We drive through green and dappled light, passengers getting off every couple of hours at bus stops and banana trees. The bus is almost empty, careening on the edges of steep hill roads. We ride with every window open, boys pushing the bus out of a mud hole, laughing as we bound off the bus to help. Jacky’s eyes glance over her shoulder as we push against the back of the bus like twin planets peeking over the lunar dust of a red moon. The bus heaves and then frees itself, only to succumb to Lao Time.
I know what it looks like, me sitting here beside the Australian surfer girl sharing earbuds on an iPod. But I have to get close, find out more about Candidate Dim, unravel the conspiracy, and find out how he ties in to R.E.I.N. We share earbuds as she introduces me to her playlist. All the while, my head swirls with a cocktail of Jack Sour, the Dalai Lama, Tibetans, Americans, the Chinese, and Candidate Dim. Somehow they’re all tied together. All signs point to Vang Vieng.
Jacky’s sweat has a tinge of citrus to it. She grows on me like an invasive species, blossoming little white orchids before moonlight and releasing that infused aroma of sex, adventure, and freedom. She’s the poster child for the anti-doxology of R.E.I.N., which I grow more acquainted with as the bus drones on. It seems more like evangelism than political discussion, Maya taking both of my hands with a look of unspoken sympathy. Their approach with Jacky is more amorous, flirtatious, these two newlyweds perhaps trying to up their game by inviting one more to the connubial bed. Perhaps they know we want to feel touched by the letters of understanding, the vowels that murmur through pouted lips, crossed by furrowed eyebrows as we open up to each other on this never-ending bus ride, the sunset hanging above the horizon, but never intent to fall.
By the time we get there, I have, against my better judgment, grown partial to these new companions, their sense of freedom, their sense of optimism, their hope and cheer. To them, the world is a thing to be explored, life to be experienced, a world to save, yes, but freedom above all else, the freedom to be as you are. A thing that is. A thing becoming. Beautiful in every layer. I spend way too much time smelling Jacky’s hair.