The Kite Master

It was dry season; everyone spent the noon by sleeping or watching TV because it was very hot out there. However, it was not what kids felt, they had more and more amusing way to spend it. The sky was so clear, looked so blue like an ocean without edges, the grasses and leaves looked like painted by bucket gold paint in their eyes. They enjoyed what nature gave to them.

Smelling the baked soil by the sun and enjoying the wind, Sastro ran quickly chasing the flown kite with other kids happily. The rule was one, “the runner who gets the kite first is the owner of it”. He spiritfully ran and yelled, imaging that he was a power ranger, the blue ranger of power ranger turbo. He was keeping ran and smiling realizing that he was the fastest. The kite fell down and almost came to the field but unfortunately, the wind blew it to the top of the tree. Well, there was it, hanging on the tree, the coconut tree. Sastro walked to the tree, kept looking to the kite and waited someone who wanted to pick the kite up to him.

“Hey, look! That’s the kite!” The other kid yelled.
“That’s mine!”
“No! It belongs to me!”

“Why don’t you take it? Can you climb it?”
“I cannot”
“That’s why it belongs to me. I can climb coconut tree.”
“Well, it is yours.”

“Hahaha… Why don’t we play it together?”

The kids ran and yelled happily for the kite they found. They tied the nylon string and then flew it by the wind from the west. Smiles and laughs arose when the kite swing again in the sky beautifully. Sastro learned that it was better to enjoy the happiness together.

In the next dry seasons, Sastro was growing older. He was a teenager but he still loved kite. As usual, in the Sunday morning, he came to the rice field. Nothing he could find else a drained field. There were no fishes, rice, crabs, or shrimps. Then Agus came approaching him.

“What are you doing here Sastro?”
“Nothing. I am wondering where the fishes hid? I love fishes.”
“Hey, this is dry season, they are all disappeared and will return at wet season.”
“Yeah you are right.”

“So, are you come with me?”
“Where do we go?”
“I have got a new kite, my father bought me yesterday. I need your help.”
“Really? Of course!”

Sastro happily followed Agus to see the kite. He was shocked because there was a big kite colored black and red with very long tails in the bottom. Mr. Bromo approached them and asked whether Sastro like or not. Sastro replied that he loved it so much. Then they went to the field to fly it. The first trial was not working because there was no enough wind. Mr. Bromo and Agus seemed confused but Sastro had a clever idea. He asked Mr. Bromo to walk more and further to make an enough distance for reaching the top wind. Agus and Sastro held the kite carefully until Mr. Bromo gave the sign. The nylon lined between them so strong and then the two kids released it by the sign given. Slowly and steady, the kite was reaching the sky where the wind blew.

“Want to drive it?”
“Yes, of course.” Said the boys happily

“Sastro, how do you know it if it will be worked?”
“I don’t know Sir, I just imagine it.”
“Well, that’s genius.”
“That’s why I ask him to help us Dad.”

“I just love kite. That’s it hehehe.”

Sastro loved kite so much. He was always excited when many kites flew in the sky, arranging a randomly but beautifully pattern that seemed like stars in the noon. Unfortunately, Sastro did not have any kite because his parent would never allowed him to buy or make it, worrying that he would play rather than study. Sastro knew it and had no choice. Nevertheless, today he was so happy because he could play a big kite, the biggest kite he had ever seen. It was enough for him, remembering years where he just could saw the kite and today he drove it. Pulling the nylon felt like fishing in his imagination. It was hard for him for the first time; he could not handle it when the top wind blew faster and faster. The deeper he pulled, the heavier it would. Moreover, the kite almost dragged him to somewhere. That was the very moment to him.

The day was going to noon, Sastro decided to go back to home because he knew that usually his mother would be angry. He walked slowly and slowly reaching the door. Quietly he opened the door, without any noisy sound. The door was opened, he looked around and no one there. The first stage was successful. Then he moved to his room, again, slowly and quietly. When he tried to open his room, the smell of his favorite food was reminding him that he had not had his breakfast at the morning. He reached the dining room, found the pot, opened it, and smiled. Then he saw legs under the curtain and recognized it. The last stage was not successful by the unbeaten distracter, the soup.

“I am sorry Mom.”
“How do you know it?” The curtain opened.
“I see your legs.”

“Where have you’ve been?”
“Agus’s house”

“You must be playing kite!”
“I can’t play kite in the house Mom.”
“Oh, that is good.”
“But I played it in the field.”

“Oh, come on, you are in the third grade now! You will have national examination, won’t you?”
“It is my hobby Mom; I will be the kite master in the competition.”
“Hmm… Enough, it is better to eat your soup now.”
“Okay Mom.”

Dry season in this time brought hotter waves. The river, the grass, the leaves, and the others were quickly dried. It was hard to get clean water because the well was getting dried too. Everyone in the village needed and looked for the same thing, water, as the most important element in their life. All of people knew if there was one way to solve it. A pump well was not dag by human but machine, so that they could reach the underground water. Unfortunately, the cost was too expensive for people like them.

Sastro was wondering how to get very much money at instance. He walked around the house, hung in the tree, and finally sat down under the tree and closed his eyes imaging something. He saw a bamboo, nylon, paper, and plane. The plane was so huge and beautiful. It flew around the sky, showed its shines and glory. Then a giant comes, trying to break the plane and chasing him. He screams aloud but no one listen. Finally the giant grabs him by hand.

“Woooaaaa!!!” Sastro screamed aloud.

“Hey Sastro wake up, it is me, Agus.”
“I saw something!”
“I saw a stupid boy sleeping alone under the tree.”

“I was not sleeping.”
“Yes, you were. What did you see?”

“Bamboo, nylon, paper, and plane. And a giant like you hahaha.”
“Very funny. Well, you must be dreaming too.”
“Yup, maybe. What are you doing here?”
“What do you think about the kite competition? Will you join it?”
“I really want it but you know, my parent will not allow me.”
“Oh come on, it is just a few days and we will get a much prizes.”

“Like what?”
“A collection of combat kite of course and the most valuable one, the cash”
“How much?”
“I am not sure but the rumor said that it is enough to build a pump well.”

Six days later, Sastro and Agus came to the kite competition committees for the first time. They wondered to follow the competition and win it. Surprisingly, the two boys also saw the champions and their kites surrounded by people, seemed very happy, and enjoyed their popularity. How great the kite competition they thought. They registered at beautiful kite contest, the contest that allowed the participants to make a unique kite based on their creativity. The rule was so simple; it must be original and could fly steadily in the sky.

The kite competition held in every dry season where there was no rain and wind blew more often. It was the most popular event among the villages, included the village where Sastro and Agus lived. There were hundreds of participants and thousands of audience. The winner of each branch of competition will get title “master” until the next competition and they were not allowed to join the competition until new “master” chosen. For the prize, it was always been a mystery because the committee thought that a prize should be a surprise and no one should know. Nevertheless, all of people always enjoyed it and the participants were not too thinking about the prize because being a master was an honor.

The date of competition was about a month again. Sastro had much time to prepare but too short to make his parent allowed him to follow the kite competition. One day in the night, he tried to talk about it again.

“Mom…”
“Yes…”
“May I talk to you?”
“I know and the answer is still no!”

“Why?”
“The national examination is two weeks after the competition, you must choose to study rather than your competition.”
“But I could do both of them Mom, every teenagers join it.”
“They don’t think about future.”

“The masters are so famous Mom.”
“Does famous pay your school?!”
“No”

“You know what! life is so hard in the dry season. We are lack of clean water and the prices of some needs arise. Please, don’t waste what we have been collected for you.”
“Yeah I know it.”

Sastro locked himself in the room and felt so depressed because of it. He knew that national examination was very important but the situation around him was more important. Other villages might be still having clean water supply. What about his village? No one had a pump well, so that people should go too far away to find the clean water including his family. He hoped so much for the prize of competition .

“Knock… Knock… Knock….” somebody knocked the door from the outside.
“Ehemm… May I come in?”
“Yes”

“Do you like kite?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Mee too.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I was also a master when I was young.”
“Then why do you forbid me to play it father?
“I become so lazy and I only think about my kite when the dry season comes. I got bad marks for some subjects. I ignore it, feel like nothing is happened until I graduated and find that looking for a job is not easy.”

“I know it and I know mother does not believe me that I could manage my time and keep study hard.”
“Yeah, that is you mother should be but you can prove it.”

“What do you mean father?”
“I believe that you could be the master and pass the national examination well.”
“Really? Thank you Papa.”

Sastro and Agus worked hardly to make their kite. They tried to measuring and weighing precisely to get the perfect shape. Several testing were done, some of them were failed but they were not surrender. Sastro studied harder than before. He always woke up at 03.00 a.m to pray and study because after school he should finish his project with Agus. After 3 weeks and 4 days, the kite was ready. They smiled and were not patient to show it in the competition.

The day of competition came. Sastro and Agus, the two boys felt so nervous because their competitors had a very beautiful kites. They walked to the edge and waited their turn to fly the kite and then the competition was begun. The audiences yelled happily, when the kites of the participants started to fly one by one. Sastro and Agus were excited too and they were still not believe if today they were join it as the participants. Unfortunately, bad thing happened. Sastro forgot to bring the nylon and the time was 10 minutes left. He got shocked and Agus tried to calm him. However, Sastro still looked so confused until someone approached and called him.

“Do you forget it?”
“Mom?”
“Ya… I know that you always forget to bring something in your big day.”

“But Mom, why do you coming here?”
“Papa ask me to enjoy the competition and want to see your kite.”
“Thank you Mom.”

Sastro and Agus prepared the kite in the field. Then it was their turn to fly. Everyone looked so shocked to see what they made. Some kids yelled happily to see the uncommon kite. Well, they were not build kite at all, they built a plane. A very beautiful plane that amazed thousands eyes of people, which fly as the distinction among the others. The plane flew beautifully and steadily in the sky, inviting the good comments from the people.

“Fantastic!”
“That is great! Yahoo!”
“Good job fellas!”

The competition was over, Sastro and Agus became the master for their genius work. They got a series of combat kite and a cow. Agus thought that they must be held a party by roasting the cow together with the entire village’s people but Sastro had a more brilliant idea. He asked to sell the cow and then build a pump well for village’s people. So, they would be easier to get the clean water. Agus agreed and then they talked the plan to the people in the village. As what they expected, all of the people were very happy.