Filed under: Season 3
ratna.dmyt: Hows the new building?
erie.nugroho: It’s alright.
ratna.dymt: Seriously?
erie.nugroho: All right, all right. I love my new building. Damn rat, this building is like so cool. To the extreme. The view is amazing, but only if you get the side of the building where you can see all of Sudirman. Amazing how many buildings we have on that road.
ratna.dmyt: I’m so jealous right now. Totally. While the whole magazine division has moved to the new building, all the other divisions are here to rot in this…shit-hole.
erie.nugroho: Don’t say that rat. The BNI 46 building is a very nice building. It’s not bad.
ratna.dmyt: Well compared to the building you’re using now, ours look like a pig sty. By the way, what internet service are you using there?
erie.nugroho: Three letters. C B N.
ratna.dmyt: NO. How fast?
erie.nugroho: Facebook Home takes exactly half a second to open.
ratna.dmyt: I hate you so much right now Ri. How dare you leave me in this ugly building with the stupid coffee machine that never works and the shitty Telkom Speedy internet? You’re a traitor to the whole TV division you know. Just wait until tomorrow, when the whole building will find out of your new Talavera building and you’re oh so classy internet provider.
erie.nugroho: Chill my dear. But please, keep it on the down low. Anyway, if it makes you feel better, we have to walk to Citos to get Starbucks. For you, you just need to go down the elevators and wall-ah, it’s right there.
ratna.dmyt: True, true. So, why haven’t you gone home? Are you magazine people pulling an all-nighter tonight?
erie.nugroho: No. It’s just, I don’t know if I want to part from my new super speedy internet access anytime soon. Cecilia’s still in her office. It’s 7 p.m. and I have no idea why she hasn’t gone out of her office since she got back here from lunchtime. Usually she doesn’t even come back after lunch. I was just about to ask if she wants dinner. But she shut all her blinds, so I’m a bit weary.
ratna.dmyt: Ahahahaha, I wonder what she’s doing in there.
erie.nugroho: OMFG. You will never believe who just arrived on our floor.
ratna.dmyt: Who? Who?!
erie.nugroho: Charles and James. With their “mistresses”.
ratna.dmyt: OMG, are you serious? Like the four of them? Now?
erie.nugroho: C U. Time to greet them. Bye.
erie.nugroho has left the conversation.
Sudirman tonight: Erie Nugroho was indulged in an online chat with her friend Ratna Damayanti when they came. Two of the most powerful men in her company. One of them was Charles Muhammad, a Malaysian man sick of his country and has fled to Indonesia. Charles is head of the television division of Gondokusumo Media Group. He is a very tall, huge man with perfect english speaking skills. He looks smart, and really he is. Too bad his intentions usually include crushing people’s career and naked women. The other one is James Pudjiadi, executive director of all the divisions at Gondokusumo Media Group. Unlike Charles whose worked for his position, James easily earned a high-ranking position at his family’s company when he finished college.
While stupid Nate Archibald would easily turn down an opportunity at a high ranking career he feel he doesn’t deserve, there are people out there who would take those opportunities and let those other people, who deserve it more than him/her, to go fuck themselves instead. James is one of those people. He’s not smart and his english reeks of faked Australian accent with a dab of Singaporean accent, but he’s super rich. Like totally. The Gondokusumo Media Group is a very powerful company in Indonesia. They’re offices are based in the BNI 46, but the most recent stunt was taken by Cecilia Kusmulyana, the head of the magazine division. Who, under her own cost, moved the whole magazine division to the new Talavera office building in Cilandak. She is a powerful woman, and Erie was her assistant. The presence of Charles and James on this unusual night can only mean one thing. Someone is about to be taken down.
“Hello,” said Wanda, James’ beautiful, dark-haired, pixie-like assistant. “James and Charles would like to see Cecil,” she says to Erie. Wanda was Erie’s enemy. It was a mutual hate shared among them. But it was shared. Shared to the other assistant next to Wanda. Charles’ assistant, Stefani. Wanda and Stefani have been rooting for Erie’s job since forever, but Cecil gave it to Erie instead because Wanda and Stefani have been to devoted to James and Charles. And of course, Cecil new better than to give a job to someone associated with James and Charles. “I’ll check in to see if she would like to see anyone,” Erie replied.
At that remark, Stefani let out a low snort. Erie let it go. She didn’t want to start a fight in their new office. Expensive M.A.C. cosmetic might stain the carpets. Erie stood up from her chair and went towards the door near her desk. The door that would lead her to her boss’ office. She went in and shut the door. Cecilia Gondokusumo was wearing a YSL suit and was staring at the computer screen. She was 65 and stunning. Though she might look like Medusa’s mother at times, no one really knows how motherly she is. Cecilia looks up. “Yes?” she asks.
“I’m sorry to bother you ma’am. But Charles an-”
“Send them in,” she says immediately as she types something on her iMac. They used Windows in the old office. It was time for change. Erie nodded and headed for the door when Cecil looked up and said, “Oh and Erie, can you please call Audi, tell her that I’ll be missing the jet. She can just go ahead with her friends. Don’t forget to tell the pilot to come back as soon as they arrive in Bali. I’ll be leaving as soon as the jet gets back. I want you to go home now and pack. You’re coming with me. Call all the editors and tell them to cancel their summer plans, excuse the chief editors if they couldn’t cancel, but I expect all the junior editors to be there in Bali. Tell them to open their emails, I just sent them all the details.”
“Yes ma’am,” Erie says. Then she excuses her self and nods at Stefani and Wanda, who were currently laughing at something on Erie’s desk. Stefani and Wanda call their bosses from the waiting room and when they came back, Erie was already seated. There was a sofa across Erie’s desk, in which Stefani and Wanda sat in after their bosses went inside Cecil’s office. The room went silent. Stefani whispered something into Wanda’s ear. And then Wanda giggled. “Is that Chanel bag real or fake Erie?” asks Wanda slyly.
“It’s none of your business.” Stefani laughed at that reply. “Well then it must be fake,” said Stefani taking her Blackberry from her Chanel purse. She began to type her password and reply something that someone just sent her. Or probably she was just looking to see if she finally made it on Jakarta Social Blog*. “You have The Job Erie. You’re the assistant of the head of the magazine division for heavens sake. And you don’t even think of taking advantage? How stupid is that,” added Stefani. Erie decided it was those times she should defend herself by saying something she knew was going to make them look bad.
Erie sighed. “Well, Cecil bought me this purse for my birthday after she watched the ready to wear show in Paris. Where did you get your purse Stefani? Grand Indonesia? But I bet your boss didn’t buy it for you did he… What does he do? Oh yes, he’s the head of television. Does he get sex tapes of you and him for your birthday?” Wanda let a discreet laugh. Stefani, obviously defeated, shoved her elbow at Wanda. “Oow that hurt,” said Wanda at Stefani. Erie hid her smile and began to dial Audi.
Stasiun Kota: She got out of the train that just arrived from Garut. The speakers were still announcing the arrival of that train. She walked over to the A&W, which was where she was told to go to by her mother once she reached the train station. She saw an old man in a chauffeur’s uniform holding a small whiteboard with her name on it. It was the first embarrassing thing upon her first arrival in Jakarta. The board said a name she knew but never thought she would hear again; Dani Roitfeld.
Dani, only carrying a duffel bag with her, approached the man. He was being starred by the many people that passed him on that bustling evening in the train station. As Dani walked closer to him, she let out a kind smile, one of her best qualities. “You must be Dani,” said the driver in English. Dani looked at him once more and he was…Indonesian. Caught off guard, Dani replied in a stutter. “Y-yes, I am.” The driver, indicates her to follow him. They walk out of the authentic train station and Dani is led to a stunning black Mercedes Benz. The driver unlocks the car and opens a door to the back-seat for Dani. “Do you mind if I sit in front?” The driver closes the door and heads to the door in front of it. But before he could open it, Dani stopped him. “I-I can get that. You, you just start the car.” The driver smiled and Dani swore that he let out a little hidden laugh. Once seated, the driver asks, “Would you like Prambors or Trax FM?”
“Gen FM please,” replies Dani. The little hidden laugh then came again. But he was an expert in hiding it. Dani thought that his ability to hide laughs might be the reason why they sent him to pick her up from the train station.
The car slides through the streets of Sudirman with the engine rumbling really low. “That’s a really huge…hotel,” Dani says to the driver. “But why does it have a BCA tower?” she adds. Dani ignored the hidden laugh this time. She had gotten used to it. And the fact that city people think she’s a village freak.
“That is not just a hotel. That is a mall, an apartment, an office tower and a hotel all in one spot,” replied the driver.
“Seriously?” asks Dani.
“It’s called Grand Indonesia. Just officially opened today by the president.”
“Impressive. But, but it’s just so big. Although the land looks like it’s the same size as my uncle’s rice fields; or is it just me. And it looks so crowded this…this mall,” says Dani as the car passes through the Harvey Nichols banner that changes from the shades of brown to pink as you pass by it. “Welcome to Jakarta my dear…welcome to Jakarta,” replies the driver.
A few minutes later, the driver takes a left turn and heads into the toll road. “Wait a minute, didn’t the previous street sign say that the Soekarno Hatta airport was to the right?” asks Dani in a confused manner. Unclear things like this made her scared, panicked. “We’re not going there,” the driver said. “We’re going to a different airport, Halim Perdanakusuma. Ever heard of it?”
“No. I thought all the flights in Jakarta go through Soekarno Hatta,” she replied, trying to hide her panic. She was afraid that this was all a scam and that her mother had sold her to some wicked family that wanted to rape and abuse her. But the Mercedes should have comforted her thoughts, but still, it didn’t. Then came the reply: “There’s just one problem, they don’t take private planes at Soekarno Hatta.”
I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sweep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own
I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemy’s eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing:
“Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!”
One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand
I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can’t explain
Once you go there was never, never an honest word
That was when I ruled the world
Songs used:
Viva La Vida -Coldplay
* http://jakartasocial.wordpress.com
