The Silent Auction Quilt

By seven o'clock, the quilt has been outbid fourteen times, and every raise is exactly one dollar. Caspian, who is running the auction for the community hall's roof fund, stands behind the coffee urn and studies the bid sheet. Fifty-two dollars. Fifty-three. Fifty-four.

Pukul tujuh, selimut perca itu sudah ditawar empat belas kali, dan setiap kenaikan persis satu dolar. Caspian, yang mengelola lelang untuk dana atap balai warga, berdiri di belakang tempat kopi dan mempelajari lembar penawaran. Lima puluh dua dolar. Lima puluh tiga. Lima puluh empat.

The quilt is the star of the evening. It has a hundred small squares, each cut from a different shirt, stitched in a spiral that makes the eye go round and round. Three people have been hovering around it all night. None of them seems to be the kind of person who bids a dollar at a time.

Selimut itu bintang malam ini. Terdiri dari seratus kotak kecil, masing-masing dipotong dari kemeja yang berbeda, dijahit dalam pola spiral yang membuat mata berputar-putar. Tiga orang sudah berkeliaran di sekitarnya sepanjang malam. Tak satu pun tampak seperti orang yang menawar satu dolar demi satu dolar.

"Somebody is playing games," says the woman who sells the raffle tickets. "If I wanted to win something, I would put down a big number and go home."

"Ada yang main-main," kata perempuan yang menjual tiket undian. "Kalau saya ingin menang, saya akan menulis angka besar lalu pulang."

Caspian agrees. A big number would end the matter. Instead, someone keeps appearing the moment the sheet is raised, writes a single digit higher, and vanishes again. The handwriting is small and careful, and it is always in pencil. The bidder number is 112.

Caspian setuju. Angka besar akan menyelesaikan urusan itu. Sebaliknya, seseorang terus muncul begitu lembar itu terangkat, menulis satu angka lebih tinggi, lalu menghilang lagi. Tulisannya kecil dan rapi, dan selalu dengan pensil. Nomor penawarnya 112.

He checks the registration list. Number 112 belongs to a man called Jarek, and beside his name someone has written: guest of the quilter. Caspian reads it twice and laughs out loud. A donor's husband bidding on a donor's quilt breaks no rule in particular, but it is certainly not what the rules had in mind.

Ia memeriksa daftar pendaftaran. Nomor 112 milik seorang pria bernama Jarek, dan di samping namanya seseorang menulis: tamu si pembuat selimut. Caspian membacanya dua kali dan tertawa keras. Suami seorang donatur yang menawar selimut buatan donatur memang tidak melanggar aturan tertentu, tetapi jelas bukan itu yang dimaksud aturan.

He finds Jarek by the cake table, a tall man in a brown cardigan, holding a paper plate with a single biscuit on it. He hasn't eaten it. His eyes keep drifting toward the bid table.

Ia menemukan Jarek di dekat meja kue, seorang pria jangkung berkardigan cokelat, memegang piring kertas berisi satu biskuit. Biskuit itu belum dimakan. Matanya terus melayang ke meja penawaran.

"Number 112," Caspian says quietly. "You've been busy."

"Nomor 112," kata Caspian pelan. "Anda sibuk sekali."

Jarek goes pink to the ears. He explains that his wife, Josefine, has been working on the quilt every evening since January, in the chair by the window. He has been listening to her sewing machine the whole time. "I thought it would go for thirty dollars to someone who would put it on a sofa for the dog," he says. "Then people started bidding, and I couldn't stand any of them."

Wajah Jarek merona sampai ke telinga. Ia menjelaskan bahwa istrinya, Josefine, mengerjakan selimut itu setiap malam sejak Januari, di kursi dekat jendela. Selama itu ia mendengarkan suara mesin jahit istrinya. "Saya kira selimut itu akan terjual tiga puluh dolar kepada seseorang yang akan menaruhnya di sofa untuk anjingnya," katanya. "Lalu orang-orang mulai menawar, dan saya tidak tahan pada satu pun dari mereka."

"So you outbid them by one dollar."

"Jadi Anda mengalahkan mereka dengan satu dolar."

"One dollar felt polite," Jarek says. "Also, I didn't know how much I was allowed to spend."

"Satu dolar terasa sopan," kata Jarek. "Lagi pula, saya tidak tahu berapa banyak yang boleh saya keluarkan."

Caspian considers the situation. If he disqualified Jarek, the roof fund would lose the quickest-rising bids of the night. Despite the rules, the sensible answer is obvious. "You can keep bidding," he says, "but in real numbers, please. At one dollar a time we would still be here at midnight."

Caspian menimbang keadaan itu. Kalau ia mendiskualifikasi Jarek, dana atap akan kehilangan penawaran yang naik paling cepat malam itu. Terlepas dari aturan, jawaban yang masuk akal sudah jelas. "Anda boleh terus menawar," katanya, "tapi dengan angka sungguhan, tolong. Dengan satu dolar sekali tawar, kita masih akan di sini sampai tengah malam."

Jarek stares at him, then nods and walks to the bid table. When he comes back, the sheet says two hundred. Meanwhile, a stranger in a blue scarf has written two hundred and ten, and the evening has become much more interesting.

Jarek menatapnya, lalu mengangguk dan berjalan ke meja penawaran. Ketika ia kembali, lembar itu menunjukkan dua ratus. Sementara itu, seorang orang asing berselendang biru sudah menulis dua ratus sepuluh, dan malam itu menjadi jauh lebih menarik.

At eight o'clock, Caspian rings the little brass bell and reads out the result. The quilt goes to number 112, for four hundred and eighty dollars, the highest sum of the night.

Pukul delapan, Caspian membunyikan bel kuningan kecil dan membacakan hasilnya. Selimut itu jatuh ke nomor 112, seharga empat ratus delapan puluh dolar, jumlah tertinggi malam itu.

Josefine is standing behind her husband when it is announced. She must have been there for some time. "You could have just asked me," she says. "I would have made you one for free."

Josefine berdiri di belakang suaminya ketika hasilnya diumumkan. Ia pasti sudah berada di sana cukup lama. "Kamu kan bisa tinggal bilang padaku," katanya. "Aku akan membuatkan satu untukmu secara cuma-cuma."

Jarek folds the receipt into his cardigan pocket. "Not this one," he says.

Jarek melipat kuitansi itu ke dalam saku kardigannya. "Bukan yang ini," katanya.