Chapter 46 Indonesian Stories (45)

"Honey," she said tearfully, "I'm not kidding!" "I know that, sis. That's why I'm so upset. I want to tell my friends in America that sis is not a bullshit, but they don't believe me." She put her hand on mine. "I'm sorry to make it difficult for you, honey." "It's really hard. My friends are very angry. They say you have to buy the land before I go back to the US. They say if you don't buy the land next week, I have to... get the money back." Now she doesn't look like she's going to faint; she looks like she's going to die.Half of me feel like the worst person ever to tell such lies to this poor woman, especially since she obviously doesn't realize that I have no ability to withdraw her bank deposit any more than I have any ability to take her Indonesian citizenship .But how did she know?I made the money magically appear in her bank account, didn't I?Wouldn't it be easy to get the money back too?

"Honey," she said, "believe me, I'm looking for land, don't worry, I'll find it soon. Please don't worry... maybe in three days, I promise." "You've got to do it, Miss." I said seriously, not quite acting.In fact, she had to.Her children need a home.She is about to be evicted by the landlord.This is not the time for bullshit. I said, "I'm going back to Felipe's now. Call me when you buy the land." I turned and walked out, knowing she was watching me, but I didn't want to look back at her.Along the way, I offered the weirdest prayer to God: "Please, I hope she's fucking shitting on me." Because if she wasn't shitting, if she's really looking for money despite having eighteen thousand dollars in If we don't have a place to live, then we will be in big trouble, and I don't know if this woman will ever get herself out of poverty.But if she's bullshitting me, in a way, that's a silver lining.It was proof that she was scheming, which in this ever-changing world was a good thing after all.

I went back to Felipe's house in a bad mood.I said, "If my sister learns that I'm plotting something behind her back..." "...for her happiness and success," he continued. Four hours later -- just four hours! --The phone at Felipe's house rang, and it was the elder sister.She gasped to let me know that it was done.She just bought the farmer's Eralo land (the farmer's "wife", who suddenly doesn't seem to care about splitting the land).It turned out that the so-called dreaming, priest's intervention, or testing the radiation value of the gods were not necessary.The eldest sister has even obtained the certificate of ownership, which is in her hands and has been notarized!She also told me that she had ordered building materials for the house and workers would start building the house early next week - so I could see the work going on before I left.She wants me not to be mad at her.She wants me to know that she loves me more than she loves her own body, more than she loves her own life, more than she loves the whole world.

I told her that I loved her too, that I couldn't wait to visit her beautiful new home, that I would love to have a copy of that title deed. After I hung up, Felipe said, "Good girl." I don't know if he meant her or me, but he opened a bottle of wine and we toasted to our best friend, the landowner lady in Bali. Then Felipe said: "Can we go on vacation now?" Our holiday was on a tiny island called Gili Meno off the coast of Lombok, the next stop east of Bali in the sprawling Indonesian archipelago.I have been to Menon before, and I want to show Felipe, who has never been there.

Menon is one of the most important places in the world for me.On my first visit to Bali two years ago, I came here alone.I had just returned from two weeks of rejuvenating yoga classes when I was invited by a magazine to write about my yoga trip.But after completing the work assigned by the magazine, I decided to extend my stay in Indonesia now that I have traveled all the way to Asia.What I want to do, in fact, is to find a remote place and live in seclusion for ten days, giving myself absolute isolation and absolute peace. When I look back on the four years from the time my marriage began to unravel to my freedom through divorce, I see a detailed history of pain.When I came to this small island alone, it was the lowest ebb of the whole dark journey, the pain in the bottom.My troubled heart is a battlefield in which fighting demons fight each other.When I decided to spend ten days alone with no village in front of me and no shop behind, I told all the chaotic warring thoughts inside me the same thing: "Listen you guys, we're alone now. We've got to figure out how to get along" Otherwise, sooner or later everyone will die here."