Front of House

Classic gleaming black stilettos pointing the young girl’s route out and away. Doubtful that sheen could have been delivered by spit and polish, or even the best creams; under this sun particularly. Pretty office lass unlikely to have a maid. Could Bapak and Mami stretch expenses that far? The girl’s own earnings would not suffice. Blouse like that one day wear; maybe Monday & week’s end. Immediately she stepped from the tiles of the café an awkward landing and twisting her ankle. Oh! Ya! Smiles for her understanding friend... What a passage the lovely would need to pick along that broken pavement, that higgledy-piggledy shambles of a track on Sabang. Truly defied belief that; surely there must have been similar footwear worn by ladies in the days before that had somehow passed completely without notice. Difficult to credit. There was a desk in one of the smaller towers within the street itself here where a flower chosen by the girl sat in a pot, a telephone ringing incessantly shaking the stem. Stairs; no lift. One of the taller towers further off was not possible—the Sweet would never have been able to make it.

Do the Scarves truly envy girls like her, the ones brought up right?

            As elsewhere, talk here on this street would ease everything, lessening the oppressiveness, the heat and even the hardship of poverty. Sharing around the pals while you scratched the bottom of your sole and your toes, like the fellow manning the STEMPEL desk directly outside the cafe. (Loosely speaking: a street stand rather. A camera could not be inflicted upon the man.)

Stamps, labels, office signage of the pre-digi form. The crippled off-sider today might be an elder brother—motorbike, what else?

Jl. Sabang it was still commonly called, despite the formally updated Hajji Agus Salim.

Notwithstanding predominant Islam in Indonesia, the Chinese ran the show that counted, the Stempel man suggested when he was done with his pedicure.

Worse still in Thailand and Burma, the man added, passing his forefinger over his throat.