Chaos Theory and Virtual Avalanches
We arrived back in Kathmandu shortly after sunset. After disembarking from the army truck, whose riders’ conversations on the way back had mostly revolved around local hashish prices, Master Fwap and I parted. I returned to the hostel in search of Nadia, and Master Fwap went back to his temple.
I found Nadia sitting in the kitchen, helping a few of our fellow hostel mates prepare dinner. Tonight was stew and bread night. There were seven of us at the dinner table. After finishing our meal and cleaning up, Nadia and I both retired to the dormitory.
She seemed much happier and also even more beautiful than I had remembered her to be, from our brief but intense encounter the night before. She was wearing a short aquamarine dress, black hose, a white zippered top, and black cotton slippers. She had on light blue glitter nail polish that matched her dress, and she was wearing a soft shade of pink lipstick. She looked very hip and appealing, and I felt like having sex with her immediately.
Instead of letting her hair down that evening, she had braided it into a knot behind her head. Sitting next to her in her Eurotech getup, it hit me that I must have looked pretty disheveled after a day of mountain climbing and snowboarding so I excused myself and went and took a freezing cold shower, since no hot water was available. I then shaved, put on some clean jeans, my best-looking sweatshirt, and thermal socks and started preparing myself for another potential intimate encounter with her.
Returning to the dorm after my shower, I found Nadia sitting on her bed reading. I quietly approached, sat down next to her on my bed, and said nothing. I sensed that I shouldn’t come on too strong, so I took The Handbook for Enlightenment out of my day pack. I thought if she saw me reading a Buddhist text, it might enhance her opinion of me and increase my possibilities of another intimate encounter.
After thumbing through the book for a few seconds, I found the opening page of the second chapter and began to read.