Hitch-hikers

There was a song I heard so often, couldn’t remember what the name was either I could hum the tune and lyrics in full. The first two lines from the song were  “When I think of the desert, I think of water, when think of love, I think of you…..” it gave me rather a glowing impression.

It came to mind rather direct and natural; Water and love both were important to life in the desert. Unfortunately I didn’t know the second half of the song.

My girl friend Mak Ling wrote to me also said—-”I always fantasised about you putting a big colourful Arabian rug on yourself with a string of bells on your ankle, you carried a pitcher of water on your head to the well to draw some water; that was a really beautiful picture——.

My girl friend was an extremely lovable person; that she pictured me as the painting of  ‘The woman slave who drawers water’ was really fascinating and charming, very romantic. The truth was walking and hand carrying water was a very exhausting hard labour work and not comfortable at all, also I would not put a big bucket of water pressing down over my head.

My parents who sent me a letter weekly urged me again….

“Water apparently costs the same as does Coca-Cola, I think you must not be willing to drink water instead have Coca-Cola everyday, but water is essential for the body, you may not be fine if you keep on drinking Coca-Cola through the years, you must remember to drink water even though it’s expensive……” 

Everybody who was not living in the desert, they all mentioned about the water to me but no one actually asked me—in this boundless vast sandy ocean, there was not even a little boat here, how could I ride the waves and go outside beyond the world of the town. 

This was only a little town and it had been closed off from the outside world for a very long time. Living here was like being a man who was a cripple, living alone in a narrow alley. Just existing, everyday passing the same without feeling either joy or sadness.

No change to life just monotony like a sewing machine knitting out the same pattern for years.

The day it started to change was when Jose arrived on our front door driving a little car that had been transported on a cargo ship.

I was rushed to meet the car. Although it wasn’t an expensive car like a Jeep, also it was not quite suitable to drive in the desert; but without doubt it provided complete satisfaction for us.

I touched it lightly all over inside and out, the feeling just liked owning some treasure but didn’t know how to appreciate it. My head was actually was imagining a picture of a big floating cloud in the sunset and the background music playing was  ‘Born Free’ (the theme song from the movie).

The weird thing was, coincidentally there was a strong wind blowing over the car and all my hair also blew like it was dancing away.

I was immediately determined to love this new ‘Ship of the desert’. Everyday Jose came back from work, I would take a clean velvet flannel to polish the car with great care and not let any dust remain on the body, even the tiny stones stuck inside the tyre tread, I would use pincers to pick them out and I was always afraid I wasn’t working hard enough to serve this buddy that had brought us such tremendous joy.

“Jose, has the car ran alright when you off to work today?” I was polishing the car’s big eyes while asked Jose.

“Pretty good, when I asked it to go East it wouldn’t turn to the West, fed it with grass and it only ate a little.”

“Now we have a car, do you still remember a long time ago when we were hitching eagerly on the road, in wind and rain with miserable faces and hoping that someone would stop and give up a ride?” I asked Jose.

“It was in Europe, you wouldn’t dare to do it in America.” Jose said it with a laugh.

“The public safety in America was different, on top of it you weren’t with me at the time.” I polished the new car’s right eye again and chatted with Jose.

“Jose, when will you let me drive this car?” I asked him and didn’t expect too much of it.

“Haven’t you tried it already? He strangely asked me back.

“It didn’t count, when you sat next to me I felt panicked about driving badly. You don’t know Psychology, the worse driving will come about when pressurised.” I almost relapsed to arguing when this was brought up in conversation.

“Let me drive one more week, after that I will take the coach to work, how about you drive the car to pick me up in the afternoon?”

“Great!” I jumped up with delight and wanted to give the car a big cuddle.

Jose’s work place was over two hours return trip by car, but the desolate highway was a straight road, you could drove fast without any concern, in other words the road had no traffic at all.

The first time I was over forty minutes late to pick up Jose and he was impatiently waiting.

“I am so sorry, I am late.” I was full of sweat and jumped out from the car with my sleeve rubbing my face.

“Told you not to be panicked, the road is so straight forward, put your foot down on the gas and you won’t even knock over other people.”

“There are so many places where the highway was buried in sand, I had to get out from the car and dig two ditches to avoid the car sinking down; it was inevitable I would be delayed, especially as that person was living so far away……”

I sat next to the driving sit and gave the car to Jose to drive home.

“What person? He tilted his head and gave me a look.

“A walking Sahara person.” I said it with my hands open.

“Echo, my father told me in his letters, even a Sahara person that has been dead and buried over forty years, you still can’t trust him and you went through the great desert by yourself, you actually…..” Jose made me unpleasant by his unrestrained tone.

“He was a very old man, how come…..you?” I talked back to him.

“You can’t even if he is old!”

“Don’t you blame me first, you know in the past, how many cars actually stopped for us to get a free ride even we looked like two young bandits; If those total strangers who gave us a lift haven’t had any faith in human beings, they must either blind or crazy.

“It was in Europe, now we are in Africa, Sahara desert; you should be clear about that.”

“I am clear about it, that’s why I gave people a ride.” 

This was a different situation. If in the civilised society, because of the complications I wouldn’t feel there was any connection between other people and me but in this barren land with strong wind blowing all year around; not to mention about hardly any other human beings around, if you could see a blade of grass or a drop of dew from dawn, that eventually would touch your heart greatly; how could you possibly turn a blind eye when you saw an old man stumbling alone walking with difficultly under this solitary sky!

The fact was, Jose understood it very well but he wasn’t willing to make consider the thought. 

Since we had a car, naturally we went driving out of town and drove around here there and everywhere in the wilderness at the weekends.

It was a completely different experience indeed. During the weekdays Jose has to go to work but he seized the car for himself for the whole day, he wasn’t keeping his promise. I had to walk to the town by foot under the strong heat; we often argued because of the car. Sometimes I heard the noise of him sneakily taking the car out to work in the early morning, by the time I chased him wearing my pyjamas outside, it was already too late.

The children from our neighbour were friends of us but since they saw Jose was so often very lively jumping in and out of the car, reversing and turning circles with the car just like a clown in the circus creating fun with the audience, the children were like a swarm of bees ridiculously worshipping this baffling person. 

I always disliked watching clowns in the circus because it made me sad and this time wasn’t an exception.      

****************************************************

One evening I heard the obvious noise that Jose had returned home from work by the sounds of the car braking, I thought that he would come in straight away but never I guessed that he would drive away again just a moment after that.

He came back all dirty after ten at night.

“Where did you go? Supper has turned cold already.” I stared at him gruffly.

“Took a stroll! Ha ha! Went for a walk.” He acted like it was not that a big deal while whistling and went to have a shower after that.

I rushed out to check the car inside and out. It was still in one piece. When I  opened the door and looked inside, immediately a strange smell came straight out and there was an obvious pool of snot or something on the cover of the front seat, also a wet imprint definitely from a diaper had been left on the back seat; there were little hand prints everywhere on the car’s window and biscuit crumbs all over inside the car; it was a real disaster. 

“Jose, have you opened a children’s playground?” I hurled him a shout from outside the bathroom.

“Oh! Sherlock Holmes!” The sounds of the splashing water came out with joy.

“What Sherlock Holmes, you go and look at the car.” I shouted loudly.

Jose turned the shower on full and pretended not hear anything from me.

“How many dirty children did you take along with you for a ride? Say it!”

“Eleven, Heh heh! That’s including Khalifa who also sneaked in.” 

“I am now going to wash the car, you go for your supper; we will take turns to use the car every week after this; you have to be fair.” I had caught Jose out in this and took this opportunity to mention about use of the car.

“Okay! You won!”

“It’s for good, you promise!” I had to confirm it to put my mind at rest.

He stuck out his dribbling wet head and made a fierce face to me.

The fact was that I had grabbed the car from Jose but I could only use it for driving round to the post office in the mornings, after that I had to be home to do the normal housework such as washing, ironing and cleaning. 

It wasn’t until three o’clock in the afternoon that I got myself changed, put two thick books on the driving seat and a damp cloth wrapped around the boiling hot steering wheel. From that moment I was starting the day for my entertainment after a long time waiting under the extremely hot sun.

Although this sort of my entertainment didn’t mean anything for those living in the town, for me it was essential as I would rather sit in the car and driving to the wilderness for a round trip than spend the long afternoon in this dead quiet little house. This was certainly almost a no choice situation.   

The narrow tarmac road stretched for over one hundred miles and along it’s side were scattered tents. If these people who lived there wanted to pay a visit to town, there was no alternative but to walk on foot for a whole long day. Humans survived here but were merely little more than obstacles in the sand, the endless grains of sand were the true master here.

When driving in this extremely silent great wilderness I inevitably felt lonely and horror at the thought too but on the other hand knowing that I was the only one driving on this vast land, it also gave me a feeling of freedom.

I found occasionally, I would be unconsciously slowing my car if I saw a tiny black spot appearing on the horizon and moving very slowly. 

Their silhouette from the back looked so small and frail under the endless sky. I could not bear to drive past a struggling walker whilst raising dust behind me from my car and keep my head up.

To  avoid scaring the passer-by, I normally drove past them first before I stopped the car, then rolled my window down and waving at them would say.

“Get in! I will give you a ride.”

This passer-by gave me a look of shy hesitation, he was a very old Sahara man who carried a bag half full of food grains.

“Don’t be afraid, come on in, it’s too hot.”

When the man got in the car, he thanked me like a prayer. I still could see that humble old man waving his hand to me under the open sky until my car had driven far away. I always touched by their faces when they got out from my car after the ride, they were such simple and honest people!

One day, I drove over thirty miles away from outside the town; I saw an old man was pulling a big goat with a strip of cloth, he was struggling to move along the side of the road and his robe was being blown off with the wind like a sailing boat, that made it very difficult to walk.

I stopped my car and shouted him: “My friend, come over here!”

“My goat?” He said in a low tone, he was holding tight onto his goat and felt embarrassed to speak out.

“The goat also then, come on in!”

The goat was put on the back seat and the old man sat next to me, the goat’s head was just under my neck. All the way whilst driving, my neck was being tickled by the goat and its heavy breathing made me nervous; I put my foot down as hard as I could and hoped that I could quickly get them both to the poor area of the erected tents along the road side.

When I let them out from the car, the old man held my hand with all his strength, his toothless mouth came out with appreciating words like E-I-E-I-I-III and he wouldn’t let my hand go.

I was smiling and said to him: “Don’t need to thank me over again, please do drag your goat out quickly! He was chewing my hair like grass!”

“Last time you scolded me about opening a children’s playground, now there is goat shit in the car. You clean it up, I don’t bother.”

When we drove back to our house, Jose rushed first to the house; I covered my mouth to hide my laughing and followed him in. I grabbed the little broom and swept up the goat poo and put it in the flowerpots for fertiliser. Who said there was no advantage for stopping the car and giving someone a ride?!

Sometimes, Jose’s shift changed at work; the starting time became two in the afternoon and finish at ten at night. Under these circumstances if I went too, the round driving trip was one hundred miles, we would arrive at work at twelve at the afternoon and I had to drive the car back by myself alone.

In the strong sand and wind season, the whole sky just filled up with yellow dust under the fire heat afternoon, the visibility went down to zero and the car would shake as if in the perfect storm in the sea.

My mouth and lungs would fill with sand and I was pained with coughing. A crazy rain of sand and flying stones would hit the car with ear-spitting noise. 

In an afternoon with that sort of weather, I was on my way home after I had dropped Jose at work; I saw a shadow with a bicycle in the yellow sand wind; I was shocked and rushed up to stop the car, the person quickly put the bicycle down and came running in my direction.

“What’s the matter?” I wound the window down and covered my eyes while asking him.

“Mrs, do you please have any water?”

I opened the gap through my fingers on my eyes, actually I saw a boy in his teens with a pair of desperate eyes staring at me.

“Water? I don’t have water.”

When I spoke out the words, that kid turned his head away almost crying with disappointment.

“Come inside quickly!” I wound up the window as quick as I could.

“My bicycle……” He wouldn’t give up his bike.

“In this sort of weather, you will never ride up to the town.” I put my goggles on and opened the door to go outside to pull his bike in.

It was an old type of bicycle, no matter how I tried I couldn’t get it inside my little car.

“This is impossible, how could you not bring any water? How long have you been riding on the road on your bike?” I shouted to him, the wind and the sand immediately blew inside my mouth.

“I rode since this morning till now.” The kid replied almost sobbing.

“You come inside the car first and leave the bike here, after you get back, you take another ride by someone else and then get back here to pick up your bike, how does that sound?”

“I can’t, the sand will cover up it completely not long after I leave here and I will never find it, I can’t dump my bike here.” He stubbornly wanted to save his broken old bike.

“Okay! I have to leave now, this is for you.” I gave him my goggles and got back to my car feeling helpless.

When I got home, I tried to do some housework but the shadow of that little kid caught my heart like a ghost. I listened the shrill cries of the wind from outside my window, after sat down just for few minutes; I knew I had no intention of not doing anything else at all.

I angrily opened the fridge, took out a bottle of water and a loaf of bread, on the way to the car I took one of Jose’s caps and quickly jumped into the car. I was driving back on the road and determined to find that kid who had constantly stayed in my mind.

The soldier at the check point saw me, ran over and lowered himself down to speak to me: “Echo, are you going to take a stroll again in this sort of weather?”

“I am not the one to take a stroll, it’s some little kid in trouble.” I stepped hard on the gas and the car shot out into the misty wind and sand.

“Jose, you take the car! I don’t take it anymore.” It had been the third time on the same road in the same day, but it was already freezing cold at night.

“Can’t bear the heat! Ha ha!” He laughed with a smug expression on his face.

“It is the people on the road that I can not bear, it’s so annoying and so many things going on with them.”

“People, where?” Jose asked me with a smile. 

“Have seen these passer-byes once every few days, haven’t you see?”

“You could have ignored them, right?”

“If I pay no attention to them, who would? Like that little kid almost dying of thirst.” 

“So that’s why you are not driving anymore?”

“Oh, forget it!” I half lied back on the seat in the car staring outside through the window.

I kept my promise, over the next few weeks I just sat at home quietly sewing and mending here and there.

After I finished the over a hundred pieces of little flower pattern fabric, I felt impatient with myself for not going anywhere.

“Jose, the weather is good today without any wind and sand, let me drive you to work!” I was in my dressing gown in the early morning and staring at the car on the sandy ground.

“It is a public holiday today, how about go to the town for some fun?” Jose said.

“Oh! Really? Why do you have to go to work then?”

“The work at the mine won’t stop, certainly have to go to work.”

“Public holiday means the town will be packed with several hundred people there, it makes me dizzy, I don’t want to go.”

“Then get in the car if you wish!”

“I am going to change my clothes.” I quickly shot in the house and put on T-shirt and jeans, on the way out I picked up a plastic bag.

“What are you going to do with the plastic bag?”

“The weather is so good, you go to work and I am going to pick up some bullet shells and sheep bones; will be back later.”

“What are you going to do with them?” Jose was starting the engine.

“I will put the bullet shells on the rooftop for freezing over night and in the early morning when it’s still dark; place them on my eyes to cure a  sty, didn’t you cure that way last time?”

“That was coincidence, it was you figured it out with your weird idea.”

I shrugged my shoulders to say no comment about it. The truth was, picking stuff was a fake idea, wandering in the wilderness and breathing in the fresh air was the real fun thing to do. It was pity that not everyday had such good weather here.

I looked at Jose getting out from the car and heading up to the long floating platform at work; I sighed and drove the car off from Jose’s working place.

The early morning in the desert was as clean as after being washed, it was a beautiful blue sky without a piece of cloud; the soft tender sand dunes were stretched out beyond the limit of our eyes. This was the best time of the day, it made my mind picture the desert like the body of a giant sleeping woman as if her chest was lightly breathing up and down. The scene was so peaceful and stunning that it touched me and made my heart ache.

I drove onto the highway first and followed along the previous vehicle’s tracks to the shooting range. I picked up some bullet shells and after lying down for awhile staring up at the semicircular sky that looked like an upside down bowl, I walked along a long sandy road to search if there was any dead bones around. 

There weren’t any bones was in one piece but I found a big shell fossil by accident, it was as pretty as an opening folding fan.

I spat a little on the edge of my trousers and used it to polish the fossil clean before driving back home; at the time, the sun had already raised up unawareness over the top of my head. 

I opened the car’s window and let the wind gently blow in, the weather was so glorious and I didn’t even want to turn on the radio to interrupt the day of silence. The road was just like a sparkling river that ran straight down under the sky.

Suddenly I saw a small black spot staying clearly still without any movement at the end of the sky.

My car slipped past that person, he suddenly waved his hand wanted to have a lift.

“Morning!” I slowly stopped my car.

A little Spanish little soldier in full dress uniform as if about to go for a vows ceremony stood alone at the roadside.

“Good morning Mrs!” He stood upright and was obviously surprised to see me in the car.

Green uniform, broad belt, long boots and side cap, even any country boys could looked smart in it. The most interesting thing was the uniform couldn’t disguise his childish face, no matter how he had dressed up.

“Where to?” My head lifted up and asked him.

“Hmm! To the town.”

“Come on in!” This was the first time I stopped my car and gave a young person for a lift, I didn’t have any hesitation from the moment I saw him.

He got into the car and very carefully sat next to me, both hands were disciplined on his kneels; that was moment when I was very surprised to see him wearing a pair of clean white gloves that are usually used for big formal ceremonies.

“How come you are going to town so early?” I hit up a conversation.

“Yes, I want to go to see a movie.” He humbly replied to me.

“Movies actually don’t start until five in the afternoon!?” I tried hard to keep my tone as normal as I could but deep down in my heart I thought this child probably was mad.

“That is why I started off in the early morning.” He moved up his body with shyly.

“You…get yourself ready to walk for a whole day just for a movie?” This was a real incredible thing to me.

“I have a day off today.”

“The military vehicles didn’t give you a ride?”

“I signed up too late, the vehicles couldn’t take me.”

“So you walk?” I was looking at the never ending long road and somehow a ripple passed through my heart.  

We had been silent for a while without any conversation.

“You serve in the army?

“Yes!”

“Enjoy it?”

“Very good, we are a type of army rangers, we are all live in tents the whole year and the location changes so often, just always there is a lack of enough water.”

I specially looked at his very clean and tidy outing uniform, if it wasn’t an important event to him, he must have reluctantly to put it on.

When we arrived in the town, he could not conceal his excitement and joy, it was showing all over on his face; he was a young kid after all.

When he got out from my car, he seriously but childishly gave me a little salute; I nodded my head and quickly drove off my car. 

I couldn’t forget his pair of white gloves; this big little kid was living all year around in the remote area in the great desert where only a few people lived.

For him, going to see a movie in this small shabby town which almost had nothing at all was his big grand activity in his life at the moment.

On the way back driving home, my heart ached for no reason; this fellow had stirred my heart in the place I normal wouldn’t touch often, his age was almost the same as my brother and my brother was serving in the army too.

I virtually sank down for a moment in the far away reality, my mind was blank for a few seconds before I swung my hair back and put my foot hard on the paddle to let the car dash back to home. 

Jose always said I stuck my nose into people’s business, he just was firm in speech but soft in heart for sure; when he drove alone on the way home from work, he also did the same as me picking up the passer-byes.

I thought to myself, driving in this remote area and seeing people trudge along on the road with difficulty under the extreme heat, I couldn’t ignore it at all and pretend nothing happened.

“Bad day today, these old people were so fierce.” Jose was howling while stepped inside the house.

“I picked up three old Sahara men on the road, I held back breathing while I was driving and almost passed out from the smell of their body odour. When I came to the place where they wanted to get off, they spoke one word of Arabic and I basically wouldn’t know he was speaking to me; they kept on talking like that and you know what they did with me at the end? The old man who sat behind me took off his very hard sandal and constantly hit it on my head; I was almost beaten to death by him.” 

“Ha! Give people a lift also got beaten to death, ha!” I was laughing enough to choke.

“You touch here, it caused a big lump.” Jose touched it with his teeth gnashing. 

The most happy things still happened in the desert when you bumped into an outsider. Although we were living on the piece of wide land our spiritual world was still very shut away from the outside; if there were people talking to us about the outside world, it still got me excited and emotional.

“Today, I gave a foreigner a ride to the company.”

“Where is he come from?” I was aroused.

“America.”

“What did he talk to you about?”

“He didn’t say much.”

“You guys didn’t say anything while driving all that long way?”

“First we couldn’t communicate, secondly when this crazy man got into the car, he used a little stick in his hand to beat the dashboard in the car with a rhythm; it was so annoying, all I wanted was to drive as fast as I can to get rid of him, never thought that he followed me to the work place.”

“Where did you pick him up from?”

“This guy had a big rucksack on his back with an American flag sewed on it, he came from the highway exit in the town.”

“Your fierce security guard just let him go inside your work place? He doesn’t even have a pass.”

“He wasn’t allowing him at first! This guy said that he has to see the mine.”

“This isn’t a place for a causal visit.” I bossily said.

“After he was hampered for a little while, this guy actually raised up his rucksack and said: I am an American.”

“He went through it just like that?” My eyes were widely opened while looking at Jose.

“He went in just like that”

“Pfft! Pfft!” I was looked at Jose surprisingly.

Jose went for a shower after that, under the splashing water, Jose was suddenly singing an English song in a wired tune….

“I want——to be—an—Ame—ri——can, I want——to be—an—Ame—ri——can—.”

I barged in and drew the shower curtain, beat him with a spatula in my hand but then he even sang it more energetically and changed the words…

“I want—to marry—an—Ame—ri——can, oh~~~I want—marry~~~.” 

After that whenever I went to Jose’s work place and saw that security guard, I deliberately used my hand to cover the pass that was attached on my window screen and not allow him to see it, I also stretched out my head and sang him loudly with a wired tune——

“I am an American~~~.” I entered in with my foot was stepping hard on the accelerator. I wouldn’t blame him disliking me because I was the one who disliked him first. 

***************************************************

It was the beginning of the month, the window of the cashiers department in the mine company always had a long queue. Everyone who came away from the crowd was holding a handful of money, their facial expressions were like melting strawberry ice cream under the sun.

We initially went there to withdraw cash too, because the feel of touching the money was different than touching the paper of a bank receipt; the pleasure and delightful feeling was definitely not the same, but after a while we were sick of queuing. We eventually asked the company to deposit the wages direct to the bank.

Meanwhile, all the workers in the company determinately asked for cash only and they were not willing to deal with the bank.

Also at the start of the month, the flights from the nearby island of Gran Canaria had many fancily dressed women on board.

They would openly ply their trade in this little town, which at this time of month was a wash with money that reminding me of the film ‘Hotel’ (Ed:1967 film)

 ‘Money, money, money, money’.

**************************************************

One night, I was about to pick Jose up from his night shift, when I arrived with car I  saw Jose came out from the company cafeteria.

“Echo, I have to do the overtime work till tomorrow morning, you go home first!”

“Why didn’t you tell me before, I have already driven here.” I wrapped myself up with my thick jumper and passed his jacket to him.

“There has been a ship that got stuck, I have to get it out and the work will take all night long, also there are three more ships coming to load the mineral sand tomorrow.”

“Okay, I better go then!” I reversed the car and turned the big headlights on, heading back the way I came. The desert was big, to drive a hundred miles everyday was like taking a little walk.

It was a clear bright night, the moon was shinning on the sand dunes one after another just like the ocean, it always reminded me of a dream like surrealist mysterious painting. This kind of spectacular scenery only existed in the desert at night!

The headlights shone on the silent road, there was the occasional one or two cars which passed by, some overtook me as well. I stepped on the gas and accelerated the car, wound down the window and let the car fly away into the dark of the night.

When I was about twenty miles away from the town, suddenly my headlights shone on a person with a waving hand. I instinctively stepped my foot on the brakes, stopped the car at a distance and my headlights kept shinning on that person.

It was all sudden in the middle of the night and in this disproportionate place, I saw a red haired woman wearing a very bright dress standing at the side of the road; this was more shocking than seeing a ghost, I was motionless and sat in the car and looking at her intently.

The woman used her hand to block the strong full beam of the headlights, her high-heels were making sounds of knock, knock, knock on the ground as she headed towards my car, when she saw me in the car, she suddenly hesitated and looked like she didn’t want to get to my car.

“What is the matter?” I turned my head on one side and asked her.

“It’s nothing, oh! You can go!”

“Are you not waving for a ride?” I asked again.

“No, no, I got it wrong, thanks! You can go! Thanks a lot!”

I was scared, I immediately left her there and drove off, thinking this female ghost obviously wanted to pick up someone to substitute her life; I better run quickly before she changed her mind!

As I was escaping in the car every few moments there was a similar curly haired, green eyed and red mouthed woman apparently wanting a lift.

I dared not stop, I just drove away fast, desperate to get away from them in the dark.

After driving like mad for awhile, there was again another woman who appeared this time in a purple dress and yellow shoes, she smiled away and halted in the middle of the narrow road. I thought that even she was not a human, I couldn’t knock her over.

I slowed down the car from far away and switched the headlights on full while pressing the horn to ask her to give way to me.

What a group of mysterious women tonight!

She did the same thing as the other woman did, with her high-heels making sounds of knock, knock, knock on the ground and rushing up to me with a smile.

“Oh!” She saw me and expressed a light exclamation.

I smiled and looking at her heavily made-up and already middle aged face, from that moment I naturally understood what was going on the road in the middle of the night; of course we were at the beginning of the month! 

“I am a woman, it’s not what you want.” 

“Oh! Sorry!” She was polite and also started laughing.

I made a give way sign with my hand and slowly started to drive the car.

She looked around and suddenly chasing me and patted the roof of my car, I stuck my head out and looked at her.

“It’s alright! Today is about it, off work now! Could you give me a ride to the town?”

“Come in!” I said it with no alternative.

“The fact is I do know you, you wore the Sahara’s man style white robe to go to the post office on the other day.” She said it brightly.

“That’s right, it’s me.”

“We come here every month by the plane, do you know?”

“I do know,  I just didn’t know you are all doing business on the outskirts.”

“There is no other choice! Who would willing rent any rooms to us, the few rooms left at the ‘Di Di hotel weren’t enough!”

“Business is that good then?” I nodded my head laughing out.

“It’s only good at the beginning of the month, the money won’t come after the tenth; we will be all gone!” It was an honest and full of brightness voice without any regret.

“How much do you charge for a person?”

“Four thousands, if rent a room at Di Di hotel for over night, it will be eight thousands.”

Eight thousands was about one hundred and twenty US dollar (in the 70’s), I had never had any idea how expensive it was and never thought that the hard working workers would be willing dump their money just like that.

“Men are all stupid!” She said as she lay on the seat laughing and mocking about it, as if she was a fully satisfied and greatly successful woman.

I didn’t say anything just drove fast towards the town I could already see the lights.

“My lover is also working at the mine!”

“Oh!” I slowly replied.

“You must have know him, he is the worker doing night shift at the Electrical section.”

“I don’t know him.”

“It was he told me to come over here, he said the business is good here, when I lived in Gran Canaria in the past, the income wasn’t as good as here!”

“Your lover asked you to come here because the business is good here?” I couldn’t believe my ears and asked that again.

“I have already earned three houses!” She proudly said that with her hand stretched out to admire her nails with painted light florescence purple.

This woman made me want to laugh out loud by this ignorant conversation, she said all men were stupid and she had earned enough money buy three houses, but she was miserably grabbing customers on the sandy ground and she actually though that she was very clever.

This prostitute who was in front of my eyes was not forced to do it to make money, it was not an issue of morality, it had become a habit to live this way.

“In fact, a women who does a cleaning job here also can earn about twenty thousands for a month.” I said it without a regard as to whether it was right.

“Twenty thousands? Sweeping floors, making beds and washing cloths, working that hard and only earn twenty thousands, who would want to do it!” She made a despising reply.

“I literally think your way is more hard work.” I slowly said.

“Ha! Ha!!!!” She happily laughed out loud.

    

It was more comfortable to meet a sweetie like this than a tear faced prostitute. 

When we arrived in town, she generously thanked me for the ride while swinging her body to get out from the car; after a few steps walking the road, I saw a worker give her bottom a big spank and shout to her, she chased after him and hit him with a laugh and scolded him but it was an unclear situation.

Suddenly the silent night in the town had come to life as if a thick vulgar colour had been spilt on the street.

When I was returned home, I was reading a book but my mind was still thinking of that cheery and jubilant prostitute. 

I drove back and forth through the wilderness on this only tarmac road. The road always looked solitary, silent and lifeless but without any sadness.

The fact was that this road was the same as any other road, street or path in the world, which contained their own stories of the people who came and went or crossed the thorough fare over the months and years.

The people I encountered on the road where just ordinary people who had ordinary things happen in their lives. It wasn’t that special and wasn’t worth putting in writing.

However the Buddha said: “It takes a hundred years to stay in a ship together and it takes a thousand years to sleep in the same bed”

For the every hand that had shook mine, every beautiful smile that had been interchanged with me and every conversation I had exchanged with them; how could I indifferently forgot these people just like the wind which passed through my clothing? 

Every grain of sand on the ground I knew to cherish, every sunrise and sunset I could not bear to forget; further more every living face I had met, how could I erase them easily from my memory?

At the end, it was not necessary to make any explanation for it.