Takdir "Taktektaktektak"

“Setiap karya memiliki takdirnya sendiri. Ingat itu.”

Begitulah ujar seorang sahabat. Mungkin ucapan itu sudah saya dengar hampir sepuluh kali. Belum lagi yang saya bisikkan pada diri sendiri. Saat itu saya baru saja mengirim sebuah cerpen ke Kompas. Malam minggu pulang mengajar les, saya singgah ke warnet. Dengan nekad, setelah mengedit semaksimal mungkin, karya itu saya kirim ke alamat yang tertera di situs kompas.com. Tepatnya oase@kompas.com. Ini kali pertama saya mengirim ke media nasional. Pesimis, saya hampir yakin akan ditolak. Setelah ada laporan email terkirim, baru saya menyesal, kenapa harus Kompas? Cari mati memang!

Teringat lagi ucapan seorang teman saya. Katanya honor dari Kompas lumayan. Saya memang sedang butuh uang untuk uang muka laptop. Minimal jika lama baru dimuat, mungkin bisa buat bayar cicilannya. Nah, setelah email terkirim, saya teringat kalimat kedua yang diucapkan teman saya itu. “Persaingannya ketat, 1;1000, sama penulis kelas Seno dan Sapardi Djoko Damono lagi.” Sekarang nyali saya ciut.

Dua hari kemudian saya kembali lagi ke warnet. Jantung saya berdebar-debar. Tangan dan kaki dingin. Satu pesan baru. Pelan-pelan saya membuka kotak masuk sambil menyiapkan mental. Lama saya terdiam. Dua kali email itu saya baca.

Rupanya salah kirim. Usut punya usut, alamat email itu sudah diganti ke jodhi@kompas.com. Alamat ini pun bukan kompas cetak, tapi onlinenya. Dan untuk online, tidak ada honorarium. Bung Jodhi membalas email saya, menyarankan untuk mengirim ke kompas@kompas.com. Saya juga mengecek ke Kompas online edisi cetak. Tapi alamat yang tertera, opini@kompas.com.

Mana yang benar? Lantas saya kirim ke dua-duanya.

Saya beli laptop. Uang muka hasil tabungan mengajar sebulan dan beberapa kerja sampingan. Totalnya 3 juta. Harga Acer 2930 kalau dirupiahkan 8.120.000. Lumayan. Dihitung-hitung cicilan selama 18 bulan, 372.000. Masih bisa dibayar dengan gaji mengajar. Sekalian saya juga membeli printer Canon Pixma MP145.

Beberapa minggu sebelum membeli laptop, ponsel saya hilang. Nokia 5200. Tak terlalu mahal memang. Tapi sulit untuk dibeli lagi. Niat saya, jika dapat honor, bisa mengganti ponsel ini. Harapan saya makin tinggi. Doa semakin banyak. Kaki dan tangan sering dingin saat buka email.

Tapi dua minggu berlalu, belum ada jawaban.Beberapa hari kemudian, baru sebuah email dari redaksi Kompas datang. Isinya mengabarkan cerpen saya sudah diterima dengan baik. Saya akan diberitahu apakah diterbitkan atau tidak. Saya juga diberitahu untuk tidak mengirim ke kompas@kompas.com lagi.

Saya senang sekali. Meski sempat nyasar dua kali, tapi cerpen sudah sampai ke tempat yang tepat. Sekarang tinggal menunggu dimuat atau tidak. Perkiraan saya, sekitar dua minggu.

Minggu pertama. Saya bangun pagi-pagi. Berniat langsung ke lapak untuk membeli koran. Ternyata di Pontianak, Kompas baru tiba sekitar pukul tiga sore. Saya pulang. Malamnya berburu lagi. Hampir kehabisan. Di lapak yang saya kunjungi, Kompas sisa dua. Buru-buru pulang. Saya membuka koran pelan sekali. Pura-pura tak peduli, apakah cerpen saya dimuat atau tidak. Tapi hati saya berteriak-teriak, “Kalau dimuat, akan saya bingkai, pajang di rumah!” Lima menit berlalu. Barulah saya sampai di halaman Seni. Saya menatap halaman itu lama. Tak ada kata-kata keluar dari bibir saya.

Cerpen yang dimuat Cerita Tentang Hujan.Bukan cerpen saya.

Berarti saya harus menunggu lagi. “Setiap karya ada takdirnya sendiri.” Ini ketiga kalinya dalam seminggu teman saya berkata begitu. Dia agak khawatir sebab saya tiap hari bolak-balik warnet. Lalu pulang dengan wajah cemberut. Kadang menggeleng. Masuk ke minggu ketiga, saya mulai tak “agresif”. Jarang mengecek email. Kalaupun belum ada balasan, saya hanya tersenyum. Menghibur diri sebenarnya. Setiap malam sebelum tidur, saya bergumam,”Setiap karya ada takdirnya sendiri.” Juga sebelum mandi. Juga sebelum mengecek email. Nyaris seperti doa.

Rabu. Tanpa harap saya mengecek email Yahoo. Sekalian mengecek Gmail karena seorang sahabat meninggalkan pesan yang tampaknya penting. Saya agak kaget. Dua-duanya ada satu pesan baru.Seperti biasa, saya menunda membaca email Yahoo, yang mungkin dari Kompas. Saya membuka pesan yang di Gmail dulu. Dari sahabat saya. Barulah setelah tak bisa menghindar lagi—dari rasa penasaran sekaligus takut kecewa—saya membuka kotak masuk Yahoo. Sambil mengatakan dalam hati,”Kalau ditolak, harus kuat!”.

Subjeknya singkat dan jelas. “Pengembalian Artikel”. Yang mengirim Bre Redana, Redakturnya. Saya menguat-nguatkan hati. Selama tiga minggu saya memikirkan bagaimana kalimat yang akan dikirimkan kepada saya nanti. Pernah membuat saya tak tidur semalaman. Saya punya firasat akan ditolak. Tapi seperti yang biasa saya katakana,”Kita tahu. Tapi tak benar-benar paham sebelum terjadi.”

Teman saya menghibur.“Wah, bangga dong dikirimi email oleh Bre Redana. Tak apa tak dimuat. Yang penting, Bre Redana tahu ada penulis cerpen namanya Yauma. Ya?”Saya tak berkata apa-apa

Melihat saya diam, dia melanjutkan,”Jarang patah arang ya? Kita kirim ke Playboy!”

Esoknya saya jadi penasaran, bagaiman cerpen yang Bre Redana kehendaki dan sesuai kompas. Mulailah saya bergerilya di Google. Saat saya ketik Bre Redana untuk melihat cerpen yang dia tulis, malah terbuka beberapa biografi singkat tentangnya.

Yang pertama di situs Djarum Black Innovation Awards. Di sana tertulis, Bre Redana adalah juri Djarum Black Innovation Awards. Kemudian, biografi lebih lengkap dimuat di Laman Pusat Bahasa. Bre Redana mulai menulis sejak kelas 2 STM, yang dikirim ke berbagai media. Karangannya juga coba dikirim ke harian Kompas, tetapi tidak ada satu pun yang diterima. Namun, di Sinar Harapan dan Merdeka-lah ia berjodoh. Tulisannya banyak dimuat.

Ia beroleh honor yang memadai sebagai penulis di harian ibu kota itu.

Ironisnya, baru saja lulus sarjana muda dari Satya Wacana, tahun 1981, Bre Redana malah diterima sebagai wartawan di harian Kompas yang sebelumnya tidak pernah menerima satu pun tulisannya. Bahkan sekarang beliau adalah editor desk non-berita Kompas.

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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

People celebrate their Valentine’s Day differently. Some might go to romantic dinners or sit in the veranda, gazing at the stars while holding hands. Some buy flowers and a box of chocolate as a gift for the loved one. Others will stay at home and see movies in the living room, sitting close to each other, side by side. For them who enjoy romantic movie, there is a wonderful film everyone must see.

The opening story is about a man named Gateau. He was a clock-maker who was born blind. He was making a clock for new train station when his son joined the army. Waiting for him, Gateau seriously built the big clock. But his son never came home. His body is, not his soul.

Under his depression, Gateau finished the clock. When it was showed in front of people, they were surprised for they saw the clock was not moving forward, but backward. What he said was sort of like this,”I made this clock goes backward so that our son who died in war can returned home alive, work in the farm, have children, and live a long life.” All people there stand up, looking at him sympathetically, understand his feeling.

The scene went to another house in New Orleans. It was a celebrated night. The first World War has ended. But in that house, another struggle took place. A woman died straight after she gave birth. His husband wanted to see his son in haste, after knowing the wife’s death. Sadly, the baby was born in peculiar way. He was not young such as a normal baby, yet like an old man. His skin was awfully wrinkled. Frustrated and grieved, Thomas Button, the father, almost killed the baby. But suddenly a harbor police saw him. On the second thought, Thomas put the baby on the old folks’ stairs. He left ten dollars in Benjamin’s blanket. Then he went away.

Quinney, the owner of that house planned to go out with his boyfriend—soon became her husband. He accidentally stepped on the baby. They freaked out looking at the baby’s condition. Quinney soon took the baby into her room. She then decided to adopt him as his son and named him Benjamin.

Benjamin, ‘the old baby’, lived there with the old people. He grew up with the thought that he also an old man, not a boy, because he is not pretty much different from another man there, old and sick. He could hardly walk. But he is as playful as a normal boy.
In that house, he learned many things. The most is about losing the loved one. The old men there were all his best friends. In old folks’, people come and go. Benjamin went to a lot of funeral in his young age.

Time passed. Once, Benjamin met a 10-year-old girl. Her name was Daisy (Cate Blanchett), a granddaughter of an old lady who lived in that house. The first time he saw him, he fell for her. “I will never forget her blue eyes,” he said to himself. He became her friend. After spending time together, they both believed Benjamin was not an old man despite his appearance. They became closer.

One that Benjamin soon realized about his unusual circumstances was the more years, he felt stronger, healthier, and younger. Indeed, Benjamin grew younger. He started to work in a ship named Chelsea. First, the captain doubted him. But, he proved that he could stand to work in a ship. Feeling interested in sailing, he even once invited Daisy when she visited her grandmother. They saw a Sunday morning fog from the ship.

Unhappily, Benjamin should go abroad as a sailor in Chelsea for three years. Before he left, he promised Daisy to send her postcard wherever he went. He did. Therefore, Daisy always knew about his condition. Include, when he fell in love with a married woman in Russia. Daisy, who was studying as a ballerina in New York, was sad. She tried to forget him by practicing. She was a good dancer and also a beautiful woman.

Benjamin, too, became a mature and handsome man. He then came back to New Orleans after his ship was hit by Germany submarine. He was safe. But he lost captain in that attack. That is the first moment he learned about loss. He ran into Daisy when he came home. The love story began. No easy, because Daisy turned into different person. Free and aggressive woman so that Benjamin quite surprised.

Also the major problem is, how can they be together while one gets older and the other gets younger? That is the answer you should find by yourself.

This movies successfully played Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. The story was written based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It makes the story more amazing since many movies was derived from books—most of them very thick. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button nominated for 13 Academy Award and Global Award. In addition, this movie won awards from Houston Film Critics Association for Best Movie and Best Cinematography categories, National Board of Review in Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay categories.

Photo: thaborderlands.blogspot.com

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