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KISAH CINTA SI GADIS PENJAGA TOKO

Oleh Retnadi Nur’aini

 

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. .

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”!

 ***