The Slow Stopwatch in the Cheese Cellar

The cheese cellar lay inside the hill, behind a wooden door as thick as a man's arm. Inside, it was cool and dim and smelled of damp stone. On every shelf from floor to ceiling, the round pale wheels sat in rows like sleeping animals. Willem had worked there for ten months, and he still touched the door frame every morning for luck.

Gudang keju itu terletak di dalam bukit, di balik pintu kayu setebal lengan orang dewasa. Di dalamnya sejuk, remang-remang, dan berbau batu lembap. Di setiap rak dari lantai sampai langit-langit, roda-roda keju pucat yang bundar tersusun berbaris seperti hewan yang sedang tidur. Willem sudah bekerja di sana selama sepuluh bulan, dan setiap pagi ia masih menyentuh kusen pintu untuk keberuntungan.

Oksana, the head cheesemaker, kept the cellar the way some people keep a promise. She turned the wheels by hand and tested them with a thin steel probe. She wrote every result into a notebook with a pencil that never seemed to get shorter. She was thirty-eight, she rarely raised her voice, and in ten months she had never told Willem that he was doing well.

Oksana, kepala pembuat keju, menjaga gudang itu seperti sebagian orang menjaga janji. Ia membalik roda-roda keju dengan tangan dan mengujinya dengan sebuah sonde baja tipis. Ia menuliskan setiap hasil ke dalam buku catatan dengan pensil yang tampaknya tidak pernah memendek. Usianya tiga puluh delapan tahun, ia jarang meninggikan suara, dan selama sepuluh bulan ia tidak pernah mengatakan kepada Willem bahwa pekerjaannya sudah baik.

On a Monday in spring, Willem finally spoke the thing he had been rehearsing for weeks. He stood at the washing table with a wet cloth in his hand. "I would like to run the cellar by myself for a week," he said.

Pada suatu hari Senin di musim semi, Willem akhirnya mengucapkan hal yang sudah berminggu-minggu ia latih. Ia berdiri di meja cuci dengan selembar kain basah di tangan. "Saya ingin mengelola gudang ini sendirian selama seminggu," katanya.

Oksana did not look up from her notebook. "Why?"

Oksana tidak mengangkat mata dari buku catatannya. "Kenapa?"

"Because I want to know whether I can." He swallowed. "You do everything. I follow. I do not know what happens when I am the one who decides."

"Karena saya ingin tahu apakah saya bisa." Ia menelan ludah. "Anda mengerjakan semuanya. Saya hanya mengikuti. Saya tidak tahu apa yang terjadi kalau sayalah yang memutuskan."

She wrote something down, closed the notebook, and finally looked at him. For a long moment her face gave nothing away.

Ia menulis sesuatu, menutup buku catatannya, dan akhirnya menatap Willem. Untuk beberapa saat yang panjang, wajahnya tidak menunjukkan apa-apa.

"I leave on Friday to visit my brother at the coast," she said. "I was going to ask the neighbours to check the cellar twice a day. If you want it, you can have the week. Every wheel, every bath, every number in the book."

"Hari Jumat aku berangkat mengunjungi kakakku di pantai," katanya. "Tadinya aku mau meminta para tetangga memeriksa gudang dua kali sehari. Kalau kamu menginginkannya, seminggu ini jadi milikmu. Setiap roda keju, setiap bak air garam, setiap angka di buku."

"Yes," Willem said. "Please."

"Ya," kata Willem. "Tolong."

"Then you will need this." She opened a drawer under the counter and took out an old steel stopwatch with a cracked glass face. She set it on the table between them. "Every brine bath in the cellar is timed with it. Forty minutes for the young wheels, fifty-five for the older ones. Write the times in the book and never skip an entry."

"Kalau begitu kamu akan memerlukan ini." Ia membuka laci di bawah meja dan mengeluarkan sebuah stopwatch baja tua dengan kaca muka yang retak. Ia meletakkannya di meja di antara mereka. "Setiap rendaman air garam di gudang ini diukur waktunya dengan benda ini. Empat puluh menit untuk roda yang muda, lima puluh lima untuk yang lebih tua. Tulis waktunya di buku dan jangan pernah melewatkan satu catatan pun."

Willem picked up the stopwatch. It was heavier than it looked, and the second hand moved smoothly around the dial. "Does it work properly?"

Willem mengambil stopwatch itu. Benda itu lebih berat daripada kelihatannya, dan jarum detiknya bergerak mulus mengitari piringan. "Apakah ini bekerja dengan benar?"

"It works," said Oksana, and she went back to her notebook.

"Bekerja," kata Oksana, lalu ia kembali ke buku catatannya.

On Friday morning she left with a small bag and a bag of apples, and the cellar became his. For the first two days he moved through it carefully, afraid of making a mistake. He turned the wheels in the order she had taught him. He washed the rinds. He started the stopwatch for each brine bath and wrote the minutes in the book. Every time he closed the wooden door behind him, he felt a quiet pride.

Pada hari Jumat pagi ia berangkat membawa tas kecil dan sekantong apel, dan gudang itu menjadi milik Willem. Selama dua hari pertama ia bergerak di dalamnya dengan hati-hati, takut membuat kesalahan. Ia membalik roda-roda keju sesuai urutan yang diajarkan Oksana. Ia mencuci kulitnya. Ia menyalakan stopwatch untuk setiap rendaman air garam dan menulis menitnya di buku. Setiap kali ia menutup pintu kayu di belakangnya, ia merasakan kebanggaan yang tenang.

On the third day something began to bother him. He had set the stopwatch for the fifty-five minute bath at nine in the morning. He had spent the time cleaning the shelves by the north wall. When he looked up, the stopwatch had just reached fifty-five minutes, but the cellar clock above the door said it was nearly ten past ten.

Pada hari ketiga, sesuatu mulai mengganggunya. Ia menyalakan stopwatch untuk rendaman lima puluh lima menit pada pukul sembilan pagi. Ia menghabiskan waktu itu dengan membersihkan rak-rak di dekat dinding utara. Ketika ia mendongak, stopwatch itu baru saja mencapai lima puluh lima menit, tetapi jam gudang di atas pintu menunjukkan hampir pukul sepuluh lewat sepuluh.

Willem frowned. He told himself that he had simply misread the clock, and he lifted the wheels out of the brine. But that evening the same thing happened with the young wheels. The stopwatch said forty minutes, and the cellar clock said fifty.

Willem mengernyit. Ia meyakinkan diri bahwa ia hanya salah membaca jam, lalu mengangkat roda-roda keju dari air garam. Tetapi sore itu hal yang sama terjadi pada roda yang muda. Stopwatch menunjukkan empat puluh menit, dan jam gudang menunjukkan lima puluh.

He sat down on an upturned crate, put the stopwatch beside the clock, and watched them both for ten full minutes. The big clock moved forward by ten minutes. The stopwatch moved by only eight.

Ia duduk di atas peti terbalik, meletakkan stopwatch di samping jam, dan mengamati keduanya selama sepuluh menit penuh. Jam besar maju sepuluh menit. Stopwatch hanya maju delapan.

"It runs slow," he said out loud to the empty cellar. "It has been running slow since Friday. And every bath I timed was too long."

"Dia berjalan lambat," katanya keras-keras kepada gudang yang kosong. "Sudah lambat sejak hari Jumat. Dan setiap rendaman yang kuukur terlalu lama."

He opened the notebook to the page of the previous weeks. In Oksana's neat pencil, the times for the same baths were marked with a small cross beside each number. The crosses were easy to miss, but they were everywhere. He had read the notebook a hundred times and never understood them.

Ia membuka buku catatan ke halaman minggu-minggu sebelumnya. Dengan pensil Oksana yang rapi, waktu untuk rendaman yang sama diberi tanda silang kecil di samping setiap angka. Tanda silang itu mudah terlewat, tetapi ada di mana-mana. Ia sudah membaca buku itu seratus kali dan tidak pernah memahaminya.

For a moment Willem felt sick. Nine wheels had spent far too long in the brine since Friday. If the salt had gone too deep, the cheeses would turn sharp and hard in a month. He thought about calling Oksana at the coast, and he put the idea down again. She had left him the cellar. She had also, he realised, left him a stopwatch that lied.

Sesaat Willem merasa mual. Sembilan roda keju sudah terlalu lama berendam di air garam sejak hari Jumat. Kalau garamnya sudah meresap terlalu dalam, keju-keju itu akan menjadi tajam dan keras dalam sebulan. Ia terpikir untuk menelepon Oksana di pantai, lalu mengurungkan niat itu. Oksana sudah menyerahkan gudang itu kepadanya. Ia juga, Willem sadar, sudah menyerahkan sebuah stopwatch yang berbohong.

He spent the rest of the evening doing arithmetic. The stopwatch lost two minutes in every ten. A fifty-five minute bath therefore had to end at forty-four on the dial, and a forty minute bath at thirty-two. He made a small chart and taped it to the shelf above the washing table. Then he carried the nine wheels to the sink and rinsed the salt from their rinds in cold water. He laid them on dry boards so the salt could spread evenly. He wrote the real times in the notebook, with a small cross beside each number.

Ia menghabiskan sisa malam itu dengan berhitung. Stopwatch itu kehilangan dua menit dalam setiap sepuluh menit. Jadi rendaman lima puluh lima menit harus berakhir pada angka empat puluh empat di piringan, dan rendaman empat puluh menit pada angka tiga puluh dua. Ia membuat bagan kecil dan menempelkannya di rak di atas meja cuci. Lalu ia membawa kesembilan roda itu ke bak cuci dan membilas garam dari kulitnya dengan air dingin. Ia membaringkannya di atas papan kering agar garamnya menyebar merata. Ia menulis waktu yang sebenarnya di buku catatan, dengan tanda silang kecil di samping setiap angka.

By Monday the cellar was working as it should. He checked each bath against the big clock, not the stopwatch. He checked each wheel by the sound of his knuckles on the rind. When the neighbour came with a basket of eggs, she looked around. She said that everything seemed in perfect order, and that she had not seen the cellar so tidy in years.

Pada hari Senin gudang itu sudah berjalan sebagaimana mestinya. Ia memeriksa setiap rendaman dengan jam besar, bukan stopwatch. Ia memeriksa setiap roda keju dari bunyi buku jarinya yang mengetuk kulitnya. Ketika tetangga datang membawa sekeranjang telur, ia melihat berkeliling. Ia berkata bahwa semuanya tampak sangat teratur, dan bahwa ia sudah bertahun-tahun tidak melihat gudang itu serapi ini.

Oksana returned on Friday evening, smelling of sea air and carrying a paper bag of shells for the kitchen. She walked straight to the shelves without taking off her coat and ran her hand along the rinds. She opened the notebook and read it in silence for a long time. Willem stood by the door and tried to look like someone who was not afraid.

Oksana kembali pada Jumat sore, beraroma udara laut dan membawa sekantong kertas berisi kerang untuk dapur. Ia berjalan langsung ke rak-rak tanpa melepas mantelnya dan menyusurkan tangan di sepanjang kulit keju. Ia membuka buku catatan dan membacanya dalam diam untuk waktu yang lama. Willem berdiri di dekat pintu dan berusaha tampak seperti orang yang tidak takut.

"You found the stopwatch," she said at last.

"Kamu menemukan stopwatch itu," katanya akhirnya.

"On the third day," he answered. "I rinsed nine wheels that had soaked too long. I think they will be fine. I should have noticed on the first day, and I am sorry."

"Pada hari ketiga," jawabnya. "Saya membilas sembilan roda yang terlalu lama berendam. Saya rasa keju-keju itu akan baik-baik saja. Seharusnya saya menyadarinya sejak hari pertama, dan saya minta maaf."

"Sorry for what? You noticed it." She closed the book. "I have owned that watch for fourteen years. I use it to teach people that the thing you trust most can be the thing that fools you. Everyone who has worked here has made the same mistake, though most of them wait a week to find it."

"Minta maaf untuk apa? Kamu menyadarinya." Ia menutup buku itu. "Aku sudah memiliki jam itu selama empat belas tahun. Aku memakainya untuk mengajari orang bahwa hal yang paling kita percayai bisa menjadi hal yang menipu kita. Setiap orang yang pernah bekerja di sini membuat kesalahan yang sama, meskipun sebagian besar baru menemukannya setelah seminggu."

"You knew it would happen," Willem said slowly. "You asked me to run the cellar, and you gave me a broken watch on purpose."

"Anda tahu ini akan terjadi," kata Willem pelan. "Anda meminta saya mengelola gudang, dan Anda sengaja memberi saya jam yang rusak."

"You asked for a week of deciding," Oksana said. "I gave you a week of deciding. A person who has only followed instructions has never had to decide anything. That is what a cellar is for."

"Kamu meminta seminggu untuk memutuskan," kata Oksana. "Aku memberimu seminggu untuk memutuskan. Orang yang hanya pernah mengikuti instruksi belum pernah harus memutuskan apa pun. Itulah gunanya sebuah gudang."

She took the stopwatch from the table, looked at it fondly, and put it in his hand.

Ia mengambil stopwatch itu dari meja, memandangnya dengan sayang, dan meletakkannya di tangan Willem.

"It is yours now," she said. "When the next apprentice comes, I will be watching how you teach it."

"Sekarang ini milikmu," katanya. "Ketika murid magang berikutnya datang, aku akan memperhatikan bagaimana kamu mengajarkannya."