: It Was a Smart Cat
Besides the differences in its longer fur on certain part of his body, "Ndut" was also a smart cat. He could catch many mice. One day he even obtained more than three mice along the day. Whenever I was alone with him inside the house, and one of the cars of my sister and her family came, he would ran to the front of the closing door that connect the dining room and the garage, took a sit there while screaming "Awww....., awww.....," as if asking me to welcome my niece or my sister or my brother in law who would soon come in to the house. Actually there were also other cars that often stopped by in front of the house, and even one of them was also a Chevrolet Blazer of the neighbor next door, but he could differentiate them, he never "welcome" other cars, except the cars of my niece or my brother in law or my sister. He also could distinguished between asking for food, or for drink, or for a door, or just checking the availability of the persons in the house. He would do that by screaming intermediately, and when I went out of my bedroom, he would go to the kitchen to his food bowl if he was asking for food. If he asked for the door, he would not go to the food bowl, instead he would go to the door and after I opened it he would walked out of the door. He also liked to drink from the cup of my hand in the bathroom sink. He would began by making a sound, even when I was inside the bedroom. He would then walked into the bathroom, took a sit on top of the closet cover, waiting for me to open the water tap and cup my hand, and he would then jump to the marble table that surround the sink, to drink from the cup of my hand.
Date: Sat, 7 October 2006 14:22 WesternIndonesiaTime Subject: Stretching the Front Legs, Point of No Return
Two days before he died I experienced something strange with this cat. It was in the afternoon, after searching him in other places, I found him sleeping under the Chevrolet Blazer that was inside the garage. I squat beside the car and called him by clicking my fingers. He raised his head, then stretching his front legs toward my self while his eyes were staring at me. All of a sudden I felt like he was asking me to go away with him, to get out of this world. But the I thought it must be just because I was too obsessed with fulfilling my consent to move out of this world. He was then took a sit on the floor, and wiped the floor with his butt, then approached me, and after I caressed his neck, he immediately turned back to where he was, to sleep again, with his back facing me. As if he wanted me to follow him,.....somewhere...... Now after he died, I feel that his gesture of stretching his front legs toward my self were really like his inviting me to go away with him to fulfill my consent to move out of this world. As a point of no return.
Date: Mon, 9 October 2006 11:15 WesternIndonesiaTime Subject: His Sickness Approaching the Sacrificing Day
The way Ndut wiped the floor with his butt was like reminding me with his sickness on early January 2006. At that moment I was alone in the house for more than three weeks, because my sister and her husband were having a hajj pilgrimage trip to the Middle East during the sacrificing day to commemorate the sacrificing moment done by prophet Abraham. I was alone in the house at night along those days, because my niece stayed in the apartment in the center of Jakarta. One day, he all of a sudden disappeared for more than a day, and it made me felt guilty because I felt responsible to keep him well, since the whole family loved him. So I prayed along the day, hoping that he would come back soon. Approaching midnight, when I was writing my letters to Paris Hilton in the computer, all of a sudden I heard a scratching sound in the window behind me. I thought it was a mouse or something else. I raised myself from the chair, and when I looked through the window, it was Ndut, covering his excretion on the soil. Outside the window, although it was upstairs, there was a rectangle of concrete with soil in the middle of it for the plants. I immediately opened the window and asked him to get in, but he looked so sad, and kept on sitting there. He only took a glimpse for a while toward myself then staring to the other direction. I took him with my hands and put him inside, then took a piece of fish from the refrigerator. Yet he was reluctant to eat, and kept on crouching on the floor. Then he moved to the corner nearby the phone table, and after a few minutes moved again to the stair, then moved again to the lower part of the stair, and back to under the phone table. It began to make me worry, what if he died and I still alive, as if there had been a switch of my death destiny with him. I kept on praying for his cure. Later on I knew that he was suffering from a pair of wound in his butt. There were scars on the left and the right of his testicle. Probably he was fighting with other cat and was bitten. A few days later after some treatment by me and the maid and my niece, he survived, he began to relief, and gradually getting wealthier. Nevertheless I was also wondering, when he disappeared, had he actually already died, but because I prayed desperately to God, than God allowed him to live again in a borrowed time?
Date: Mon, 9 October 2006 11:25 WesternIndonesiaTime Subject: The New Samsung Washing Machine Preceding His Death
Like I wrote in my previous letter, on Monday September 25, 2006, a new washing machine was sent in to the house by the dealer. It was a Samsung WA 90 F3 like in the above photo. For several days the new washing machine remains in the garage. And in the morning of October 4, 2006, with the help of the gardener, my brother in law installed it in front of the rear bathroom to replace the old one. And it was a few hours after the installation of the new washing machine that the accident happened that took the life of Ndut. The name of Samsung washing machine reminds me with my old friend in the neighborhood Ade, when I was in the Junior High School. One day during a party in my neighbor, I asked him whether he had a Samsu, a famous name of local cigarette. It surprised him because he thought I was not smoking, and in fact I was not smoking too much, only once in a while along with my junior high school friends. This washing machine name Samsung is like combining the name of Samsu cigarette and the "ng", that could have the connotation of a negative word, somewhat like the word "f...ck". It reminds me with my previous letter about 'There Could Be Another "Trap" of Bebe Adem' . Whereas on Tuesday, August 8, 2006, I was alone with my sister's maid Bebe Adem at home, the others were out. It was around ten o'clock, I put some of my clothes to the washing machine. When I turned my back, I spot Ndut, crouching nearby the hand water pump. It made me wonder what was he doing there. I approached him, took a squat to reached him, and I found out that he was waiting for a mouse in the sewage hole. I knew it because by the time I began to squat, there was the sound of a mouse from the hole. About an hour later, after working my painting, I went to the place where Ndut was crouching, and he was still there, waiting for the mouse. So I squat again and caress him. But I think because of the previous "thigh incident" with Siti like written in my letter 'Lady Di's Interview After My "Siti Incident"', such measure I took was then spot by some neighbors who thought that I was trying to approach the maid.
After Ndut died in the accident, it inspired me to contact a former CEO and owner of a company that produce the famous cigarette "Samsu", that sounds a little bit like Samsung, asking him to help me finance my journey to some sacred places in the Middle East. He could do that by purchasing some of my paintings. It would be a sacred journey for the good of this world.
Date: Mon, 9 October 2006 13:04 WesternIndonesiaTime Subject: Grieve Situation Previous to October 4
A few days before Ndut died, or approximately two weeks earlier, I often felt like something grieve in the situation, as if someone was going to die. At first I thought it was because I was too obsessed with my consent to meet the end. Yet I could feel that I would take an empty cup to fill it with water during the mourn that would take place soon. Coincidentally later on the sofa chairs in front of TV in the living room were brought with a truck to the shop for replacement of its covers. It was on Monday morning October 2, 2006, when the truck carried those sofa, so it made the living room looks empty like when my father died whereas the sofa were moved out to give more space to sit on the carpet on the floor for the mourners. It apparently was realized when Ndut died, the situation was like someone had died. Even until the time I wrote this, the surrounding situation of the house seem like mourn for someone died. Maybe this is another sign from God that it was not just a death of a cat, instead it should become a reminder for me to strive hard to realize my journey to visit some sacred places in the Middle East, as a sacred journey for the good of this world.
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Thank's, A.M. Firmansyah Tel. +62812 183 1538
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