Nathan stepped into the storage room, shifting a few old boxes and suitcases to make space for his things before leaving for college. In a slightly dark corner, he noticed a worn, dusty box sealed with yellowed clear tape. No label. Just an ordinary box, but for some reason, his eyes were drawn to it, as if it were calling him.
Carefully, he dragged it out and opened it slowly. Inside were neatly stacked old books, mostly on economics and management. Titles like "Strategic Marketing Management," "Social Entrepreneurship," and "Micro Business Law" met his eyes.
"College books?" Nathan murmured, frowning. "Did Papa ever go to college?"
He remembered what Opa had said years ago: "Papa had dropped out of high school because he was too rebellious and got into fights often."
"So… whose books were these?"
He lifted each book one by one. On the edge of several covers, initials made his blood run cold:
"MS"
Nathan froze. He touched the letters gently, almost afraid to ruin them.
"MS… Maria Suyoto? Mama?"
Nervously, he dug deeper into the box. There was an old laptop, faded in color but still intact. Beneath it lay a charger, a blue flash drive, and an old, heavy external hard drive.
He swallowed hard. Suddenly, the storage room felt smaller.
Nathan hurriedly carried the laptop and devices to his room. He plugged them in. While waiting for the screen to light up, his mind wandered:
Why was all this hidden?
Why was it never mentioned?
Soon, the laptop powered on. The password screen appeared.
Nathan exhaled. "What should I try…"
He tried Papa's birthday, failed. Then Kezia's birthday, still failed. Then he remembered something. Back in elementary school, Oma had told him that Mama's real name wasn't just "Maria" but "Maria Suyoto," and that when she was young, close family called her Maya.
He tried: `maya123`
Click.
The desktop appeared. Simple, clean. Folders with plain names: `College`, `SME Data`, `Admin`, and one folder in the bottom-right corner in bold letters:
"PRIVATE – DO NOT OPEN"
Nathan's heart raced. His hands trembled.
He knew that a single click on that folder could change everything.
Nathan's hands trembled slightly as he lifted the laptop from the box. He wiped off the dust carefully, almost as if handling a treasured heirloom. The flash drive and external hard drive he stored neatly in his drawer, not wanting anyone to know.
Night had fallen. The house was silent. Everyone was asleep.
Nathan sat at his study desk, turning on the old laptop. The screen lit up slowly, displaying the logo of an old version of Windows.
"I'm almost eighteen…" he murmured softly. "So this laptop… as old as me? Or even older?"
Strangely, his fingers felt familiar on the keyboard. Unconsciously, he navigated the outdated operating system with ease, as if his body had done this hundreds of times before.
He opened Explorer and went to drive D.
One folder was waiting there. Its name was just one word: Private.
But it was locked with a password.
Nathan stared at the screen. His mind felt blank, yet his fingers moved on their own. Out of nowhere, an image of an old Nokia keypad, with the letters "MSbas," appeared in his head. Automatically, his hands typed:
ms2227777
Click.
The folder opened.
Nathan froze. Goosebumps ran down his arms.
"How… how did it work?"
One question still echoed in his mind:
"Who is MSbas?"
Wasn't Mama… just Maria Suyoto?
The folder slowly opened.
For a few seconds, there was only silence. Then its contents appeared, hundreds of photo files. Their names were random, like from an old camera: `IMG_0210`, `DSC0034`, `PIC_MARIA01`.
Nathan opened one.
A young woman, beautiful and simple, smiled in a garden. Beside her was a man, NOT PAPA! The man was much younger, with warm eyes, a clean and cheerful face. They looked very close, laughing freely. Happy.
Nathan opened another photo. They were eating ice cream. Then another, selfies on a train, playing guitar together, riding a beat-up motorcycle without helmets, sitting under a large tree reading books.
Every photo felt alive. Real.
His hands trembled again. His eyes widened.
"Is this… Mama?" he whispered. "And who is that man?"
A man who was not Papa. Yet he appeared in every photo.
And all of the photos carried the same feeling: happiness.
Nathan scrolled through the files. Most were images, some documents, and one video folder. But among them, his eyes landed on a strangely formatted file, `.vbp`. An old Visual Basic file.
"Coding file?" he murmured, curiosity pounding in his chest.
He double-clicked. Miraculously, the old laptop still had the environment to run it. A simple program window appeared. Retro look: gray background, Times New Roman font, and a single line of text:
"Enter password to unlock memories."
Nathan stared. His fingers typed automatically:
ms2227777
He pressed Enter.
Nothing happened for a few seconds. Then the screen changed.
A slideshow appeared. Slide after slide showed photos he had never seen before, this time with captions:
- "Maria and MIKAEL at campus."
- "First day of college."
- "Walking around after the thesis defense."
- "Big plans after graduation: getting married."
Nathan froze.
"Mikael?"
His hands went cold.
His breath came short.
"M… MS. Mikael… Who?"
He swallowed hard. The next slides appeared:
- "Mikael Sebastian & Maria Suyoto, 1998-2002."
- "He was my first love, my future husband, future father of my child…"
Nathan was rooted to the spot.
It was as if his whole body was slowly starting to understand something.
But his mind wasn't ready for what was coming.
—
Nathan stared at the old laptop screen with a mix of curiosity and tension. His heart was still racing after opening the secret folder locked with the password ms2227777. He found several photos: a young woman whose face resembled Mama, Maria, alongside a handsome man he had never seen before. They looked so happy. Her face shone with laughter and love.
It was strange. Nathan should have felt jealous seeing his mother close to another man. But instead, he felt something else: warmth, as if discovering a piece of a story long lost, or deliberately hidden.
Then his eyes landed on a file with a strange extension, like something from an old program. He double-clicked. A simple black window appeared with white text:
"Enter Password:"
His fingers moved on their own, typing: ms2227777
He hit Enter. The program ran. A new window appeared. Only text, but the words felt like someone's breath. The sentences were deeply personal, like a letter never sent. Like a secret journal.
- First:
"Bas, where are you now? It's been almost a month since you left. Your phone is dead. I've been waiting for news, but there's none. I'm getting scared.
Papa's shop is being visited by strangers. They come in groups. They accuse us of all sorts of things about the land certificate. Claim it's state property. But we have all the proof. They don't care. They just want us gone.
One of them is named Dominggus Tallo. Big guy. Rude. But clearly not the leader. He's just a henchman for someone bigger, who never shows up."
- Second:
"Papa is getting stressed. Nights he can't sleep. Always says, 'Bas will come, Maria. He will help.' But you didn't come, Bas. And Papa is starting to lose hope."
- Third:
"A few days ago, Papa fell in the shop. Heart attack. I didn't even have time to call an ambulance. He died in my arms, Bas… in my arms."
- Forth:
"I panicked. I was angry. I was alone. I only had Mama. And Mama… she's old now. She could only cry. I had to be strong. I had to make a decision."
- Fifth:
"Today I said 'yes' to Dominggus Tallo. Yes, Bas. I will marry him. Not for love. But because… I had no other choice. I couldn't let Mama be thrown out of this house. I couldn't let Papa's shop be destroyed like that."
- Sixth:
"I know you'll be angry. But I also know… you will understand. Because you're the only one who ever truly loved me.
If you read this someday… forgive me.
Maria."
---