THE POLICE LINE

KISAH CINTA SI GADIS PENJAGA TOKO
posted by:citra yudha erlangga

Judul : Shopgirl
Penulis : Steve Martin
Penerbit : Theia Books, New York
Jumlah hal : 130 halaman

“Don’t judge a book by its title.”
Mungkin itulah yang bisa menggambarkan buku berjudul sederhana karya Steve Martin ini. Meski saya akui, saat menemukan buku ini di toko buku bekas dekat rumah, saya sendiri sempat underestimate pada awalnya. Hanya karena, judulnya mengingatkan saya pada salah satu judul buku chicklit—Shopaholic something.

Namun saat menimbang-nimbang buku bersampul merah dengan foto tampak belakang seorang gadis berambut panjang ini, sontak saya teringat dengan satu percakapan bersama salah seorang teman saya, Diana Tri Wulandari.

TW—begitu saya biasa memanggilnya adalah seorang pelahap buku yang rakus. Di luar hobi masak dan kecintaannya pada balap mobil, TW banyak melahap buku filsafat, postmodernisme, psikologi, dan sastra.

Karenanya, saya agak heran, saat ia menyelipkan nama Steve Martin dalam percakapan ketika kami pulang bersama.
“Steve Martin tuh bukannya yang sering main film-film komedi ya?” tanya saya dengan dahi berkerut—Steve Martin bermain dalam Roxanne, Father of the Bride, Parenthood, The Spanish Prisoner, L.A Story, dan Bowfinger.

“Iya. Nah, ternyata dia itu kolumnis New York Times, Jo—panggilan teman-teman kampus pada saya. Dan ternyata tulisannya bagus, lho. Kontemplatif gitu, Jo. Mungkin akting komedi untuk menyeimbangkan hidupnya kali, ya,” jawab TW terkekeh-kekeh.
“Oya?” tanya saya masih sangsi.
“Iya, Jo. Dan tulisannya deskriptif banget. Lo pasti suka, deh.”
***

Well, TW benar.
Dari kalimat pertama “When you work in the glove department at Neiman’s, you are selling things that nobody buys anymore,” saja saya sudah terpikat.
Terlebih saat kalimat itu dilanjutkan dengan deskripsi Martin tentang tokoh utama dalam buku ini, Mirabelle—the shopgirl. “Everyone is silent at Neiman’s, as though it were a religious site, and Mirabelle always tries to quiet the tap-tap-tapping of her heels when she walk across the percussive marble floors. If you saw her, you would assume by her gait that she is in danger of slipping at any moment. However, that is the way Mirabelle walks all the time, even on the sure friction of a concrete sidewalk. She has simply never quite learned to walk or hold herself comfortably, which makes her come off as an attractive wallflower.”
Nah, siapa yang tak jatuh cinta dengan deskripsi semacam itu?
***

Bagi saya, plot buku ini sendiri bisa dibilang sederhana.
Dimana Mirabelle—seorang penjaga toko sarung tangan Neiman’s di Los Angeles—sempat berkencan bersama seorang pria muda bernama Jeremy. Tak diduga, tampilan rapuh gadis yang piawai melukis ini ternyata malah menarik perhatian seorang pengusaha kaya bernama Ray Porter. Ray yang terpikat pada Mirabelle pun mengiriminya sepasang sarung tangan mahal ke apartemen Mirabelle.
Setelah melewati beberapa makan malam bersama Ray, Mirabelle pun memutuskan untuk berkencan bersama pria yang umurnya nyaris dua kali lipat dari umurnya ini.

Enam bulan berkencan dengan Mirabelle, Ray pergi ke luar kota untuk suatu perjalanan bisnis. Di sana, ia tidur dengan wanita lain. Pun one night stand itu digambarkan Ray sebagai “It was not romantic or intimate, and I did not stay the night with this person,” dalam suratnya kepada Mirabelle di halaman 97, namun, pada akhirnya mereka memutuskan untuk berpisah. Keputusan yang pada akhirnya, membawa Mirabelle kembali pada Jeremy.

Sebuah plot yang cukup sederhana.

Namun lagi-lagi, kesederhanaan plot itu dibungkus oleh Martin dengan pita rangkaian kata yang cantik. Dengan telatennya, ia menyelami sisi kehidupan setiap tokoh. Mulai dari cara mereka duduk, cara mereka makan, cara mereka menerima telepon, apa yang dimakan mereka saat weekend, rutinitas pagi mereka, cara mereka mengatur pencahayaan dalam rumah, dan detil-detil lainnya yang tak hanya dideskripsikan secara suasana oleh Martin, namun juga deskripsi emosi.

Tak jarang, satu subbab hanya mengisahkan tentang satu tokoh saja, atau hanya tentang satu kejadian, atau bahkan tentang satu hari saja. Misalnya “Monday”, “Jeremy”, “The Weekend”, atau “Mr Ray Porter.”

Dalam subbab “Mr Ray Porter” di halaman 36, misalnya. Dimana pada paragraf pertamanya, Martin mendeskripsikan ketertarikan Ray pada Mirabelle.

Martin menuliskan “There is nothing too mysterious about Ray Porter, at least in the unusual sense of the word. He is single, he is kind, and he does not understand himself, or women, or his relationships with women. But there is one truth about him that can be said of a man who asks a woman to dinner before he has ever exchanged one personal word with her. Mr Ray Porter is on the prowl. He does not know Mirabelle, he has only seen her. He has responded to something visceral, but that visceral thing is only in him, not between them. Not yet. He only imagines the character that unites her clothes, her skin, and her body. He has imagined the pleasure of touching her, and imagined her pleasure at being touched. She is a feminine object that tweaks him at his animal best.”
Yang dilanjutkan di halaman 37 dengan “His attraction to Mirabelle is not random. He is not out and about sending gloves all over the city. His action is a very spontaneous and specific response to something in her. It may have been her stance: at twenty yards she looks off-kilter and appealing. Or maybe it was her two pinpoint eyes that made her look innocent and vulnerable. Whatever it is, it started from an extremely small place that Mr Ray Porter never could have identified.”
***
“Six month pass unnoticed as Ray and Mirabelle live in a temporary and poorly constructed heaven, with him flying in and out, visiting her, taking her to fine restaurant, then back to his place, sometimes sleeping with her, sometimes not” (hal 96).
Termasuk di dalamnya: mengantarkan Mirabelle ke dokter saat persediaan Serzone—obat antidepresan—nya habis. Ya, Mirabelle menderita depresi. Depresi yang telah menjadi teman hidupnya, sejak ia tumbuh di Vermont.
Depresi yang dideskripsikan Martin di subbab “Girl Friday” (hal 81).
“Locked in the darkness of her car, with the wipers set on periodic, she feels uneasy. The night scares her. Then the uneasiness gives way to a momentary and frightening levitation of her mind above her body. She can feel her spirit disconnect from her corporeal self, and her heart starts racing. She had felt its calling card months earlier, this unwelcome visitor in her body, who seemed to fly through her and then was gone. This time it is stronger than before, and it stays longer. It is a though her body is held down by weights and her mind is being methodically disassembled.
…The phone rings but she cannot answer. She hears Ray Porter leave a message. She drags herself to bed without eating. She closes her eyes, and the depression helps her sleep. Sleep, however, is not relief. The depression is not go away, politely waiting to come back in the morning when she is refreshed. It stays, and tonight it works on Mirabelle even as she sleeps, poisoning her dreams.” (hal 82)

Depresi ini jugalah yang dialami saat Ray berselingkuh.

Setelah menenangkan diri di Vermont usai membaca surat Ray, Mirabelle memutuskan untuk kembali bersama Ray. “Mirabelle no longer knows what she believes about her relationship with Mr Ray Porter. She no longer asks herself questions about it; she simply resides in it. Ray continues to see her, pays off her credit card debt and student loan, replaces her truck. These gifts, though he doesn’t know it, are given so that she will be all right after he leaves her.” (hal 106).
Bagaimanapun “Ray and Mirabelle’s relationship does not collapse that day; it subtly dwindles over the next six months. There are fits and starts, but they can all be graphed on a downward slope. He takes her to dinners, drives her home, hugs her goodnight. Sex is over. Ray finally grasps that he is giving her nothing and that he has to think for the both of them and separate from them. He pulls back and she reflexively, protectively, does the same. She hits bottom,” (hal 121).

Dalam kondisi ini, Mirabelle memutuskan pergi ke San Fransisco untuk menjadi pelukis profesional. Di sana, ia bertemu kembali dengan Jeremy. “Mirabelle takes months to accept Jeremy, and Jeremy patiently waits. And as he stands by, his feelings for Mirabelle grow. One night, she cries in his arms when a recollection of Ray flirts with her memory, and he holds her and doesn’t say a word. Where his insight comes from as he courts her, even he doesn’t know. It might have been that he was ready to grow up, and the knowledge was already in him, like a dormant gene,” (hal 126).

Beberapa bulan kemudian—after the hard edges of their breakup had smoothed into forgetfulness (hal 129)—Mirabelle menelpon Ray. “They reminisce about their affair and she tells him how he helped her and he tells her how she helped him, then he apologizes for the way he handled everything. ‘Oh, no … don’t,’ she corrects him: ‘it’s pain that changes our lives.’ And there is a pause, and neither speaks. Then Mirabelle says, ‘I took the gloves to Vermont and stored them in my memory box—my mother asked me what they were but I kept it to mysef—and here in my bedroom, in my private drawer, I keep a photo of you’, ” (hal 130)
***

Bagi saya, membaca buku ini perlu kesabaran tersendiri.

Tak hanya minim kalimat langsung, ada kalanya deskripsi detil Martin justru melelahkan. Apalagi saat kita sudah kadung “kelaparan” dengan ending cerita.
Tapi mungkin itulah seninya menikmati buku karya Steve Martin yang pernah memenangkan Emmy Award untuk penulisan naskah TV ini.
Dengan plot sederhananya, ia tak dimaksudkan sebagai “main course” yang berat, ataupun “appetizer” yang menggoda. Bagi saya, buku ini lebih seperti “dessert”. Ibarat cake yang kaya krim. Seperti tiramisu.
Dan bagaimana caranya menikmati “buku tiramisu” ini?
Sederhana saja. Cuil sedikit demi sedikit. Rasakan “krim” kata-kata ini lumer di mulut dan kepala, dan “kunyahlah” pelan-pelan.
Selamat “makan”!