ParkBench, Come Sit With Me

I was standing there in a moment of indecisiveness on the side street of Kuta 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 prefer 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 replace by the cool light 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 horn 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 conversations 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 noticed 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 cafe and sit on the bar. Sitting there sipping my cold beer and talking to her I knew then that her search for an old used book store on some unknown street has salvaged me from closely having an unmemorable trip even if it was to happen on the last day.