Indayani began to fashion layang-layang for the village children. She wanted to see smiles, impart happiness. The thought of childhood suffering unsettled her.

She would delicately bend a bambu shaft, securing it. The children loved her for it. They said anyone could fly one of her layang-layang, but that anyone with skill could fly her layang-layang higher than any other.

When she began, the layang-layang were all the color of her daughters' room. Noticing the special kertas of that color was what had brought her to making layang-layang.

Sometimes in the dark, quiet house she would lie her head on the table beside the bambu and the kertas for the layang-layang. Silent tears. It was taking lunch to her husband that stopped the tears.

Most days now he carried his lunch to the sawah, so she would not have to come there. But some days either she would insist he have a warm lunch or something beyond control would delay his lunch's preparation. And so he would leave. And later she would carry the simple canvas bag her older daughter had once carried.

The sawah was uncomfortable. She often could not share lunch with her husband there. Her stomach tightened and small twinges unsettled her. She sometimes sat behind and to the right of him, waiting, thinking of the table at home, and watching some bug on the ground or a stalk yielding to the wind. Other times she would leave to gather peppers or leaves from another sawah. And her husband would bring the dishes in the canvas later when he returned.



End Desa Cycle



The ordering of the Desa Cycle was generated by Random.Org

disclaimer: This work does not reflect the United States Peace Corps, the United States government, nor the government of Indonesia.