The Second Day

After returning from tarawih prayers, Sony and Andra were seen sitting with Doddy on the terrace of the house, there were snacks and three glasses of warm coffee.

"How about it? Are you guys going to try fasting tomorrow morning?" Doddy asked to start the conversation.

"Yes Bro, you're the only one who can do it. Right Ndra?" said Sony, Andra just gave him a thumbs up.

"Okay, I'll see tomorrow. Don't just talk big."

"Yes Bro, we're serious. But I'm still surprised, why can you change this fast so quickly? There must be something that is the reason you're doing all this, right?" Andra asked Doddy.

"There's no other reason, I just want to fulfill my fast this month." Doddy covered up what caused him to try to change his lifestyle.

"I just feel strange, why did you only have that intention during Ramadan? But whatever it is, only you know the reason." said Andra who was a little annoyed because he was still curious about the changes that had occurred in Doddy.

******

That afternoon, on the second day of fasting, the clock on the wall showed 16:00 WIB. Fauzana, who was still in the office with several of her co-workers, seemed busy preparing a replacement for the breaking of the fast that they often did during Ramadan before the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, those who did not participate in the activity that day immediately went home, because the office closing time during Ramadan was accelerated one hour earlier.

The event was in the form of distributing a menu for breaking the fast, known as takjil, to people who lived close to the office environment. The event itself was divided into several groups, each group consisting of five people. At the civil registry office where Fauzana worked, there were approximately 30 employees so that for six working days, each group consisting of five people was given the task of distributing the breaking of the fast menu to the community every afternoon.

In the afternoon at almost the same time, Doddy took advantage of the time before breaking the fast by seeing and meeting with the workers who were on his oil palm plantation. In addition, while waiting for the time to break the fast, he used that time to fish in the artificial ditch that was along his oil palm plantation.

In the artificial ditch that was approximately two meters wide, there were many types of freshwater fish, one of which was the snakehead fish.

"Wow, it's rare for you to stop by the plantation, Gan?" said one of the workers who happened to be near the ditch where Doddy was fishing.

"Yes, Mr. Hamid. I came here to fish and also look around the plantation, while waiting for the time to break the fast." said Doddy to his plantation worker named Hamid.

His plantation workers were generally married men, they were divided into several types of jobs. Some were harvesting, collecting and carrying fruit, some were working to clear the land, fertilizing and spraying.

In addition, there were also several drivers of his trucks, whose function was to deliver the harvest to the company that received and bought the palm oil harvest to be processed into crude oil.

Both the workers on the plantation land, the drivers and his two assistants called Doddy Gan, the short word for Juragan. They had been used to calling each other that since they first started working on Doddy's plantation.

"How was the harvest today, Sir?" Doddy asked Pak Hamid, who was in charge of harvesting the fruit.

"Thank God, there were quite a lot today, Gan." Pak Hamid replied while dodoing the palm fruit on the edge of the ditch.

"Strike.. Yuhuu!" Doddy exclaimed when his fishing rod was hooked by a fairly large snakehead fish, he managed to lift the fish to land.

"Wow, the snakehead fish is really big, bro!"

"Yes, I didn't expect this ditch to have so many snakehead fish."

"That's right, bro, not only snakehead fish, there are also lots of catfish in this ditch. Last night I fished and caught a lot of them, bro." said Mr. Hamid who was helping Doddy release the snakehead fish he was fishing for, then hooked the fish onto a fairly strong root.

Not long after, Doddy's fishing rod was hooked again by a snakehead fish that was no less large in size.

"Wow, if this happens, I'll get addicted to fishing here, sir. The snakehead fish are big and quite a lot." Doddy exclaimed happily when he got the second snakehead fish, while Mr. Hamid seemed to be smiling at his boss.

About 45 minutes before breaking the fast, Doddy returned home carrying five quite large snakehead fish. Actually, that afternoon he caught seven snakehead fish, but he shared two of them with Mr. Hamid, who at that time was near the ditch where he was fishing.

Doddy happily brought his fishing rod into the house.

"Mom, look, I got a big snakehead fish in our plantation ditch."

"Wow, Sis Doddy is really great at fishing, isn't he!" exclaimed Anisa, who at that time was sitting with her mother in the living room, they looked amazed to see what Doddy had brought.

"Come on, help Mom clean the fish! Then we fry it for our iftar menu later." said Mrs. Hasnah, who was no less happy.

"Yes ma'am." Anisa took the fish tote in Doddy's hand and went to the kitchen to clean the fish, then will help her mother later cook for the breaking fast menu which will arrive soon.

******

After distributing the iftar menu packages to the people around the office, Fauzana went home riding her automatic motorbike. The time to break the fast, which was only half an hour away, she would be able to catch up because it only took about fifteen minutes from the office to her house.

Upon arriving home, Fauzana went straight to her room and took a shower, not long after taking a shower and sitting waiting on the porch of the house, the sound of the Maghrib call to prayer signaling the time to break the fast was heard, Fauzana immediately approached her parents who had already sat down at the dining table to break the fast with the family.

"Wow, there's fried snakehead fish, Mom! Where did you buy the fish?" asked Fauzana who really likes snakehead fish, because it is rarely sold in markets.

"Earlier, Anisa and her sister came here to deliver the fried snakehead fish." answered Mrs. Fitria.

"Brother Doddy came here too?" Fauzana was surprised because she rarely saw Doddy, let alone visiting his house outside, even in his own house Doddy was a rare figure to meet.

"Yes, they wanted to meet you, they thought you had come home from work. This snakehead fish was caught by Doddy, Anisa said Doddy caught a lot of snakehead fish while fishing on his plantation." said Mrs. Fitria, Fauzana smiled understanding that the snakehead fish was obtained from fishing, not bought somewhere.

"You know Anisa, I really like snakehead fish. Because it's hard to find, Mrs. In the markets it's rare to find many other freshwater fish, even those come from ponds." said Fauzana while enjoying the fried snakehead fish caught by Doddy.