I should have known before: at midnight we change places. I have to take off my
boots and go into the water, while he sits in the canoe directing me here and
there and left and right. Once I ask him
"What about the Snakes?" and he laughs.
"No ploblem" he says, "Filst snake eats you then you snake".
Shaking and
trembling I continue through the dark waters.
Better not to ask such stupid questions again... The night seems endless, but
slowly, slowly I recognize, that my feet seem to find the right places
automatically. And where to turn can be felt by the current of the water.
For some hours now the old friend in the canoe has not said much, lately he is
even giving wrong orders, saying "light" although the current leads to the left
and such things. Probably he's as tired as I am, I just follow the current. This
seems to amuse him, but he is not insisting on his orders and falls asleep again,
so I continue following my own feelings.
Then suddenly the old Chinese breaks the silence and says
"you go alone from
here"
and disappears with the canoe and my shoes in the darkness. This bastard,
when it comes to business he's even folgetting his wlong plonounciation...
There is a little more light now, dawn is approaching. It's getting colder, but
I can manage it and the ground seems to be rising anyway. When the sun comes up,
I'm already walking through woods on dry ground. In some small clearings the
sunrays are warming me up a little. I run up the next hill and sit down for a
while watching the little movements around me and in my body.
The nightly trembling has turned into a silent hum. Some geese flying north
greet me with their cry and my breast answers with a loud shout at precisely the
same moment - as if we both responded to the sign of an invisible conductor.
A town is not far away, fields, vallies, woods and mountains. Indeed - this way
through the swamps has really led me out of the jungle. Far away in the mists
one could even imagine the Himalayas. Do you know that feeling when you have
longed for something soo long and soo intense that you had to forget it
altogether?
The way back through the swamps is easier than the first time, but I understand
now, that "dalkest time - best time". You see too many things moving in the
swamps during the day.
The old Chinese has burned my boots in his fireplace, "no shoes - feet feel"
he says. He is working on a beautiful large boat with comfortable cushions. It
looks like as if he is drilling little holes into it, filling them with mud and
using red and yellow colorspots to hide them. Behind the hut two Chinese kids
are hammering and painting on a large sign reading "To Tantric Boat-Party".
"Nevel folget the malketing!",
he smiles for a good-bye.
While leaving I recognize, that he has replaced the snake-warning signs with
lampions and pictures of beautiful and barely dressed women and men.
In the village nobody seems to have noticed that I was away. At the coffee-house
somebody asks me wether I know the way up to the Himalayas. I say "No,"
but before I can continue with "but I know the way through the swamps", he turns
around and chats with a friend about his new mountain boots.
The old drunkard says
"Who would be interested in a way through the swamps,
anyway?"
and lights himself one of my cigarettes - again without asking
permission. How the fuck did he come to know?
"Someone has stolen your shoes,
did you notice?",
the drunkard laughes. As if that was an explanation to my
unspoken question.
So I make up my mind and finally happen to say
"You know what? Keep the rest of
the packet, I'll stop smoking anyway."
What a uncommon feeling it is, to meet a
stranger and no one wants anything from the other. Except, perhaps a cigarette
and some fire. Two hobos to be exact - it's easier not to want something when
you don't have much to lose, I think.
The noise from the coffeehouse becomes part of everything. We are both watching
the hips of the waitress dancing between the tables. Finally he gets up, takes
my water-proof army lighter together with the cigarettes and leaves.
That was the story how I quit smoking. |
 |
