1969, CARPENTER STREET

1969, CARPENTER STREET
She waits where the rain never dries.

In 1969, Carpenter Street was the heart of Kuching. Noisy, wet, and glowing with lantern light. No one remembers when the woman in black first appeared. She wears the same black halter dress, her hair tied high, walking slowly down the middle of the road in the rain. You see her from behind, but if you glance at the shop windows, her reflection is always watching you.

Every night after the coffee shop closes, she is seen walking away. She never arrives. She never looks back. Some say she is waiting for a lover who never came home from the river. Some say she is the street itself, holding on to a memory.

Elin has just inherited her grandmother's shophouse at No. 57. She thinks it is just an old ghost story meant to scare children. Until she finds a diary from 1969 hidden beneath the floorboards. Every page is damp, even in the dry season. And every entry ends with the same sentence.

She waits where the rain never dries.

When Elin moves into the shophouse above the coffee shop, she begins to see the same reflection in every puddle. The woman is always right behind her. And every night, the wet footprints in the hallway move a little closer to her room.

Inspired by the folklore of Carpenter Street, Kuching. An original Borneo gothic fiction.
A story by Reviline James Wang