Penawar
Di lingkungan Pell Street, seorang lelaki, Alan Austen dengan gugup,
menaiki tangga tua yang gelap untuk mencari seseorang. Setelah sekian
lama mencari, akhirnya ia menemukan sebuah nama orang tersebut yang
tetulis samar samar pada salah satu pintu.
Seperti yang diperintahkan, ia lalu membuka pintu dan menemukan
sebuah ruangan kecil yang sangat sederhana, hanya sebuah meja dapur,
kursi, dan sebuah kursi goyang. Pada salah satu dinding yang agak kotor
terdapat sepasang rak yang berisi kira-kira satu lusin botol dan toples.
Tampak seorang bapak tua duduk di kursi goyang dan sedang membaca
koran. Tanpa sepatah katapun, Alan menyerahkan kartu yang telah
diberikan kepadanya pada bapak tua tersebut.
“Duduklah tuan Austen,” kata bapak tua tersebut dengan sopan.
“Senang bertemu dengan Anda.”
“Apakah rumor itu benar ? , bahwa Anda memiliki ramuan yang dapat
memiliki – emmm– efek yang luar biasa?” Tanya Alan.
Bapak tua tersebut menjawab “Tuan, barang-barang yang saya jual
tidaklah banyak. Saya tidak menjual obat pencahar maupun ramuan
penumbuh gigi – namun sesuatu yang seperti itu, banyak jenisnya.
Menurut saya barang yang saya jual tidak ada yang dapat dibilang biasa.”
“Hmm, tapi kenyataannya …” kata Alan.
“Ini, contohnya,” selaan bapak tua tersebut selagi menggapai sebuah
botol dari rak. “Ini adalah ramuan yang tak berwarna seperti air putih,
hampir tidak terasa, tidak akan terasa jika dicampur di dalam kopi,
anggur, maupun minuman yang lain. Ramuan ini juga tidak terlihat pada
metode autopsi apa pun.”
Name : Ricky Ilham Kurniawan
Student's Number : A1B217076
ANALYSIS
A lot of people will misinterpret the title "The Chaser". The meaning of
the title is very simple, although the term "Chaser" may not be as
commonly used as it was. A chaser is a drink that is taken to follow the
first alcoholic drink. The chaser may be alcoholic or non alcoholic. For
example, a person might drink a straight shot of whiskey and follow it
immediately with a small glass of water to dilute the whiskey already in
his/her stomach. One common combination at bars is a shot of straight
whiskey followed by a small glass of beer (Chaser).
The chaser in this short story is a love potion he bought from a merchant
(As alan's last resort) to his wife (Diana (The antagonist)) in order to
make her fall in love with him even more. The word chaser in this story
has nothing to do with chasing anybody or being chased; it is another
euphemism for the deadly poison the hero will probably be using to kill
his wife after suffocating him too much love and possessiveness.
The entire story takes place in a single room on Pell Street neighborhood.
The proprietor (Old man) is keeping a low profile because he is dealing
with illegal drugs and probably does not have a business license. This old
man does not seem to care about attracting customers. He gets all his
business through his words. We can see that Alan Austen has gotten the
name and address in confidence from some friend or that old man's
previous customers. He has been told to go directly inside without
knocking. This is probably because the old man does not want his
neighbors to get any notions about how many callers he has. In fact,
nobody in this neighborhood knows the he is selling anything. He is just
an old man living alone in a cheap little furnished room.
The old man running a shady business. We learn that the old man is
making all his money from selling poisons which cannot be detected in
autopsies. There is hardly any evidence that he might be running an
illegal operation. The bottles and jars on the shelves could contain
practically anything and are probably just there for show. None of these
bottles and jars may contain either the love potion or the poison.
Name : Ricky Ilham Kurniawan
Student's Number : A1B217076
He keeps some of his real merchandise out of sight. The fact that he calls
the poisonous "Chaser" a "Glove cleaner" underlines the secrecy of his
business.
Problems/Issues
For the title, i tranlated it from "The Chaser" to "Penawar" because
the chaser in this story is meant to be a drink as a neutralizer after
drinking an alcohol, but the main story does not include alcohol and this
chaser infers to the love potion. So i conclude it as "Neutralizer" as the
appropriate title.
There is also a reference that i need to include from Alan's line "Is it
true ?" to the old man, so i change "It" to "Rumor" because i assumed
it is a rumour from Alan's friend or that old man's previous customers.
There are several euphemisms that i can not translate due to they have
relating sentences, such as "Glove cleaner or Life cleaner" having a
followed up sentence "Maybe it can clean glove".