Balkis vs Danial

Bab 15 ❀

Jadud ketawa. "Ouch, babe. A way to go and stab my heart."

Senyum. Syringe-syringe di dalam kotak dipindahkan ke dalam peti kecemasan. Sterile bandage turut disumbat sekali. "Why don't you go and do the counts on penicillin or something?" Dia memukul tangan Jadud yang tidak berglove dari menyentuh syringe. "Hands off my syringe, man."

"Qis, I wanna watch some pornnnnnnn."

Balqis ketawa. "Right after your Friday prayer, or is it before?"

Jadud turut ketawa. "Ouch, ouch and ouch. Malcolm X wouldn't have said it better."

"Well, I figured Gambini wouldn't be too thrilled to find out you tuning in to Playboy Channel on his satellite dish, dude," tutur Balqis, merujuk kepada ketua jabatan hospital di kampung itu.

"Oh, would he be thrilled if we switch to ESPN instead? I heard Milan is so going to kick Liverpool's ass, y'all."

"Hey, no dissing my Liverpool leading men, okay?" tutur Balqis, dia menala syringe ke wajah Jadud.

Jadud sengih. "You Brits are too much. Now, Giants are IT, Qis. I tell ya, you're gonna hook up with American Football fine, girl. Now, this is the real sport for men."

Balqis ketawa. "Do you realize you're not making any sense with your grammar, dude? Even my first graders know not to put 'it' and 'are' in the same sentence," gurau Balqis. "And typical Yankee you are. Oh, my bad. Isn't that the rounders team or something?"

Jadud ketawa berdekah-dekah. "It's baseee – balll. Sheesh, Yankees are so gonna whip yo' ass, girl."

"Save whipping my ass for later. Can you please check on Jas before she gets the thread up in a bundle and choke up on it?" ujar Balqis, tersengih. Dia menuding ke arah Jasmin yang sedang menjahit luka seorang lelaki tua di sudut bilik.

"Damn. I saw her knots the other day, I thought she's trying on cross-stitching on the poor dude," tutur Jadud. Dia bingkas bangun menuju ke arah Jasmin.

Balqis ketawa lagi. "I'm telling! Jas!"

Lapan minit berlalu.

"Yeah, right. Cross-stitching, huh? Then what are these? Knitting?"

Jasmin ketawa. "Right on, babe."

Jadud menarik muka. Terkial-kial jarinya cuba untuk mematikan jahitan luka lelaki itu. "Lack of practice, that's all," ujarnya, yakin.

"Yeah? Move big guy, let the lady handles this job," tutur Jasmin, sambil menolak Balqis untuk duduk di kerusi di hadapannya.

Balqis menggeleng-gelengkan kepala. Dia mengambil hujung benang dari tangan Jadud. Surgical knots, sekelip mata, siap. Lelaki di hadapannya menarik nafas lega. Mereka tersengih.

"Pesaroso," tutur Balqis, tersenyum.

Sebaik sahaja lelaki itu beredar, Balqis menjeling ke arah sahabat-sahabatnya. Tersenyum.

Jasmin ketawa. "Itu material zaman bila-bila ntah. Mana aku nak ingat maa. Ko kan terer jahit-menjahit ni. Jahit luka, jahit kain, jahit butang."

"There ya go. That alien language again. Go on, just pretend I'm not here."

Jasmin dan Balqis serentak ketawa. "We love you too, big guy," tutur Jasmin.

Jadud tersengih. "What I would do without you guys?" Dia mengemas jarum, benang, bandage, botol antiseptic dan Novocain di atas meja. "Wanna jet off to Istanbul this weekend? I wanna check out the Garcia dude you've been salivating over."