Seek and You Shall Find

Angels and Demons... the illustrated Angels and Demons... hmmm... The Da Vinci Code... vaccant space in the middle...

Again, again...

Angels and Demons... illustrated A&D... vaccant space... Da Vinci...

Oh no... this cannot be... again...

Angels and Demons... illustrated... Da Vinci... blank space in the middle... poster of The Lost Symbol above...

This can't be happening! This just can't be happening...

*****

Flashback to roughly 26 hours earlier...

At around 4:00pm, my officemate Lito and I were heading towards Ace Hardware (from the SMX) to buy some supplies for our exhibit. Crossing towards the second building, I saw copies of The Lost Symbol stacked high at Fully Booked's window display and thought to myself "Hey, it's out..."

Since we were going to pass by Fully Booked anyway, I told Lito that I was going to check it out real quick.

We went in and inquired about the price. "P975..." the saleslady said.

I thanked the lady and we got out of the store. At that moment, a war was waging in my mind... "should I or shouldn't I buy the book?"

We proceeded to the hardware store, bought the things we needed, and headed back to SMX. As we were nearing Fully Booked again, Lito asked me if I was going to buy the book... I told him that I was still thinking about it... and think about it I did.

We would go back to the hardware store about an hour and a half later to buy some more stuff. And, quite expectedly, Lito asked me again whether or not I was going to buy the book. Still undecided, I told him that I needed more time to think it over.

I eventually went home without buying it. And it bothered me well into the next day (that was last Wednesday, September 16).

*****

So there I was, at the National Bookstore Quezon Avenue branch last Wednesday night, standing motionless in utter disbelief in front of the Dan Brown display stand for what seemed like forever, scanning the covers of the books on display, thinking to myself that it's impossible for me to not see it.

After several times of looking up and down and left and right at all the books on the stand, I kept noticing the vaccant space at the middle. And, it dawned upon me... "they've been all sold out!"

Taking my chances, I called the attention of a saleslady and asked her if they had copies of The Lost Symbol to which she said what to me at the time were the ugliest words one could utter... "we've ran out".

I thanked the lady and headed down stairs, almost prepared to head for home, defeated.

On the escalator, I thought to myself "there's just got to be one more copy lying around here somewhere..."

And so, upon reaching the ground floor, I rushed to where I thought/know the New Arrivals display was... and... there it was, smacked at the middle of the pile of assorted newly-arrived books... The Lost Symbol!


I hurriedly yanked it off of the display and headed towards the cashier while inspecting it for any defects and damages... there were none.

When it got to my turn at the check out counter, the cashier asked for the supervisor's ID and scanned it along with my book... 20% off!

Woopteedoo!