ROTTEN

Chapter 2

“Dad, what is a sidra?”

The question slipped out of Audrey’s mouth as she ate breakfast with her father. Rendra didn’t respond. He simply continued eating his rice, fried egg, and fried chicken.

Audrey frowned in confusion.

“Dad?”

Still no answer.

Audrey lowered the spoon in her hand onto her plate.

“I asked you, what is a sidra?” she repeated.

“Finish your breakfast first, Audrey.”

“But answer me fir—”

“Enough. Just eat.”

Audrey glared at her father. She hated it when he refused to answer her questions, as though he weren’t even listening to her.

“Why won’t you tell me?”

“Because you don’t need to know.”

“Why not?!”

“It’s an adult matter.”

Audrey furrowed her brow even further.

“An adult matter? What does that mean?”

Rendra sighed heavily. “Forget it. Just let it go.”

“Why should I forget it?! You're the one who said it yesterday!”

Audrey leaned forward across the table, determined to get an answer.

“So, what is a sidra? Is it some kind of spirit? Or...?”

“That’s enough.”

“Dad! Just tell me!”

“Audrey.”

“Come on! What is a sidra?!”

Finally losing her patience, Audrey slammed her hands against the table, startling Rendra in the middle of his meal.

“Dad! Answer me!!”

CLANG!

Rendra threw his spoon and fork onto his plate, his own temper flaring at the sound of the table being struck and his daughter’s relentless questioning.

“I already told you! You don’t need to know! It’s an adult matter!”

“What do you mean, an adult matter?! It’s not like I'm asking you what s*x is!”

BANG!!

Rendra shot to his feet, sending his chair toppling backward.

“You have absolutely no respect for your father!” he shouted furiously.

Audrey froze for a moment, but her anger quickly returned.

“Then stop treating me like a little kid!!”

Rendra pressed his lips together, seething with anger.

“Fine! From now on, go to school by yourself!”

With that, he stormed off to collect his belongings before leaving for work.

Audrey scowled. You've got to be kidding me! If she hadn't overheard her father's muttering the previous day, she wouldn't have been haunted by the question in the first place.

Her boundless curiosity often annoyed her father, but Audrey considered it one of her greatest strengths. Thanks to her inquisitive nature, she knew more than most of her classmates and was often regarded as a clever girl. Unfortunately, that didn’t apply when she asked her father questions. He wasn’t the kind of person who would explain things just because someone asked.

Undeterred, Audrey sets off for school alone, already planning to ask everyone in the village about sidra.

***

“Sidra? What’s that?”

“Never heard of it.”

“Is that a character from a movie or a book?”

“Is it someone’s name?”

“Maybe it’s someone you know.”

The answers she received from the villagers were utterly useless. Audrey felt as though her head was about to explode. From the moment she left for school until she returned home, she couldn’t find a single person in the village who knew what a sidra was. She was certain the word had something to do with the man she had seen the previous day, but she couldn’t figure out what the connection was.

Whenever she told her friends about what had happened in the forest, they asked her to point out the man she was talking about. But he had vanished without a trace.

The adults, meanwhile, dismissed her story as a dream or an overactive imagination. After all, she was still just a child.

Her curiosity about sidra remained unsatisfied.

Everyone knew about the strange incident involving the blue fire that had appeared in the middle of the teak forest. Most people assumed it was the work of a buto. But none of them knew the truth. After all, Audrey was the only one who had witnessed what had really happened.

Frustrated, she threw her schoolbag onto her bed as soon as she arrived home, then flopped onto the floor and grabbed fistfuls of her hair.

“Argh! How can nobody know what a sidra is?!” she grumbled.

Rolling around on the floor, she spotted her favorite binder notebook near her study desk. She grabbed it along with a pencil and began sketching the two figures she had seen the day before. Her drawings weren’t particularly good, but at least it was easy enough to tell which one was the monster and which one was the human. She also filled the pages with questions about the two figures.

Before she knew it, time had flown by. Eventually, she fell asleep on the floor, her head resting on one hand.

It was eight o’clock in the evening. Rendra arrived home later than he had the previous day and headed to his daughter’s room. He found Audrey asleep on the floor. A faint smile crossed his face before he gently woke her.

“Drey, wake up. Come on, go change your clothes.”

Audrey rubbed her eyes and slowly got to her feet. Still half-asleep, she grabbed her pajamas and shuffled toward the bathroom while Rendra tidied up her room.

As he straightened things out, a drawing in Audrey’s binder caught his eye. He picked it up and studied the picture before shifting his gaze to the questions scribbled around it.

What is a sidra? Is it human?

Was that monster yesterday a buto?

How can a human produce fire from their hands?

Is it some kind of supernatural creature?

Why won’t Dad tell me about sidra?

The last question … It pierced his heart.

Rendra had deliberately avoided explaining anything about sidra, hoping his daughter would forget about the incident and return to her usual routine. Instead, the blue fire had left an indelible impression on her young mind, driving her to ask more and more questions.

He could have told Audrey everything.

He could have explained what sidra were.

He could have told her what she had really seen in the teak forest that day.

He could have explained why the man with the blue flames had suddenly appeared there.

But Rendra chose to remain silent. He closed the binder and placed it back on her study desk.

Unbeknownst to him, his decision to keep the truth from his daughter would become the first of many tragic mistakes—one he would come to regret for years to come.