THE OLD HOTEL

By: Budi Darma

The meeting was prolonged until evening and it was not possible for me to return to
Surabaya. There was coincidentally a hilarious-faced taxi driver in the convention hall yard,
acting as if he was special waiting for me. "Many were going to take my taxi, but I refused it," he
said.
About a half an hour later, the taxi entered the yard of an old and slum hotel.
The taxi driver said, "It’s a new hotel, made old-look. Classic. It seems slum, but it’s
clean. "
A clown-suit staff picked me up in a hurry, led me to the receptionist. The receptionist
looked at me with a keen eye, then with a concealed smile invited me to fill the visitor list, then
said, "The boss gave an order, honored visitors don't have to pay. Staying, eating, washing,
telephoning will be covered by the hotel. "
The elevator headed to my room on the fifth floor was very slow, shaking, and noisy. It
almost fell apart. The lights are dim, the smell is musty.
The room was apparently nice, wide, and clean. There were pans and frying pans, but no
kitchen. There's a hammer, but there's no nail. There was a rice pounder, but no mortar. There
was an air rifle, but it's empty. And there were all sorts of things that seemed able to make some
noises.
There was a blurry writing appeared on a thin paper in the drawer: "The hotel is
unaccountable for the use of all tools in the room"
A short time later, two hotel staff knocked on the door, asked me to meet their boss on
the 10th floor. The lights were dim, the smell was musty.
Their boss sat in a wheelchair and when he saw me, he exclaimed, "Welcome, Burhan."
He introduced himself with name Wibowo, an Indonesian name, and he named himself
Pedro in the Philippines, Prangsang in Thailand, Nikimura in Japan, and Sagan in France.
Depending on which country he is in. Then he showed off that he spoke many languages.
"You might don't recognize me. I came a few years after you graduated as a doctor of
philosophy from University of Indiana."

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 He turned on a laptop and information about me was displayed completed by the pictures
that were partly dull and partly convincing. There was also an unclear video when I helped a dog
in the Jordan River.
"You looked calm when you were dealing with naked women," he said and alternately
pointing at me and the picture on the screen.
When I was a student, I was indeed asked several times by the advertising agency to
select the models, but I didn't expect all my movements to be captured by a camera and video.
"If you want to know my real name, I'm Johny, Johny Gallagher. I have various bloods; I
never know who I really am. French blood is there, German blood is there, Ukrainian blood is
there, and other bloods. You must know, there used to be a textile factory in Ngagel Surabaya.
Not far from the tomb. At the corner of the intersection. The owner was once a World War I
soldier. He was one of my ancestors. "
After staring at me for such a long time, he said, "Why are you silent, Burhan?"
"I kind of interested in your story. It feels like recognize you. "
He paused for a moment, and then launched his wheelchair towards the piano. He played
the Madonna song, "Don't Cry for Me Argentina", from the movie of Evita Peron. Evita was
born from a very poor family; she had been a cheesy prostitute to survive. Because of her strong
personality and smart brain, she was married to Juan Peron, the President of Argentina, who was
able to survive with an iron fist for up to three terms of office. Under the influence of Evita,
Argentina became prosperous. In the song "Don’t Cry for Me Argentina", Madonna succeeded to
live the bitter life of Evita and the people of Argentina, and the man in the wheelchair was also
able to live the soul of Evita through his piano show.
After playing the piano, he returned to his laptop, then played the movie trailer, and said,
"Look! One of the crowds is me. There he is who sings in a low voice, escorting the
heartbreaking voice of Madonna. "
"You're awesome, Johny," I said.
His face was mediocre, then he said, "You're better, Burhan. I know you are your father
admirer, a traveling salesman. You were taught in a good way to shoot flying birds with air guns.
In seven shots, seven birds fell one by one, as if it’s falling from heaven to hell. Remember, I
have a lot of information about you. "

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 He was silent for a minute. Then in his wheelchair he slid into a cupboard, took a book,
then slid back toward me, and then put the book on the table.
"I know, after you graduated from University of Indiana in Bloomington, you had
returned to Bloomington several times."
"I have eyes and ears in Bloomington. And I can imagine, there was a bright student, who
was capable of making trouble. One night in December, when winter was at its peak and the
snow was falling violently, a bunch of naked male students were banging on the door of the
female student dormitory, pretending to be scared of being chased by a wolf pack. The door
opened, several female students fainted. When the police were reported, they even burst out
laughing. I can imagine, the head of a group of the naked students must be smart. "
After that, as if I was enchanted, I had no idea what I was doing. I felt like walking in my
dream, secretly stalked by the two hotel staff. And I also felt that there were quite a number of
hotel visitors. I see many visitors were in and out of their rooms on each floor.
As soon as I entered the room, my drowsiness went away and my mind wandered to the
event in the lift. All lifts were Otis brands. I turned on the laptop, then I typed Otis and so much
information popped up about Elisha Otis, the inventor of the first lift in the world. Otis's first lift
was slow, jiggling, and noisy. And now many people wanted to use the Otis lift, which was safe,
but slowly, jiggling, felt like falling, and rowdy. Many people, especially rich men, could not let
themselves out from longing on the past.
Shortly, three hotel staff knocked on the door, expressing their apologies that their boss
had forgotten to give the book on the table. The book was written by Johny Gallagher, titled
Psycho-Revenge: The Imperative Human Needs, dedicated to Burhan, the author of the book
New Paradigm of Psycho-Revenge. Revenge, that’s what written partly in the sentences in the
book, it’s deniable in human instincts. There are also excerpts of stories about stolen letters,
adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe's short story, "The Purloined Letter", about the competition of
love and revenge, led to death. This was the story.

1. The Minister was having a discussion with the Queen, and then suddenly the King came. The
King knew that the Queen was trying to keep the King in the dark of the letter in her hand, but
she could not hide it. When the King and the Queen's attention was not on the letter, the Minister
replaced the letter with another one alike from his pocket.

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2. The Queen realized later that the letter in her hand had been lost and she immediately
suspected the Minister. As soon as the Minister left, the Queen commanded the Chief and his
men to search in the Minister's residence. The Chief and his men gave everything they had trying
to find the letter, but, they apparently could not find anything.
3. Out of desperation, the Queen asked for help from Dupin. According to Dupin, it was
impossible that the letter was hidden in the Minister's residence. If it was hidden, the letter would
definitely be found. Since it was nowhere to be not found, then the letter was surely not hidden.
Finally he did find the letter. It was placed in such a way that later when he returned to the
Minister's residence, he could replace the letter with another one alike.
4. Dupin came again and then replaced the letter with a fake one. The letter was returned to the
Queen by Dupin and the Minister then realized that he would soon be fired. A note in that fake
letter stated that Dupin's action against the Minister was revenge. Back in the day, when Dupin
and the Minister were still young, they fought over a girlfriend and the Minister with his guile
could beat Dupin.
My drowsiness came again. Shortly before falling asleep I still took time to wonder why
Johny Gallagher's face looked blank when I told him about a bunch of the naked students. It's as
if he didn't feel that I was talking about him.
I was suddenly thrown and standing unexpectedly close to the table, holding a paper with
a blurry writing, "The hotel is unaccountable for the use of all tools in the room". The hotel was
shaking with harsh shouts, clash voices, and hard objects banged against the wall and somewhere
else.
My imagination turned to reality. Johny Gallagher used to be the leader of the Beta Kapa
Kapa hostel and he had the best recipe to reduce students’ stress. One of them was by sending a
bunch of naked students. He acted on behalf of students be like, but in fact it was for his own
interests. He was problematic, and on behalf of students, he used them. Then, on certain nights,
he commanded his friends to shout out loud, cursed, and banged with anything and to anyone,
for ten minutes. For reducing stress as well. It was then. Now he must be more cunning.
By pressing a button and causing a very noisy ring in all area of the hotel, Johny
Gallagher enchanted all the visitors to shout out loud, cursed, and beat each other if necessary.
All tools to beat were available in the room. They punched each other, beat each other, and hit

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each other head with a hammer if necessary. And they were allowed to be out of the room to
chase other visitors.