A Kinokuniya Horror Story: Sunday Survey Halloween Edition
Sunday Survey Halloween Edition
A Kinokuniya Horror Story
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It’s one of those things that get repeated through murmurs behind the cashier counters and back office doors of Kinokuniya’s flagship store in Indonesia: “Did you know that there are ghosts around here?”
If you work in the bookstore or happen to want to work there, you’ll hear it eventually. Either from the mouth of the person who experienced the ghostly encounters or the rumors that have since become something akin to urban legends. But you don’t have to work in the bookstore to hear about them… because we’re here now to tell you all about it.
The one who met the ghost is A-san. Who is she? “I’m an employee in the bookstore,” she answers. Which department? “The one that orders the books, now. But back then, I just started out. So I was in the department that deals with people’s book inquiries and complaints about service.” Does she read books? “Obsessively.” Does A-san have a a sixth sense? “Well,” she begins, “maybe. When I was young my parents told me I was able to see spirits and all but they told me my ‘third eye’ or something like that was ‘shut off’. Whatever that means.” Does she believe in ghosts? “Yes,” she affirms. “I mean, we live in Indonesia. If any place in the world is Supernatural Central of the world, it’s this country.”
Nicely put. But unfortunately for her, believing meant seeing. And one day, back in 2005, she saw ‘it’.
The morning started like any other. A-san came to work, sat down and booted her computer. It didn’t take long for the emails to flood her inbox. The emails always flooded the inbox of customer_service@kinokuniya.co.id. She was only hoping she didn’t have to read any angry ones. Sometimes the book inquiries would take her the whole day to reply but she would take that anytime of any day compared to the complaints. Ever since being accepted into the company the year before, the complaint emails had been the one thing she dreaded most in her job.
There was a minor complaint and a string of inquiries but they were nothing she couldn’t handle. She began typing the responses and quickly lost herself in the task. Half an hour passed by and she was still typing. Another half an hour of keyboard-tapping and mouse-clicking, three mails were ready to be sent. But there was one email she couldn’t answer: it was asking about a stationery product, which she had now knowledge of whatsoever, and the time on the email stated that it had arrived on the inbox since the previous evening. She made a mental note, as well as a real one, to ask the then-stationery merchandiser, a certain Mr. TS (the Office Joker and liked to fire jokes in Sundanese), about the product.
She continued the correspondences, settling back in her chair and not wanting to leave her desk to search for Mr. TS just yet. Then halfway through responding to another batch of inquiries, she saw him. Mr. TS passed by in front of her door at around 10 A.M., wearing a white shirt and a pair of brown trousers. Her first reaction was to gasp and raise her hand, as if to call him so she could wave him inside her room. But her eyes happened to glance at the monitor and saw that two more emails had arrived. She lowered her hand instinctively and settled back down to work on them. Mr. TS passed.
“Fine. I’ll just talk to him later,” she said to her self and Mr. TS disappeared from her view. She thought nothing more about it.
A few hours later, A-san was summoned by her boss. He asked her, “Can you call TS for me? I need to talk to him about something.”
A-san, remembering that she still needed to talk to TS, immediately set out to get him. The problem was that she couldn’t find him. The back office area was not a big place. It was just around 200 or 300 square meters and it didn’t have small partitioned cubicles; the space was wide open and several rows of desks and chairs were positioned next to one another without too much enclosure. Anyone could see where everyone sat and at that moment, Mr. TS was not sitting anywhere in the office. Neither was he sitting or standing anywhere in the selling floor. A-san made sure she circled the store more than once to look for him but she just couldn’t find him.
Thinking that perhaps he went out, she asked the Stationery staff for their section head’s whereabouts. “Has Mr. TS returned from lunch?”
The staff stared at her in confusion. “Mr. TS? He’s not in today.”
“Really?” A-san replied. And wasn’t that weird? “I swear I saw him this morning at around 10,” she told the staff.
“How is that possible?” the staff responded. “Today is Mr. TS’ day off and at around 10 I was on the phone with him.”
A-san talked her co-workers in the office, all of whom confirmed that they didn’t see Mr. TS that day. Some of them, who had been in the office since the morning, didn’t even recall seeing any man bearing any resemblance to Mr. TS in Kinokuniya for the whole day at all. Another one even confirmed that that day was Mr. TS’ day off and said, “You probably saw a ghost.”
A-san laughed it off although even to her ears her laughter sounded nervous. She returned to her room and reported Mr. TS’ absence to her boss, who grumbled a little about it, but then the working day continued as usual.
The next day Mr. TS showed up and heard about A-san’s intense search for him the day before. He was amused that A-san seemed to have insisted that he’d been there when, in reality, he had been at home enjoying his off day. He suggested that perhaps what A-san saw was a spirit that liked to play with people’s eyes by adopting the appearance of others. Jokingly, she answered, “Yes, that must be it.”
A few days later, A-san was handling customer inquiries at the Customer Service counter. A cashier staff – who is older and had been working there longer than A-san – approached her and asked, “Did you really see someone who wasn’t here the other day?”
A-san nodded her confirmation. The staff then said, “I see you’ve finally met the ghost who likes to impersonate people. You’re not the first one. And you probably won’t be the last. Maybe one day you’ll see her again.”
As if speaking a prophecy, the cashier staff’s words were proven true a couple of years later. A-san saw her senior colleague, E-san, at her desk in the morning but later in the day when someone asked her where E-san was, she couldn’t find her.
All she could say was: “I could have sworn I saw her this morning at her desk, wearing her brown suit.” She paused. “But I think I just met the ghost who likes to impersonate others… again.”
THE END
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Tell us your horror stories in the comment section below for Halloween. You can write in English and/or Indonesian. The most haunting stories will get a chance to appear in Kinokuniya’s Holiday Catalogue 2011, coming out in December. Happy Halloween!
The Narrative Of John Smith: Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost Manuscript
Who doesn’t know Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? He is only one of the most famous classic authors in the world of English literature. His Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are legendary and all the mysteries that he wrote are perennial bestsellers in perhaps every bookstore on the planet.
The Sherlock Holmes are his most popular works but it was not the first novel Conan Doyle ever wrote. At the age of merely 23 and struggling to make a living as a writer. As he wanted to gain importance as a writer, Conan Doyle then decided to finally write a novel. This novel’s name was The Narrative Of John Smith.
But if you don’t recognize the name of this book, fear not. For it was never published until this year.
Conan Doyle’s told the story of the manuscript on The Idler Magazine (published in January 1893), which shed some light on why it was never published.
So I wrote another of my first books and sent it off to the publishers. Alack and alas for the dreadful thing that happened! The publishers never received it, the post office sent countless blue forms to say that they knew nothing about it, and from that day to this no word has ever been heard of it. Of course it was the best thing I ever wrote. Who ever lost a manuscript that wasn’t? (Source)
Fortunately for all Conan Doyle admirers and scholars, the manuscript had now been found. Its first discovery in modern times occurred during a Conan Doyle sale at the auction house, Christie’s, in 2004. It was then purchased by The British Library and put on display in December 2004. In September 2011, the British Library has finally published the book commercially for the first time.
The book may be incomplete and look to be comprised of the author’s opinions on several issues (literature, science, religion, etc.) that are told through the voice of the narrator John Smith. It’s unlike the Sherlock Holmes mysteries where cases are solved through deductive reasoning, involving plot and action and the collaboration between Holmes and Watson. However, the Conan Doyle fans will be able to see just how their favorite author came to be one of the most successful writers in his era. The book provides a window to the one of the great literary minds of all time and it will not disappoint.
This title is available now in Kinokuniya Bookstores of Jakarta.
Further reading: Source 1 | Source 2 | Source 3 | Amazon.co.uk
Vintage 21st Anniversary Editions in Kinokuniya Jakarta
To celebrate its 21st anniversary, this year Vintage Books, an imprint of Random House, released 21 new editions of the the publishing house’s perennial titles. Designed by Suzanne Dean, Random House’s design chief, the new collection of Vintage’s literature favorites feature a single vivid color for each of the book. The book edges are colored to match so that the color encompass all of the dimensions. When stacked together, they form a rainbow with many hues while each individual books appear vibrant and candy-like.
Vintage is very well-known for releasing editions with thematic designs. The Vintage Classics series is perhaps one of the most beautifully designed classical series. Its covers never fail to capture readers’ attention and encourage book lovers everywhere to grab them despite perhaps having already owned a copy of the book. Among our favorites are Vintage Classic’s Italo Calvino’s collection, as well as Anthony Burgess’. And who could forget their Vintage Loves Film special editions from the summer of 2010? No one makes movie tie-ins the way Vintage does: with classy uber-cool black/white covers that is devoid of gimmick and featuring the most poignant line from each of the book.
This year, that tradition of creating eye candy covers continues as Vintage makes these 21 titles available in new colors. But the physical aspect of the books is not the only thing that makes the book attractive. The stories themselves are enough reason for anyone to want to buy, hold or simply touch. From readers’ favorites The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and The Time Traveler’s Wife to Man Booker Prize-winning creations from authors Salman Rushdie, Anne Enright and A.S. Byatt, Vintage makes sure to include all the right titles to serve a broad range of audience. Whether it’s the life of heroin addicts or Arthur Kipps’ ghostly encounter in the decrepit Eel Marsh House, Vintage will have something to offer you.
Here is the complete line-up of Vintage’s 21st Anniversary editions:
1. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
2. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
3. Arthur & George by Julian Barnes
4. Money by Martin Amis
5. The Road Home by Rose Tremaine
6. The Gathering by Anne Enright
7. Atonement by Ian McEwan
8. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
9. A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks
10. The Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor
11. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres
12. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
13. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
14. Possession by A.S. Byatt
15. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
16. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
17. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
18. Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
19. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
20. Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
21. American Pastoral by Philip Roth
These editions are now available in Kinokuniya Jakarta. See how they’re displayed and, remember, these are books… not candies. Read them, don’t eat them, but do devour them all the same.
