On the top of the world

by Madeleine Ruh

was a good idea. She was supposed to make plans, and had the weird sensation the future was going far away, as avoiding her. Nothing was sure, even her couple.

  Then Fabrice washed his teeth, and told her she should try it was good and exciting as everything new.

  Then he told her he had seen an old woman with plenty of babies around her, he didn't know if she was the mother or grand-mother. This woman had a gift and could read the future. He sat and said :

  " Guess what, we will have three children, two boys and a girl, and we'll live healthy and for a long time. Isn't life perfect ?"

  She coughed, ill at ease to feel relieve that someone could frame her life and help them to make the most of it.

  " You believe in this stupid projections of the future ? I don't", did she assert, combing her long hair, sitted on the other side of the bed.

  As he knew her, he jumped on the bed, did like a monkey face to remind her of her fear when he had the red betel juice on his teeth, with a strange noise to make her laugh.

  She laughed, and he kissed her on the cheek near her lips. She felt full of joy for the first time in the last months.

  "So what do we do now, it's still raining, and it's only five pm."

  Somewhere in one of the villages around a man was singing a song to make the demons go away.

  Bagan. Myanmar. October 2015

  The Airbnb guy

  It was a beautiful day at Inle Lake. The sky was mirroring in the water, the pink lotus flowers had boomed during the night, and he was enjoying life at a tea shop near the Nanthe village.

  He was drinking a sweet tea, dark tea with milk and sugar, meditating about the beauty of the scenery.

  A group of European girls arrived, he couldn't say which nationality as they were speaking to their young guide in english. One of them with a leg in a wooden block, apparently to enable her to walk, said bye to them and they left. Her name semt to be Anne-Lise, or Lily Ann, according to the shouting of the other girls leaving the wooden house on their long little boat with a local driving them.

  She asked to the landlord the wifi code, and began to surf on internet and apparently her facebook profile, changing images, putting filters, the usual stuff when you get bored and you like to see yourself.

  - "This one is a good one. You should keep it." He said while she was doing the focus on one image where she was in front of a Buddha sculpture covered of gold.

  She stared at him, annoyed and upset, he couldn't say.

  - "Sorry to disturb you, what happened to your leg ?

  - It was slippery in the stairs of the monastery, and I fell." did she groan

  - "Was it with your shoes or without ?

  -…With my shoes, but you're right, anyway I'm tired of leaving my shocks and shoes, I should have purchased their tongs.

  He smiled and said : "You're French, aren't you ? You mean slippers, flip flop."

  She didn't answer which semt a yes. Her hairs were tight and she wore a cap to protect from the sun, even under the roof of the terrace.

  Showing the newspaper on her table and the cover, he asked :

  - "Are you interested in their elections ? It's in nearly three weeks. I wonder if they will be scenes of violence. Ahn represents freedom and intelligence compared to the militaries, it's a shame how they develop the tourism in the short term, not even thinking of the consequences."

  She remained silent, and took a sip of her water melon juice, she had ordered by showing with her finger the drawing on the menu.

  - "Did you know that there was a mudslide in one of the village, a Shan village in the South, they can't live in it now, and they are in a camp. But the government is slow to move, it's a few months now they live under tents. It's a shame. I've learned also discussing with people that this last summer, in December, some of the villages could be crossed on foot, which means that the level of water of the lake is down, because too many people come to live in the village, so then they need food, and they cut the trees to have crops…"

  She interrupted him saying, getting rid of her cap : "I've got two questions, are you depressed to talk about that in front of this beautiful landscape on a sunny morning, and is it your way to get girls interested, I must be a boy, it doesn't work on me."

  He remained silent. And asked to a young boy a Myanmar beer, even if it was ten am, he needed one.

  - "Did you go to Yangon ?" did he asked her.

  - "Yes.

  - Did you see one of this young boys in the tee shops ?

  - Sure. They're a lot of them, they look like fourteenth.

  - They are. They don't come from the city, they're sent by their parents to the city and the coffe shop owner for working. They have a little dormitory, they can eat, so their parents are happy, they think they're safe.

  - Don't they earn a little money ?

  - Nop, except tips. Did you give tips ?"

  She didn't answer, glazing at him exasperated and put her hurt leg on another chair.

  - "What's your program for the day ? Are you feeling OK ?" did he ask, happy to talk in english with a European girl.

  - "I'd like to go to the ceremony with the buddhas. As my friends have planed a trekking I couldn't follow them.

  And she sighted again.

  - "Great news, let's go together if you agree. Before let's skip the lotus, the pottery and silk weaver, it's boring. Come with me in a place by boat. It's not far, ten minutes. I'm quite sure you will like it. Come on !"

  She hesitated and then said a reluctant "OK. Anyway, I don't have anything to do."

  They took one the boats in front of the tea shop, floating in the muddy water of the Inle Lake. Soon, they arrived thanks to the smart driver, carefully avoiding other boats transporting grains, vegetables, flowers, transporting women protecting themselves from the sun with an umbrella. The driver stopped the huge noise of the motor, in front of an heritage house.

  Two delicate boys welcomed them.

  - "I have a suprise for you. Do you like cats ?

  - I have one of them, why ?

  - Look around you, we're in the Burmese cats' refuge. I'm sure you know this very rare cat, very expensive now, that had nearly disappeared on earth."

  It was true, they were in front of a door that a young man in longhee opened to let them enter, and there were at least thirty cats, grey, white, dark grey, all elegant and thin. She was astonished and behaving like a child, clapping her hands of excitement. "It's unbelievable. How cute they are ! Look at the tiny one !"

  Three hours later the ice was broken. For lunch, dishes accumulated on their table : Baby shrimps patties, fried peanuts with chive root chips, spices fish balls, sesame ball stuffed with roasted pork, chicken satay. They had ordered two bottles of beer and she was not used to drink, one could see it.

  - "Wim, that's your name, tell me your story, you seem a nice guy, not engaged, like avoiding the real love story, and liking food and drinks, what are you doing here alone in Myanmar ?" She looked interested, and stared at him.

  - "To make a long story short, my parents were artists.

  - Artists ?

  - Painters to be precise. Cobra group. I was born in Amsterdam. Now, I have a flat in this city, but it took me thirty five years to come back. Bad memories.

  - Why ? That must be cool to have creative parents.

  - Not creative, artists, their art was what was meaningful to them. They drank a lot, they died at fifty, Then I was about to be eighteen. I was educated by my grand mother. I have no memory with them, except bad wake ups in a dirty and messy house."

  She looked at him and said nicely : "She must have been a great woman, and saddened by the situation… I mean your grand-mother."

  He asked for tea as he felt nauseous, the contrast of the hot weather and the cold drinks.

  - "I don't believed in god, I think when we die we disappear, it's empty, there's nothing. So I try to meet a lot of people and see different cultures, I strongly believe you become old when you stop learning. You meet a
lot of old people when you travel, not a lot are wise. I'd like to be wiser when I grow old. That's my path, my karma."

  She asked him : "How old are you ?

  - I'm fifty two.

  - You don't look like it. You look like an old teen-ager, or spoilt brat. Sorry about the image. So what's your occupation and passion in life ?

  - Old cars for my passion", and he showed to her on his iphone a beautiful Mustang from the seventies. "It's my baby. I love to drive it. So to pay the bills, I'm a photographers' agent. I earn quite a big amount of money, and I also rent by Airbnb my flat in Amsterdam, where I only go a few week ends."

  She said : "Do you accept people using your bed ? I would hate that."

  - "Honestly, what's the big deal. At the end, even my design furnitures, nice art books, they disappear when you die, so sharing is good, you create memories to other people, in a way, even if I die, a woman in Mandalay or a guy in Shanghai or a Russian grand mother will remember of my home, what I like, and also the messages on the site. I've got an international community. Really."

  She laughed and said : "Let me guess, as a profile for Airbnb, you must be an adventurer."

  - "How do you know ? Yes, because I accept any nationality, it doesn't matter if they do a fried rice, tacos, or salted fish for eating. Sometime they break thinks, glasses, or boxes. It doesn't matter, I replace them. I don't want to be stuck to objects, at the end of your life it's heavy, people cumulate things and houses, like reinsured in a way something will survive to their disappearnance, they're wrong. I've sold my flat in Paris, with all the furnitures, it was