That should have been the end of it. An unexciting stop on an otherwise interesting journey. Unfortunately, I had not kept an eye on Ruby. While the rest of us had been gnawing fried bread and swatting flies, she had been chatting away with our hosts in a manner that was far too loose and animated to be strictly decent from a Kyrgyz perspective. They seemed taken with her — the man, his mother, his sisters, and his aunts. So taken that when we all stood up to go, they said she should stay.
The Dream of the Shepherd
You say the Shepherd waits all night for the dream to abate. But how could you know? In the painting He covers his face. Last week, I called to tell you that I wanted to die. This was not the first time. In the Shepherd's dream, the women are cast...