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For our part, ould wait until no one was looking, then scoop the contents of our bowls into the plastic bags in our shoulder bags I gatheredwhen their boere full, but we had to net enough calories in ato carry us for the rest of the day We wouldn’t be sitting aroundeast across Buroing, holding our newly e benevolently on everyone in our path We repeated the process, and the third ti No one thought to toss in a Big Mac or a pint of Johnny Walker, but ere showered with nuts (almonds and cashews), dried fruit (raisins and apricots), and little fried dus, contents unknown

Tiht And up pops a pair of young soldiers, with holstered pistols on their hips and rifles slung across their backs Where had they come froht Or dysentery, or whether Social Security would still be intact ere old enough to collect it

One of the in rapid-fire Burmese I didn’t catch any of it, but replied with an all-purpose ser to my own lips, the latter accompanied by a shake of the head I’d tried out that routine earlier, hoping it would convey the notion that we couldn’t speak, and e

It was hard to tell what the soldiers made of it The one who’d spoken now turned to Katya and either repeated his first question or asked her soer to her lips, a shake of her shaven head

Jesus, could he stand this close to her and not notice she hadn’t needed to shave her face? But h weaponry to wipe out a sh he had had to shave yet himself

He barked out a co else he’d said, turned on his heel and trotted off I smiled stupidly at the other soldier, inclined ht bow, and took a step away fro an ar I didn’t need a Bure He wanted us to stay right where ere

The rifle was slung across his back, I noticed, and the pistol’s holster was snapped shut How hard would it be to jump him and knock hi it off, and I’d have his automatic rifle in hand by the ti officer

Good thing I didn’t try it It probably would have worked – the kid’s guard was down, and the last thing he expected was a sudden attack by a red-robed monk But I’d have felt like an awful fool when the other kid ca a couple of bananas and two cakes of sticky rice

"We’re not going to starve," I told Katya "We e, and weto starve"

We were on the road, heading eastward froan, and there was nobody near us to see us or hear us, a line that came readily to mind just then because we’d recently had tea for two

We’d eaten, stuffing ourselves without depleting the hoard in our shoulder bags There was plenty left to carry us through to nightfall I was thirsty, and mentioned as much to Katya I didn’t really want beer just yet, nor did I want to chance buying it in Bagan, where word of two odd-looking beer-drinking oon The water ht do a number on my stomach, but so would the food, and I couldn’t worry about that now I’d takewater? The locals fetched jugs of it froht the pure stuff in bottles at their hotels, but as a poor but honest monk to do?

"Nobody poured water in our bowls," I said And she gaveandout her cup with both hands

The proprietor didn’t even get a chance A customer leapt to his feet, snatched up his teapot, and filled her cup I got out my own cup, and another man earned himself six ounces of merit We hit three teahouses and drank three cups of tea apiece, and I have to say it hit the spot

"We won’t starve," I said again "We et out of this alive"

Chapter 18

Day by day, we settled into a routine Up at daybreak, beg for food, eat breakfast, beg for tea, and hit the street Stop at a village aroundto drink, wait in the shade until the sun had dropped a few degrees froe, or as close to it as we could get Then eat the finaloff whatever was still stowed in our shoulder bags (An evening ht violate a monastic precept, but cross-country trekkers have precepts of their own, and "Don’t go to bed hungry" is one of them)

By the time the sun went doould find a place for Katya to sleep Within a few days, she had noticed that I never see her about the sleep center, and how I didn’t have one anymore (I didn’t tell her I’d been like this since before she was born, or that I’d spent the past quarter-century in cold storage That, I felt, was more information than she needed to contend with)

We’d usually ht we dossed down in the middle of nowhere rather than try to ith only starshine to guide us It would have been great to use those evening hours, when the sun was down and the air cooled off and the roads were empty, but not when the trade-off was an inability to see where ere going I la with my Swiss Army knife and so many other indispensable articles I was now forced to dispense with, and I wished all kinds of ill fortune upon the head of the little SLORCist oes, I’d have liked my sneakers back The Forhout the Third World, were not so bad once you got used to the to want to swap his Nikes for them

Of course I couldn’t have worn my sneakers even if I had the out froave us sore calf muscles the first few days, and God knows they never providedBut they were a better fit than those wing tips I had filched, and one did tend to get used to the "Plenty to eat, loads of fresh air, and not a lot of decisions toI can see why a good percentage of the men who try it decide to make it their life work"

"Of course," she said, "that h bed ht not be so bad, but always to sleep alone?"

"There’s a downside to everything," I admitted "And it’s not just ten precepts when you’re a lifer On that level you’ve got two hundred and twenty-seven precepts to contend with"

"So many! How could a person even learn what they all are, let alone follow them?"

"That’s why the short-timers make do with ten"

"Two hundred and twenty-seven of thein with How could I give theot three hundred and eleven precepts"

"Nuns?"

"Right"