1992

"This is your turn, Tala. You're the last."

Embun Sitala Laluna fell silent when she saw the thick red liquid dripping from the edge of the knife to the ground. The girl who was in the same age as Tala was still holding the knife. She grimaced. Near her wrist, the blood poured after she formed an incision of a symbol of number six or ṣaṭ in numerical Sanskrit. It was like painting with the red ink and left it spilling to wet her left hand.

"Dana, hand the knife to Tala." The sweet-faced black-haired girl gave the knife to Tala. Her hand froze in the air, but Tala just stared at it blankly.

"Tala," said Ara while she patted Tala's shoulder. Ara knew Tala might not hear it.

Tala just woke up from her reverie. She nodded, then took the knife. She paid attention to the old book that showed the symbol of number seven or sapta in Sanskrit Numbers. Then slowly, she drew the symbol on her left hand with the knife.

Tala jabbed the edge of the knife a little far away from her artery. Her hand danced slowly on her skin like she was carving. Tala grimaced. A stream of thick red liquid flowed from her hand. Pain started to spread. Droplets of her blood fell onto the grass on the ground. The grass was slightly disturbed when a liquid fell to wet it. Tala continued to slice her skin and moved her hand until the symbol was successfully sculpted perfectly in her hand.

For a few moments, Tala was stunned by the beautiful red color that looked like the color of a red roses. Tala raised her head. This time, Ara was smiling. Tala's blue eyes returned to look at Ara's mouth that was moving enthusiastically.

"Now, stretch out your left hand in front of you."

They did what Ara was saying. Tala looked at her sisters one by one. She looked at Ara, Bina, Ceria, Rona, Gita, and Dana. They sat in a circle. Ara immediately touched the blood on her left hand, drew a line with the blood to the side, until the blood crossed to the hand of a short-haired girl like a man's haircut. She was Bina. Ara's blood blended with Bina's blood. Then, Bina drew a line with the blood back to the side and blended the rest of her blood to Ceria's blood. And so on, until Dana drew her blood to Tala's hand and Tala combined her blood back to Ara. The lines they drew with blood formed a circle, though not so perfect.

Tala looked at Ara from the side. Ara's mouth was moving.

"Now, we're officially sisters. We're the seven sisters. Sisters forever."

***

1999

Tala sighed. She was looking at her reflection in a large mirror. Black hair tied in a high ponytail with bangs covering her forehead, dazzling dark blue eyes, tiny body wrapped in jeans and oversized black T-shirt. Perfect, she thought, at least for herself. Although, she was still looking shabby. She wasn't the type of a girl who liked to wear a knee-length dress. She preferred to wear an oversized short-sleeved t-shirt that was black this time. Black was more suitable to describe her.

Tala grabbed a pair of red sneakers that were just as worn-out as her clothes. Her socks were hollow at the thumb. She wore the shocks, pulled her backpack and an oversized blue jeans jacket. She quickly wore her jacket and draped her backpack over her shoulder. While she was carrying the rotten sneakers that were about to tear, she stepped into the kitchen, opened the food storage, took a piece of bread and she also took a glass of water. While was sitting, she bit the bread several times and drank the water until it ran out.

Her life was quite perfect, at least for herself. Although most people looked at her sadly, she didn't really care.

She came out of her house, put on her sneakers, tied the shoelaces, then walked to a bicycle—which was more like a junk—parked in front of her house. This bicycle was unsightly with red paint and there was peeling and rusting part, but Tala was still grateful to be able to go to work or whatever places she wanted to go by this bicycle, at least to save her money. This bicycle was given by her neighbor, an old woman named Susi, the only neighbor she often greeted and talked to because her other neighbors preferred to whisper and look at Tala in disgust. Either out of jealousy at Tala's beauty, felt annoyed because they always being ignored, or maybe because they knew that Tala couldn't hear what they were talking about, so they could talk about Tala as they pleased.

Tala was never bothered, and again, she didn't care at all.

Maybe a lot of people were asking why she didn't buy hearing aids. Tala's answer was very simple. Her salary was used up to pay her own life. At least, Tala felt proud that she could buy a small house after years of saving money.

Tala once had several jobs. She was once a dishwasher, an employee at a car and motorbike washing place, a cashier at a convenience store, delivered newspapers, and the last was working in a flower shop. All of those jobs didn't seem to suit her.

She couldn't hear and her eyes were too focused on washing dishes when the boss called, so she was fired. She was harassed too often by male customers in the car wash who came to wash their cars and motorbikes at first, but ended up trying to lure Tala into a date, even tried to touch her while she was doing her job, and it made her sick. So she resigned. She got teased a lot, too, as a cashier, so she resigned again. Delivering newspapers actually suited her, but the salary was too small, so she ended the job. The last one is her work up to now and for her, it had been the most perfect job, which was working in a flower shop.

Working in a flower shop might be one of her dreams. First, she really liked flower. Second, the flower shop's owner where she worked was a modest and very kind widowed woman. Her name is Mrs. Tiwi. Third, she was in charge of keeping the flowers and arranging them for customers, also sometimes delivering orders to customers' houses. She rarely got teased, maybe because most of the customers already had a mate. Even if someone teased her, Mrs. Tiwi would immediately take over Tala's work to serve customers. Tala really liked her job.

Tala pedaled her bicycle. A few moments later, she turned her head to the left and smiled when she saw an old woman who was watering her flowers, "Good morning, Mrs. Susi."

Mrs. Susi looked at her. She also smiled and returned the greeting, "Good morning too, Tala. You are so beautiful today."

Tala would not hear her words, because she had already stared straight to the street in front of her. Nevertheless, Mrs. Susi never thought about it, because she knew the condition of Tala's ears. Tala only understood what other people were talking about if she saw their lip movements.

Tala continued to pedal her bicycle until she found a flower shop on the side of the road that was not too far from her house. Actually, she could just walk to the flower shop, but the reason why she still used her bicycle was if Mrs. Tiwi asked her to deliver flowers to customers' house.

Tala stopped and parked her bicycle in front of the blue painted flower shop. A large windowpane made the fresh cut-flowers placed inside looked beautiful from outside the shop. Some colorful flowers with small pots were placed on the wooden shelves in front of the shop and left exposed to sunlight. She always loved the smell of fresh flower inside and outside the shop. The flower shop named Swarga was a small paradise for Tala. She was always eager to come to this place early in the morning just to water flowers or give the fertilizer.

When customers came and ordered, she would immediately arrange the floral for their loved ones. Saw the happiness of the customers who were waiting patiently for Tala to arrange the floral would always make her happy. She liked to see their sweet smile when they saw the beautiful flower arrangements made by Tala.

Tala pushed the glass door. The small bell hanging at the top of the door danced sweetly and ringed beautifully, but Tala still wouldn't know what the bell sounds like. "Good morning, Mrs. Tiwi."

The woman was seen tidying up the position of the flowers. She smiled brightly when she saw Tala arrived. "Good morning, beautiful. Have you had breakfast? I made some breakfast this morning."

Tala read Mrs. Tiwi's mouth, then answered, "I already have some breakfast, Ma'am. Thank you for the offer." She hung her jacket and her backpack on a hanging pole rack, then she took the watering can on the shelf behind the customer reception desk.

"I'm pretty sure you only had a piece of bread as usual," said Mrs. Tiwi after Tala turned to look at her again.

"I can accompany you to eat, but sorry, I don't eat, Ma'am. I'm full."

"Come onnn... just a minute."

Tala was about to answer, but Mrs. Tiwi's face turned to the door. Apparently, someone had come in. Tala did the same thing as Mrs. Tiwi.

A tall twenty-five-year-old man with thick eyebrows that framed his soft eyes and had a firm jaw was about to say something, but instead, he quietly stared at Tala. He was just like a little boy who was stunned while staring at a giant candy.

The man was wearing a plain white shirt with long sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Even though his sleeves were rolled up, he still looked neat. The cloth pants were light brown. The pants looked like they had just been ironed. His black hair was combed neatly. His face looked fresh. His skin is brown and his body was athletic. He was more like an office employee who came on his first day of work.

"Welcome, Sir. Can I help you?" Tala tried to smile.

The man was still silent. Precisely, he was amazed at Tala.

"Are you going to order floral arrangements, Sir?" This time, Mrs. Tiwi asked.

Finally, the man regained consciousness. He cleared his throat while scratching awkwardly behind is the non-itchy head. "Um, sorry. I'm not looking for the floral arrangements. I'm looking for Ms. Embun Sitala Laluna. According to the information that I got, she works here."

"It's true. I'm Embun Sitala Laluna. Why are you looking for me?" Tala raised her right eyebrow. She has never been looked for with a very neat-looking and looked smart guy with polite words.

The man stepped closer. He reached into his pocket to retrieve his identification card. But, because he was too nervous, he dropped his own ID like a fool. Tala thought she had to take back her words that saying this man looked smart.

The man picked up his ID and acted as if nothing happened. Mrs. Tiwi held back her laugh when she saw the man.

"I'm Damar Irsyad Lazuardi. I'm detective assigned by the police to handle a case that happened this early morning," he said. Then, he was showing his ID card with a silly face.

Detective? He doesn't look that smart. He is more like an apprentice who was told by his boss to buy some coffee.

"May I have your time for a while? There are some questions that I want to ask you, Miss." The young detective turned to Mrs. Tiwi, "May I talk to her for a while, Ma'am?"

"Go ahead." Mrs. Tiwi nodded. "Tala, just put it there. I will water the flowers."

Tala nodded, her eyes diverted to the detective again. "We're talking outside."

The detective trailed Tala. Tala invited the detective to sit on a long chair next to the wooden shelves filled with flower pots.

The detective stared at Tala again. Tala sighed angrily, feeling uncomfortable being looked at like that. "So, what do you want to ask and ... what cases are related to me?"

"Yes, this early morning a woman who was killed was found hanging in a room."

A case of a woman hanging herself? Who is he talking about? Tala asked in the heart. She was a little worried.

The detective cleared his throat after being reprimanded by Tala. "Do you know Arawinda Biru?"

Tala paused for a moment. Morning wind hit her face. Today seemed to be cloudy. The sun hid behind dark clouds. Maybe it would rain soon.

"Y-yeah ... what's wrong?" Tala tried to remain positive.

No, there must be something else. Ara couldn't have had commit suicide. No.

"We found her dead in her friend's house. She was hung by her throat. Her friend was called Fulmala Rosa Merona. Or perhaps, I could say she is her 'sister'? Although, they don't have any blood relations. Miss Rona said, you also have a very close relationship to her like a sister."

Tala stared at his reddish thick lips. His lips kept moving, but it seemed that Tala lost her ability to read a person's lips movements, especially when she caught the words 'we found her dead' and 'hung by her throat'. Her gaze was blurred because tears began to pool in the eyelids. Her breath choked up. She also had difficulty swallowing her saliva herself.

The morning breeze was getting colder. The desolate suddenly came back and locked Tala like a long time ago. Ara's smile was clearly reflected in her mind. She only met Ara a month ago and she just looked fine. Nothing unusual.

"Ms. Luna? May I call you Ms. Luna?" asked Detective Damar.

Pooling tears finally fell too. The longer it got heavy. Rain suddenly dropped, as if it was crying for another bad luck that had befallen to Tala. Tala would never be able to meet Ara again. She would never be able to see her sister's sweet smile.

For years, Tala tried to come back for her new life. Although Ara parted away from Tala to reach her dreams to become a journalist, they still often met and sent letters. Ara liked to tell her about her work and dreams, so did Tala. Tala lost one sister figure who always looked after her. She had lost Ara forever.

Damar looked utterly bemused. He didn't know what to do when he saw Tala crying in silent. He took the handkerchief he always put in his pants pocket.

"Ara won't kill herself. She isn't someone like that," said Tala after a few minutes in silence. She still tried to hold back her sobs even though tears kept falling. "She won't kill herself. She won't," she repeated.

Detective Damar sighed. "I think so. I think this isn't a suicide case. That's why I came to ask you this." He wanted to give his handkerchief to Tala, but Tala didn't take it. His right hand was frozen awkwardly.

"No, thank you. I'm okay." Tala refused the handkerchief politely. "And I'm sorry, what did you say? Where was she found?" Tala was still trying to control her emotions.

"She was found in Ms. Fulmala Rosa Merona's house at three o'clock in the morning."

Tala bit her lower lip. "But Ara doesn't know the address of Rona's house. We almost never seeing her again anymore."

"I'm sorry. All of you?"

Tala wiped away her tears, then nodded. "The six of us have never been in touch with Rona since a few years ago," she insisted.

***