For a moment Udin and Bambang just gazed at Hermanto in silence. Then they glanced at Achmad and turned their faces away from Hermanto without saying a word.
Hermanto looked at them in astonishment. He had never seen his two friends act so strangely before. “Why are you both silent? Why don’t you say anything?”
Achmad said nothing, continuing to stare silently at Hermanto. Into the room where the four of them sat, something mysterious and uncanny seemed to have crept, permeating the room with a chilly darkness. For an instant Hermanto felt as though he were in a remote and eerie world, that he was sitting there with strange creatures, scarcely human beings at all.
Hermanto was still for a moment, trying to disentangle his bewilderment. Then, in a rush, he was swept by anger. “Why don’t
