The top officials of Neighborhood Unit 01 at Unforgettable Memories Estates were grinning from ear to ear as they stepped out of Mrs. Siska's house, the most fashionable socialite in the neighborhood complex.
Their mission had succeeded!
"Thank God... We managed to get an extra two hundred fifty thousand bucks from Mrs. Siska," Fadil's Mom said, rubbing her face with both hands.
"Yeah. Mrs. Siska is so nice, yeah!" Mrs. Astuti chimed in.
"Turns out finding money is that easy," Mrs. Ayu said, gazing up at the clear sky.
Flashback
"Assalamu alaikum, Mrs. Siska!" the trio of Neighborhood Unit officials called out together.
"Wa alaikum salam! Oh, ladies! Come on in!" Mrs. Siska opened the door with a radiant smile.
"Thanks!"
The three of them entered, exchanging sly glances.
"What brings you ladies here?" Mrs. Siska asked warmly.
"Well... Oh, isn't that the expensive bag all those celebrities on TV wear?" As luck would have it, Mrs. Ayu spotted their target sitting on the living room sofa.
"Oh, this... Yeah, I guess. But my friends say it's CHEAP!" Mrs. Siska said, emphasizing the word CHEAP.
"Says who? It costs tens of millions. How can you call that cheap? If you turned that money into rice, it could buy a hundred fifty sacks of five-kilo premium rice! If you only cooked half a kilo a day, you could eat for fifteen hundred days—that's fifty months!"
No wonder Fadil's Mom was the treasurer. This woman was incredible with numbers.
"Really? It's that expensive?" Mrs. Siska's face flushed with pleasure at having someone recognize how much her bag cost.
"Yeah. If my husband bought me a beautiful bag this expensive, I'd hug him tight every night," Mrs. Astuti said, making her two friends choke on their own spit.
"Oh, Mrs. Astuti, you're too much!" Mrs. Siska waved her hand coyly.
"Oh, what would you ladies like to drink? I completely forgot to offer you something," Mrs. Siska said.
"Anything's fine, ma'am. But if you have something sweet, that'd be great. We already had plain water at Mrs. Neighborhood Chair's house," Fadil's Mom blurted out.
Mrs. Ayu shot her a withering look.
"Oh, right, right. Just a minute!" Mrs. Siska ducked into the back for a moment and returned with three bottles of pulpy orange drink.
"Help yourselves!"
The three women immediately grabbed a bottle each without needing to be asked twice.
"Oh, right, what did you ladies need at my house?" Mrs. Siska asked.
"Here's the thing, Mrs. Siska. You know we're planning to hold contests to celebrate our country's Independence Day anniversary. So we've come to ask for your willingness to help add to the contest prizes for the children and the mothers. But this isn't an obligation, ma'am. Whatever you can spare!" Mrs. Ayu went straight for the target.
"Oh, that's what this is about. You're short on funds, huh?" Mrs. Siska asked.
"Yes, ma'am. There are a lot of children, and we don't have prizes for the mothers yet," Mrs. Astuti added.
"Oh, my..." Mrs. Siska looked concerned.
"Maybe you, always so beautiful and fashionable, happen to have some EXTRA MONEY—or maybe Mr. Sapri knows someone who could sponsor the contests in our neighborhood," Fadil's Mom continued.
Mrs. Siska nodded thoughtfully.
"As for sponsors, my husband probably knows plenty of people. But for now, I can only add this much..." Mrs. Siska pulled out two hundred-thousand-rupiah bills and one fifty-thousand-rupiah bill.
"Wow, thank you so much for the extra donation, Mrs. Siska!" Fadil's Mom happily accepted the bills.
"May you and your husband's blessings continue to overflow," she prayed.
"Amen..." Everyone echoed the prayer.
And that's how the money ended up in the hands of the top officials of Neighborhood Unit 01.
Flashback off
"Life's nice when you've got lots of money, yeah," Mrs. Astuti remarked.
"Yeah." Mrs. Ayu and Fadil's Mom agreed at the same time.
"But people say money can't buy everything," Mrs. Astuti said, trying to offer a few words of wisdom.
"That just means they don't have enough money!" Fadil's Mom shot back.
"Exactly. Think about it. If you've got money, you just buy whatever you want to eat—no need to cook. Tired? Pay a domestic helper. Bored? Take a trip overseas. Want to buy something? Just grab it without even looking at the barcode," Mrs. Ayu said.
"What if your husband cheats on you?"
"Then find someone younger, handsomer, and more impressive. When you've got money, there are plenty of options!" Mrs. Ayu replied.
"Yeah, yeah." Mrs. Astuti was starting to get contaminated.
"If that's the case, I want to work even harder, so I can make even more money."
Mrs. Ayu and Fadil's Mom gave her two thumbs-up.
"Mrs. Neighborhood Chair! Mrs. Neighborhood Chair! Help!" Suddenly, Mrs. Marjuki, one of the elderly residents of Neighborhood Unit 01, shouted from the front of her house.
"Huh? What's wrong?" The three of them immediately ran toward Mrs. Marjuki's house.