Sunken Fish - Chapter 23
A Turning Point in Fate (2)
They reached a consensus: to take a bus to Stone Bell Mountain immediately, where they could go hiking. They brought only what they needed for the day; everyone only brought clothes, a camera, and a travel magazine, except for Heidi, of course.
Soon, everyone boarded the bus and set off. When Mrs. Massey took a group photo with her camera, everyone cheered, "To Stone Bell Hill!"
From then on, they made it a habit to change plans and issue new orders, as if that were the better decision.
After sitting in the car for two hours, we arrived at the parking lot in front of a restaurant. Starving, Benny remarked that it was like an oasis in the desert, as described in Travel & Leisure magazine, and the tables covered with old plastic tablecloths were a mirage…
The tourists got off the bus and took off their coats. Murphy and his son Rupert walked toward the nearest bushes. The others sat at the table. Benny took out his journal, Wendy looked at her travel magazine, and Mrs. Marseille framed the shot through the viewfinder of her digital camera.
How "lucky" it was to eat at this unassuming restaurant (ironically, even the locals avoided it). The cook (Wendy euphemistically called him "chef") and his waitress wife were truly fortunate; they hadn't seen an unfortunate customer for three days in a row.
"What shall we order?" Benny asked everyone.
“I won’t eat dog meat!” Esme shouted.
"How about snake meat?" Rupert joked.
"Do you think they eat cats?" Heidi said, feeling upset just thinking about it.
Miss Rong relayed to the chef in Mandarin: "These Americans don't eat dog meat, but they want to know if you have the famous Yunnan dish, Dragon and Lion Dance?"
The chef apologized, saying they no longer sourced live snakes and cats. But his wife interjected, saying they would serve the best dishes—which turned out to be pork and chicken, some reheated leftover rice, and cockroach legs hidden in the middle.
The main course was downed in large bottles of uncold beer and cola.
Berhali drank three glasses of local high-alcohol beer. He was a discerning diner, enjoying the rustic cuisine of Languedoc and Sancerre white wine, which was currently in season for the grape harvest. He went to the bathroom drunkenly without eating anything else, where there were no lights, and he nearly fell in.
Heidi didn't like the roadside picnic either. She ate the protein-rich beans she had brought, along with a bottle of water and a heating coil for sterilizing the water. Her bag also contained two small bottles of antibacterial disinfectant, half a dozen alcohol swabs, a doctor's prescription for needles and syringes in case she needed surgery for a head injury, a sealed container for food, a pack of wet wipes, antacid chewable tablets that form a protective film in the stomach (she had read in a book that these could block 98% of the dirt that causes traveler's diarrhea), a plastic funnel with a six-inch telescopic tube so she could urinate standing up, special gloves for handling the funnel, an adrenaline injection pen in case of allergic reactions to mosquito bites, a portable air purifier and its spare nine-volt battery to hang around her neck, a motion sickness device and its lithium battery to wear on her wrist, assimilation pills for malaria, anti-inflammatory drugs, a bottle of antibiotics for bacterial hepatitis and gastroenteritis… and many more medications, including a bag of intravenous fluids, which she had left at the hotel.
Heidi and Beryl escaped the dysentery outbreak—she because of anxiety, him because of his pickiness. Years of experience had given the bus driver, Little Fei, known as "Mr. Fred," immunity, preventing infection. Several members of the group, thanks to their inherited good health, recovered before the symptoms became apparent. Others remained unaware of the Shigella bacteria in the kitchen for the next few days. But the bacteria had already entered their bodies and continued their journey through their intestines and internal organs. The bus, carrying these people, sped along the same winding road.
The forces of fate and Shigella dysenteriae will soon find them.
The Curse of Stone Bell Mountain (1)
Being late is the most unforgivable mistake on a group trip—no punishment is too much.
But I hadn't had a chance to set this rule with them yet, so after a terrible lunch, my friends had to wait an extra twenty minutes to get everyone together.
Rupert suddenly thought of rock climbing; the boy was only fifteen and had no concept of five minutes versus fifty. Mr. Marseille found a secret path, and his wife was filming him. Wendy saw the cook's sister's children and quickly took pictures with her Nikon camera, while Wyatt made funny faces to make the kids laugh. Jumarin and her little daughter were making do with the toilet. Beryl shook his head and went to find a better toilet, but instead saw a pair of amusing birds.
Benny was making notes in his journal. The bus driver, Xiao Fei, went across the street to smoke. If Vera hadn't waved dramatically at him to get on the bus, Xiao Fei would have stayed closer to the bus. Miss Rong sat in the front, engrossed in her English book. Mo Fei also got on and lay down in the back for a nap. Heidi also boarded.
Laziness had almost become a habit; Rupert and Beryl even had a contest to see who could be the slowest. Finally, everyone had gathered, and Miss Rong started counting heads: the black woman, the fat man, the tall man with the ponytail, the girl who was always kissing, the man who had drunk too much beer, the three wearing baseball caps, the two wearing sun hats… She had to start over after the eleventh. Finally, she had twelve people, and she waved a victory sign to the driver: “Let’s go!”
Driver Xiaofei was speeding past oncoming traffic, swerving the steering wheel wildly like a roulette wheel, recklessly overtaking on this winding mountain road. The poor suspension system, combined with the almost reckless driving, would make anyone carsick. Heidi, however, didn't feel nauseous, thanks to the motion sickness device on her wrist. Rupert was also unaffected, even reading a black-covered book, *The Tragedy of Stephen King*.