A Box of Photographs - Delapan

Photograph #63

The couple on a bike again, this time zooming past through a valley. To the left of them is a vast, flat plain of rich farmland, and beyond it, tall arid mountains.

Photograph #64

Here the motorbike is parked at the side of the road. The boy is sitting sideways on the seat, holding a box of strawberries. His knees are sunburnt from hours on the bike, his hair slightly flat from the helmet, which sits at his feet, glinting in the sun.

Photograph #65

This is another photo of the motorbike, only this time, the boy is riding it alone, up a steep hill. Several metres behind him, the girl, following on foot, back weighed down by her rucksack, head weighed down by her helmet. The boy seems to be laughing; the girl, too, but in a different way. A self-deriding way. Around them, the trees are less tropical, more temperate.

Photograph #66

A photograph of the young man, not on the bike this time, but standing on the edge of a precipice. Behind him, the valley they previously drove through, farms and houses tiny squares, greenhouses glittering under the sun. The mountains beyond are blue, and in the sky, a single, small white cloud hangs, directly about his head. Like a halo, or a private rain-cloud, just for him.

Photograph #67

A different motorbike, parked at a different roadside. On it are three young Indonesian boys, no older than 11, all laughing, squirming, falling all over each other at the idea, it seems, of being in the photograph. And all of them holding a cigarette.

Photograph #68

A double bed in a room that looks, strangely, like the galley of a ship; the walls, the low ceiling, the window, all made from bamboo and thatched palm leaves. The bed is empty, save for two rucksacks, contents spilling out in tangles, like guts. The light is fading. On the back it says, 'Homestay, Tete Batu'.