Buri, Flash Flood, The Rose People

If there's one person who's more paranoid than I am it has to be Nyanne.

She won't give up giving me the third degree.

"Who came here with my past?"

"Sorry, Annie, but I really don't understand the question!"

"Who came to tell you about me?"

"Well. If you must know... Nobody! Nobody comes here asking for you, okay?"

Talk about stress!

I ask her if I can use the bathroom. I take a long shower. What is the word to describe what I feel? What is that word?

It comes to me. "Buri." The word is "buri." And this makes me smile and shout, "Diega!"

***

There's a flash flood on my way home. The water on the street goes up to my waist. I look around trying to figure out where I am. I dodge abandoned cars that are floating around. I worry about people who must be worrying about me. I wish I had told someone where I was going. What if I get lost? No one will even know I'm missing.

I'm getting tired, dodging cars and walking through the flooded streets. I grab on to what remains of a fence and rest. I look up at the sky and am startled to see how clear and blue it is.

***

The Rose People live in a land that can be reached by drowning yourself in the ocean at the end of the world.

Once you reach their land, your senses will be assaulted by colors that are yet unnamed and smells that don't dissipate.

The Rose People are a peaceful and shy people. They're shinning brown and limbre and love to sing. They get their name from their unusual mating habits:

Everyday, they converge by a stream with water that tastes like roses. This water flows from one end to another and the smell of roses gives the air a heavy intensity. The women stand on one end of the stream, the men on the other and they wait for the water to flow in two directions, from opposite ends to meet in a whirpool in the middle of the stream.

They squeal as soon as this happens and one at a time, scrupulously taking turns, a man from one end and a woman from another end jump into the water and are carried to the center where they disappear into the whirlpool.

Surrounded by nothing but water, holding their breaths, they make love until the woman is impregnated. There are cheers each time a couple emerges.

Sadly, one time a copulation was interrupted. The couple emerged disgruntled and the woman had a baby's hand, no bigger than a thimble, sticking out of her belly.