<br/><p>With his mouth full of dusty grime and his vision blurred, Awang lay at the bottom of a wide fissure in the earth's surface.</p> <p>"Damn it!" he shouted irritably, spitting dust mixed with dirt from his mouth and worsening the already unbearable pain in his brain.</p> <p>When the remaining dust turned to mud in his mouth, he tasted the unmistakable saltiness of blood and reflexively vomited the mixture before he could swallow it.</p> <p>The smell of spoiled venison satay sauce overwhelmed his senses, and he knew what was coming. He would have another seizure only five hundred meters from the last one, alone and sprawled in a ditch.</p> <p>Life really wasn't fair…</p> <p style="text-align: center;">***</p> <p>In Taluk Kuantan, Bagas Buwana's pleasant day had passed the halfway point of his morning route. Most of his customers had already left for work without leaving their payments. He hated having to come back at night when it wasted so much time from the start. But if he wanted to get paid, he had no choice.</p> <p>Maybe if he was lucky, he would run into Dr. Awang. Bagas idolized him. Dr. Awang Dermawan made him want to do better in school and become a doctor just like him. He always told funny stories and gave Bagas a little advice whenever he needed it.</p> <p>When Bagas arrived at the Dermawan family's house, he saw that the garage door was open, and both of their cars were gone.</p> <p><i>Damn! It's still too early for them to have left the house.</i></p> <p>As he passed the funeral home, a chill suddenly seized him, as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over the crown of his head. He had never liked passing that old building. Luckily, it was starting to get light. If he came back later to collect the payment, he would take a detour to avoid the place.</p> <p>The rest of his deliveries seemed to crawl by because Bagas was impatient to return to the Dermawan family's residence. He hoped Dr. Awang would be there to open the door, rather than his wife. He didn't know why, but he didn't like Mrs. Awang. There was something about her that didn't seem right. She acted kindly toward him, but it seemed forced. It seemed the doctor's wife didn't like him—or children in general.</p> <p>Well, at least Dr. Awang was kind to him, and in any case, he was an important person in Taluk Kuantan.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">***</p> <p>Coming to in the ditch, Awang looked around in confusion.</p> <p><i>What happened? What am I doing here!</i></p> <p>Slowly, his awareness returned. His aching muscles and the bleeding wound along the side of his tongue felt as though thousands of bricks were pressing down on him.</p> <p><i>Two seizures that knocked me unconscious in three days isn't good. Not good at all…</i></p> <p>He had to think seriously about this and decide what he was going to do. Confusion and drowsiness tried to drag him back into unconsciousness, but Awang fought them and staggered out of the deep fissure.</p> <p>His entire body felt as if it had been beaten repeatedly with a wooden stick, but he struggled on until he finally reached the roadside and his car before passing out again. His mouth was full of blood and dust.</p> <p>He tried to focus on what had just happened as he clumsily started his Mercedes-Benz.</p> <p>Thirty kilometers back to the city would be no easy feat, and he would be shocked if he made it home safely. But he couldn't stay here. He had to get back home. Why had he come all the way out here again? There had to be a reason. That thought, along with the fishy taste swirling in his mouth, kept him conscious as he slowly crawled home.</p> <p><i>Sleep… I can sleep at home…</i></p> <p>After nearly an hour of forced concentration, he pulled the car into his home's garage.</p> <p>The Proton Kancil was gone.</p> <p>Kuntum had to be somewhere…</p>