Chapter 19 Indonesian Stories (18)

When Little Tutty served each dish, she explained the contents of the plate with a clear voice and a smile. She should play the baton when she is so lively. "Turmeric juice, cleanses the kidneys!" she declared. "Seaweed, supplement calcium!" "Tomato salad, vitamin D supplement!" "A variety of herbs, prevent malaria!" I finally said, "Tutti, where did you learn such good English?" "From the book!" she declared. "I think you're a very smart girl." I told her. "Thank you!" she said, doing an impromptu happy little dance, "you're a smart girl too!"

By the way, Balinese kids are usually not like this.They are often extremely quiet and polite, hiding behind their mothers.Tutti is different, she has an entertaining style, she knows how to express and express. "I'll show you my book!" Tutti sang, rushing up the stairs to get it. "She wants to be an animal doctor," the older sister told me, "what's the word for that?" "veterinary?" "Yes, the veterinarian. She has many questions about animals, but I can't answer them. She said, "Mum, if someone brings a sick tiger, do you bandage the teeth first so that it doesn't bite me?"If a snake is sick and needs medicine, where is its mouth? "I don't know where she got these ideas. I hope she goes to college."

With a pile of books in her arms, Tutti staggered down the stairs and quickly climbed onto her mother's lap.The eldest sister smiled and kissed her daughter, and the mist of divorce disappeared from her face in an instant.I looked at them and thought, the little girl who survived her mother will grow up to be a strong woman.In one afternoon, I have fallen in love with this child.I couldn't help praying to God: "May Tuti one day bandage the teeth of a thousand white tigers!" I also love Tutti's mother.But I've been in their shop for hours and I think it's time to go.There are also other tourists who walk into the store, hoping to have a meal.One of the tourists, a cheeky old Australian woman, yelled at her older sister if she could help with her "terrible constipation problem".I thought to myself: "Honey, sing louder, let us all dance for you..."

"I'll come back tomorrow," I assured my sister, "and order your multivitamin special." "Your knee is much better now," said the eldest sister, "it will be better soon, and it will no longer be infected." She wiped the green ointment off my leg, then shook my kneecap gently, feeling for what it felt.Then she touched the knee of the other leg and closed her eyes.She opened her eyes, grinned, and said, "I know from your knee that you haven't been having much sex lately." I asked, "How do you say it? Because it's too tight?"

She smiled and said, "No - it's the joints, which are dry. Sex produces hormones that lubricate the joints. How long has it been since you had sex?" "About a year and a half." "You need a good man. I will help you find it. I will go to the temple and ask God to find you a good man, because now you are my sister. Also, when you come over tomorrow, I will clean your kidneys ." "Besides a good man, and a clean kidney? Sounds good." "I never told anyone about these divorces," she told me. "My life was too heavy, too sad, too hard. I don't understand why life is so hard."

Then I did a strange thing.I held the therapist's hands and said firmly, "The hardest part of your life is over, sister." Then I left her shop trembling inexplicably, filled with some strong intuition or urge I still couldn't identify or release. Now my daily activities are divided into thirds naturally.In the morning, I stay with my eldest sister in her shop, talking, laughing and eating.In the afternoon, I went to Grandpa Lai's house to chat and drink coffee.At night in my beautiful garden, spending time and reading alone, or sometimes chatting with Yudhi who came to play the guitar.Every morning, I meditate as the sun rises over the rice fields. Before going to bed, I talk to my four brothers and ask them to watch over me while I sleep.

I've only been here a few weeks, but already I feel like my mission is accomplished.The mission in Indonesia was to find balance, and I no longer felt like I was searching for anything because the balance had come naturally.I haven't become Balinese (like I've never been Italian or Indian) but I feel at peace in myself and I like to spend my days surrounded by comfortable meditation and pleasant views, good friends and good food swing between.I've been praying a lot lately, freely and frequently.Mostly, I found myself wanting to pray as I cycled home from Lai's house through the monkey forest and rice fields in the late evening.Of course, I was praying that I would never get hit by a bus, or jumped on by a monkey, or bitten by a dog, but none of that mattered.Most of my prayers are pure gratitude for my own contentment, and I have never felt so relieved of my own or the world's burden.