"dalam hati awak ada siapa?"

"dalam hati saya ada darah laaaaa."

okay, cerita pasal cempedak. this is a story about a pregnant women yang sangat sangat mengidam for cempedak. just a cempedak. bukan durian merah ke, langsat thailand ke, bukan.

"sayang, bring me back some fried cempedak when you get back, will you?"

"yah sure! anything darling."

"you promise?"

"i promise!"

and the wife spend all day just thinking about the cempedak. she imagine the squishy sweetness of the cempedak, the rubbery but yielding seed and not to mention the crunchier bits outside. ah, tak sabarnya!

berkat kesabaran, her husband got back with a brown paper in his hand. it was his habit not to use plastic bags. see how responsible he was? awwwwww. she kissed him and take the brown bag, eagerly. but wait a minute. is her eyes playing trick on her?

"sayang, this is not cempedak" (trying to keep her voice level)

"oh, i know. the road was a bit jammed. so i went to this stall that was nearer."

"a stall that didnt have cempedak." (it should be a question but it seems rather a statement)

"it's nangka. they are almost the same anyway!"

"they're not the same!" (her voice was no longer level)

her husband went away for shower and he stopped to look at her.

"is this what they call mengidam? like the story of..... who was it, Dang Wangi? where the sultan had her stomach cut open?"

he actually smiled! how could he be so smug?!

"if you grew up in a kampong, you'd know the difference between cempedak and nangka!"

"ah, its my fault to be a city kid. sorry babe. i promised i'll get you cempedak next time."

"and it wasnt Dang Wangi. it was Daang Anum!"

"right. i forgot. Dang Wangi is that tragic legend about the police station."

ah, that's not the point. how could he be so casual? if he could ignore a specific request so easily, what sort of husband and father would they turn out to be? what if he ended up taking another baby home from the hospital? because, after all, any two babies are "almost the same, anyway?"

"hey darl, it's not just any nangka, you know." he said. drawing her close. squeezing her as much as he thought safe. he whispered in her ear. "its nangka madu. because you're such a honey."

oh now, you're talking about madu lah?