Geistergrab einer buddhistischen Pagode

Kapitel 28

"Mom, sing."

Jumalin disliked her daughter's act, but she had to play along. Berhali walked aside excitedly and shouted, "Yes, sing! Great!"

The camera was rolling. The rain was still falling, and Esmi's singing was far louder than her mother's. Esmi loved to sing. One of her friends had a karaoke machine, and Esmi sang better than the others. If you feel the music deep within your body, then there will be a natural resonance in your cavities. Her pride made her throat itch, and Esmi suppressed it with her singing.

Berhali left, the singing of Jumaline and Esme fading behind him. He chose a path leading uphill and soon came to a large drawing, which he guessed was an actual depiction of one of the famous caves. It reminded him of the Nativity scene. The carvings clearly showed signs of restoration, and many of the finer details would be difficult to see in dim light. Like many sacred sites, these carvings were incomplete; some had noses and hands cut off.

He needed to pee again. He couldn't hold on until he got back to the toilet. Turning around, he saw Jumarin and her daughter still holding a concert in the yard. The female caretaker had also joined the audience, letting the baby's little hands clap along to "Jingle Bells."

Berhali continued on until he was out of sight of the people in the courtyard. He had reached the end of the road, and how convenient—it was a public toilet. The toilet, hidden behind rocks, was about twenty inches wide and two feet high, and had a container that looked like it was full of urine and cigarette ash (actually, it was incense ash washed away by rain).

The walls were riddled with holes and were very smooth, which made Berhali think that they had been washed by “water” over the centuries by people seeking the same kind of liberation as himself.

(No. The hole in the rock was dug out. This is the legendary uterine cave, and the hole represents the uterus.)

He also noticed that part of the "toilet" had been vandalized with graffiti.

(These Chinese carvings depict a goddess of fertility: the source of life, a vessel bringing good news to women who have been infertile. “Open my convenient doors,” Berhali translated as such, “so that I may accept the arrangements of fate wherever I am.”)

And so, Berha used the hissing trickle of water to preserve his destiny.

Finally, he felt his stomach was back to normal, what a relief!

In the distance, the female reporter decided to take more shots of the white man, Berkley, to emphasize that the tourists came from all over the world. The film crew walked up the path, and at about fifty feet away, the cameraman focused on Berkley, who was ecstatically releasing himself. The cameraman muttered a string of curses. He told the others what he had just seen.

"Arrogant bastard!"

Photographers, sound engineers, and male singers all rushed to their defiled sacred place.

Jumarin and Esme followed, confused and frightened.

Berhali was startled by the commotion behind him and turned to see if the temple was on fire. Were those men about to be swept away by the flood? Berhali walked towards the source of the disturbance. Unexpectedly, three people surrounded him, spitting at him, their faces contorted with anger. Even those who didn't understand Chinese could tell they were swearing. Even the female reporter in the pink suit stared at him with pity: "You're a disgrace! A disgrace!"

Bethel-dazed, Berlija rushed to Jumarin and asked, "What did you and Esme do wrong?"

The question seemed abrupt and nonsensical, but Berhali felt like they were about to kill him.

“We should be asking you what you actually did!” Jumarin retorted angrily. “They kept shouting about urinating. Did you urinate on any shrine?”

Berhali retorted angrily, "Of course not! I used an outdoor urinal—"

At this point, he realized the possible and terrifying truth.

"Oh no!"

He discovered that the girl dressed in ancient clothing was using her mobile phone to report what was happening in the Bai village.

Berhali was truly astonished: how could their cell phones still receive a signal deep in the mountains!