"Sir, there's a thief in our neighborhood unit!" Mrs. Ayu exclaimed dramatically.
"What kind of thief? Our area is safe!" Mr. Baskoro protested.
"Yeah, usually! But this isn't usual! Here, look!"
Mrs. Ayu held out her phone and showed him a message from Ms. Sekar, a young widow whose husband had died just three months ago.
Mr. Baskoro furrowed his brow as he read the message.
"How could this happen? Since when did our neighborhood unit become this unsafe? Wow, I need to talk to the neighborhood security guard and the other neighborhood chairs. We need to hold a meeting about this right away!"
Mr. Baskoro hurried out of the house.
That left Mrs. Ayu busy thinking of a way to catch the laundry thief who was starting to make the residents nervous.
Mrs. Ayu had just finished hanging out the laundry and was about to sweep her not-so-spacious front yard when Mrs. Tien came over.
"Mrs. Neighborhood Chair, I heard Siti's laundry disappeared!" she reported.
"Huh? Something else went missing?"
Mrs. Ayu was clearly shocked. After all, yesterday it wasn't just Ms. Sekar who had reported a theft. Mrs. Ningrum and Mrs. Lina had gone through the same thing.
"Wow, our entire neighborhood unit is officially on high alert!" Mrs. Ayu said irritably.
It wasn't much that had been stolen. Just one or two pieces of clothing from each victim.
There were T-shirts, sarongs, house dresses, and even underwear.
Strangely, the thief wasn't picky about gender. Men's clothes were taken, and women's clothes were snatched too.
Apparently, this thief didn't specialize in any particular kind of item. If it was sitting unattended on a clothesline, they grabbed it!
"Good morning, ladies."
A man's voice made Mrs. Ayu and Mrs. Tien turn around at the same time.
Mr. Tono, a district-office employee who had been renting one of their residents' houses for only a month, walked past them with a dazzling smile.
"Oh, Mr. Tono! Good morning!"
Mrs. Ayu instinctively tucked some of her hair behind her ear.
Who knew what had possessed her? The neighborhood chair's wife suddenly transformed into an adorable, giggly little girl in front of the thirty-something man.
"The district office isn't closed for the holiday?"
"During the Independence Day festivities, we're actually busier, ma'am. There are lots of activities."
"Aww... then when do you get a day off?" Mrs. Ayu asked coquettishly.
"Hush, Mrs. Neighborhood Chair! Say a prayer! Your husband is still around. Why are you chasing after another man anyway? Besides, does he even want you?" Mrs. Tien jabbed Mrs. Ayu in the ribs, making the middle-aged woman wince.
"What are you talking about, Mrs. Tien? You got the wrong idea!"
"Then why were you asking when he gets a day off?"
"So we can ask him to join a community cleanup or neighborhood patrol, obviously. What else?"
Mrs. Ayu snorted irritably.
"Sorry, Mr. Tono. Mrs. Tien is just like that. She's always assuming the worst about people." Mrs. Ayu flashed Mr. Tono another sweet smile.
"Hehe, it's okay, Mrs. Neighborhood Chair. It's all in good fun. Well, I'd better get going. I don't want to be late."
"Oh, yes, yes. Go ahead."
Mrs. Ayu and Mrs. Tien nodded at the same time.
Mr. Tono walked away.
"He's handsome, huh? Too bad I was born too soon," Mrs. Tien muttered.
Mrs. Ayu pursed her lips.
"First you told me to say a prayer, and now you're doing the same thing!"
"I was just complimenting him, Mrs. Neighborhood Chair," Mrs. Tien replied, refusing to back down.
Mrs. Ayu was about to resume sweeping when she spotted something strange.
"Wait... where are my horse blinders?"
"What horse blinders, Mrs. Neighborhood Chair? Since when did you own a horse?"
"Ugh! My bra, I mean! I'm sure I hung it right here. It was impossible to miss. It was chili-red!"
Mrs. Ayu immediately checked her clothesline. It was really gone!
In solidarity, Mrs. Tien joined the search, ducking and peering around.
"Don't tell me..." Mrs. Ayu suddenly pointed upward.
"Don't tell you what?"
Without answering, Mrs. Ayu broke into a light run after Mr. Tono, who had already disappeared around the corner.
"Mrs. Neighborhood Chair! Hey, Mrs. Neighborhood Chair!" Mrs. Tien ran after her too.
A little while later, Mrs. Tien saw Mrs. Ayu walking slowly like a secret agent tailing her target.
Every now and then, the woman hid behind a tree or one of the residents' clotheslines.
Several times, she even squatted down and pretended to tie her shoelaces, despite wearing her favorite flimsy flip-flops.
Finally, in front of Mrs. Siska's house—the neighborhood complex's socialite—Mr. Tono stopped.
He looked left and right, as if making sure no one was watching him.
Then...
Snatch!
His hand shot out with lightning speed, grabbed Mr. Sapri's underwear—Mrs. Siska's husband's—and stuffed it into his pants pocket.
"Huh?!"
Mrs. Ayu and Mrs. Tien stared at each other.
They couldn't believe what they had just seen.
"We can't let this go!" Mrs. Ayu clenched her fists. "Even if he's as handsome as Adam Jordan, he still needs to be arrested!"
"That's right! Come on, Mrs. Neighborhood Chair! Let's ambush him!"
"Let's go!"
"Mr. Tono! Wait!" Mrs. Ayu raised the broom that happened to be leaning lazily against Mrs. Siska's fence.
Who knew if he put up a fight? At least Mrs. Ayu had a weapon to defend herself with.
Mr. Tono turned around.
The moment he saw two middle-aged women chasing him, his face went white.
He took off running as fast as he could, trying to get through the crowd of women shopping from the roaming vegetable vendor.
"Don't run! Give me back my bra!!" Mrs. Ayu yelled, waving the broom.
"WHAT?!"
All the women crowding around the vegetable vendor turned to look at once.
Luckily, Mrs. Erot immediately understood what was happening.
Quick as a flash, she stuck out her foot just as Mr. Tono passed by.
Thud!
Mr. Tono tripped and fell right in front of the crowd of women.
Mrs. Erot immediately grabbed his arm. Her smile spread wide.
Her grip was firm and powerful, as though she had just won a folding bicycle in a community fun walk at the district office.
"Finally caught you!" Mrs. Ayu crouched down, panting.
"Search him! Search him!" Mrs. Tien shouted.
"Come on!" The women immediately swarmed Mr. Tono.
"Help!!!" Mr. Tono screamed hysterically.
"Hey, ladies! Stop, stop! That's enough! Enough! Don't keep grabbing him. Mr. Tono's going to be traumatized!" Mr. Ijonk, the neighborhood complex's favorite vegetable vendor, tried to calm things down.
"Aw, I didn't get a chance to touch him yet," one woman complained.
"I did. Just a little," another woman chimed in with a giggle.
"What's going on here?" Mr. Agus, the neighborhood complex's security guard, pushed his way through the crowd of women.
"Mr. Agus! The laundry thief has been caught!" Mrs. Tien exclaimed.
She held up the recovered evidence.
Mr. Sapri's underwear.
Siti's house dress.
And, of course...
Mrs. Ayu's "horse blinders."
"Mr. Tono?" Mr. Agus gaped.
"Yes, Mr. Agus. I'm the thief!" Mr. Tono raised both hands. "Take me anywhere, quickly. The security post or the district association hall is fine. Just not here. I'm scared!"
"Then come with me!"
Mr. Tono quickly stood and walked ahead of Mr. Agus.
"Boooooo!"
The women jeered at him in unison.
"I never would've guessed, Mrs. Neighborhood Chair. Turns out Mr. Tono was the laundry thief."
Mrs. Asri said this while watching Mrs. Ayu, who was seriously wrapping prizes for the Independence Day contests with her two colleagues.
Who else could it be but Mrs. Astuti and Fadil's Mom?
"Yeah. What more could he want? He's handsome, still single, and he has a steady job too," Fadil's Mom chimed in.
"More hardship."
Mrs. Astuti's quip made everyone turn to look at her.
"What? It's true, isn't it?" Mrs. Astuti didn't think there was anything wrong with what she had said. "His life is too easy. So he was given a trial like that."
"He's a kleptomaniac, Mrs. Astuti," Mrs. Ayu corrected her.
"That's a trial too."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."
Fadil's Mom had no desire to argue with the petite woman.
"The one really going through a trial is Mrs. Kokom," Mrs. Asri added.
"What happened to Mrs. Kokom?" Mrs. Ayu asked curiously.
"Her husband is cheating!"
"Huh?! No way?!"