Lorong Itu

Daniel mengemudikan bus N7 mendaki bukit menuju rumah sakit seolah-olah itu adalah ambulans, yang kemudian dipikirkan Ana, memang kurang lebih seperti itu fungsinya saat itu. Ia tidak berhenti di satu halte bus pun. Seorang pria berjaket pemantul cahaya melambai ke arahnya dari halte di luar kolam renang umum dan menyaksikan, ternganga, saat bus hijau besar itu melaju kencang melewatinya dengan lampu interior menyala terang dan hanya dua penumpang di dalamnya.

Daniel drove the N7 up the hill to the hospital as if it were an ambulance, which, Ana thought afterwards, it more or less was. He did not stop at a single bus stop. A man in a reflective jacket waved at him from the shelter outside the swimming baths and watched, open-mouthed, as the big green bus thundered past with its interior lights blazing and only two passengers on board.

Jess duduk di kursi depan dengan lutut terangkat dan lembaran-lembaran kertas terlipat milik kakeknya didekap rapat di dadanya, seolah-olah seseorang mungkin mencoba merebutnya darinya. Ia belum melihat lembaran-lembaran itu sama sekali. Ia tidak mengucapkan sepatah kata pun sejak dari Bridge Street. Ana duduk di sampingnya dan memperhatikan kota meluncur lewat dalam temaram kelabu: alun-alun pasar, balai kota yang gelap, poster di jendela toko koran dengan pintunya yang hijau dan segi empat cahayanya yang hangat. BIARKAN LAMPU TETAP MENYALA.

Jess sat in the front seat with her knees drawn up and her grandfather’s folded pages held flat against her chest, as though someone might try to take them from her. She had not looked at them. She had not said a word since Bridge Street. Ana sat beside her and watched the town slide past in the grey half-light: the market square, the dark town hall, the poster in the newsagent’s window with its green door and its warm square of light. KEEP THE LIGHT ON.

Di pintu masuk rumah sakit, Daniel membuka pintu-pintu bus sebelum kendaraannya benar-benar berhenti. “Pergilah,” katanya. “Aku akan mengembalikan bus ini ke depo dan langsung ke sini naik mobil. Hubungi aku. Apa pun kabarnya, hubungi aku.” Ia memandang Jess, dan untuk sekali ini tidak ada kelakar sedikit pun di wajahnya. “Kakekmu orang tua yang tangguh, Jess. Orang paling tangguh yang kukenal.”

At the hospital entrance Daniel opened the doors before the bus had properly stopped. “Go,” he said. “I’ll take the bus back to the depot and come straight here in the car. Phone me. Whatever it is, phone me.” He looked at Jess, and for once there was no joke anywhere in his face. “He’s a tough old man, Jess. The toughest I know.”

Mereka menemukan Michael di lantai dua, di ujung sebuah lorong panjang yang berbau disinfektan dan kopi gosong. Ia sedang duduk di sebuah kursi plastik di luar pintu tertutup, masih mengenakan pakaian yang dipakainya di jalan setapak tepi sungai, dengan flour di lutut celananya dan mantel panjangnya terlipat di kursi sampingnya. Ketika ia melihat mereka, ia berdiri terlalu cepat sehingga harus menumpukan sebelah tangannya ke dinding.

They found Michael on the second floor, at the end of a long corridor that smelled of disinfectant and burnt coffee. He was sitting on a plastic chair outside a closed door, still in the clothes he had worn on the river path, with flour on the knees of his trousers and his long coat folded on the seat beside him. When he saw them he stood up too quickly and had to put a hand on the wall.

“Beliau masih hidup,” katanya, sebelum salah satu dari mereka sempat bertanya. Itu hal pertama yang disampaikannya, dan ia mengatakannya seperti seorang pria melemparkan tali penyelamat. “Beliau masih hidup, beliau sedang tidur, mereka sudah melakukan pemindaian. Mereka akan bicara baik-baik dengan kita saat dokter spesialis datang pukul delapan.”

“He’s alive,” he said, before either of them could ask. That was the first thing, and he said it the way a man throws a rope. “He’s alive, he’s asleep, they’ve done a scan. They’re going to talk to us properly when the consultant comes in at eight.”

Jess berdiri mematung di tengah-tengah lorong. Sesaat Ana mengira gadis itu mungkin akan mendekatinya; ada sesuatu pada posisi pundaknya yang condong, sangat sedikit, ke arah pria tinggi berjanggut uban di dekat dinding itu. Namun dorongan itu berlalu. Ia duduk di kursi yang paling jauh dari pria itu, meletakkan lembaran-lembaran kertas itu di atas lututnya, dan menatap ke arah pintu yang tertutup.

Jess stood very still in the middle of the corridor. For a moment Ana thought she might go to him; there was something in the angle of her shoulders that leaned, very slightly, towards the tall grey-bearded man by the wall. Then it passed. She sat down on the chair furthest from him, put the pages on her knee, and stared at the closed door.

Dokter spesialis itu tiba pukul delapan lewat sepuluh: seorang wanita cekatan berambut uban dengan kacamata baca tergantung pada seutas tali dan pembawaan yang samar-samar menyiratkan penyesalan, ciri khas seseorang yang sudah sering menyampaikan kabar buruk dan tak pernah terbiasa dengannya. Ia membawa mereka ke sebuah ruangan kecil dengan sekotak tisu di atas meja, dan Ana, yang selama tiga bulan telah belajar membaca ruangan-ruangan di Inggris, langsung mengerti apa arti tisu itu.

The consultant arrived at ten past eight: a brisk, grey-haired woman with reading glasses on a cord and the faintly apologetic manner of someone who has given a great deal of bad news and has never got used to it. She took them into a small room with a box of tissues on the table, and Ana, who had learned in three months to read English rooms, understood at once what the tissues meant.