The Girl and a Used Book Store
I was standing there in a moment of indecisiveness on the
side street of Kuta, Bali on a hot sticky afternoon with none whatsoever
appealing options of where to go when this girl blurted out something about
going to a used book store she accidentally saw the day before, somewhere in one
of the nearby streets.
Breaking apart from the mainstream crowd we started walking
a long stretch block on the narrow sidewalk amongst the cluttered traffic of
motorbikes and cars not really sure if it was the right street. Still, I
preferred getting lost rather than tolerating anymore lame jokes and self
righteous remarks from the wannabes big shots vacationers.
My usual wandering mind started to play its funny tricks
again as we walked the street. Somehow the weather forecast started to change
drastically inside my head as the humid tropical heat started to evaporate and
was replaced by the cool autumn breeze escorted with a soft voice of Suzanne
Vega’s poetic folky song playing in the background. What triggered all that was
probably my usual erratic banging in the head that connects useless series of
separate events into one big scenario. Maybe it was from the search for this
used book store and the fact that I have once lent her one of Haruki Murakami’s
book while we were listening to one of Vega’s literate poem like lyrics. As for
the autumn breeze, well I guessed it goes well with the music which by the way
transcended from another episode of another long walk and staying up late in
some Mediterranean spot.
The blast of car horns brought me back to reality and I
heard her soft happy cried pointing to the book store across the street on our
right side. The noise of the steel chimes broke out as we opened the door
alerting the middle aged proprietor of his out of towner customers. We started
to make small conversation about his book collections as she browsed around the
store that only has one ceiling fan working desperately to fight the heat.
Although not really in the mood of buying anything as I almost ran out of cash I
did notice the store has quite a collection of old and new books. Sitting there
in the heat I heard she mumbled some apology about having to make me wait while
she went over some list of books that she was searching. I smiled within
realizing how little did she knew that being in that book store she has taken me
to my first and probably only comfort zone during this trip. Finding some of the
book she was looking and paying for them we exchange greetings with the friendly
owner and walked out the door.
Walking towards the directions of the rendezvous point with
the rest of the group we realized that we still have some time to kill. Needing
some cold drinks to ease the heat we stop at one of the sidewalk café and sat on
the bar. As we sat there and sipping my cold Rolling Rock beer I knew then that her
searched for an old used book store on some unknown street has salvaged me from
closely having an unmemorable trip even if it was to happened on the last day
just moments before we were to leave for the airport and flew back to Jakarta.
Tropical
South Of The Border, West Of The Sun