Gaps and absences and things unsaid unseen. The omission of superfluous words/things that would be obvious. Three dots. This is my trip to China…
In Tagong Holly and I met some nuns. Buddhist nuns. They were eating noodles at a restaurant near the town’s only hostel (not the only hostel – the only one that seemed occupied, even though the register seemed very out of date when we signed in), a signal that the prices might be reasonable. A bunch of nuns aren’t going to be obscenely overcharged for dinner, right? So we should be able to get a similar deal? Despite being multinational and wearing no spiritual uniform? This was the plan at least.
The dinner-obtaining plan went well, though my noodles with meat had more gristle than I would have preferred. More important, the nuns were delighted to find Holly spoke Sichuanhua and got a whole bunch of pictures taken with us (sadly, not with my camera). This led us to receive a discount on the noodles. The proprietors liked folks who liked nuns, apparently. They gave Holly their address to send the pictures to. I don’t know if she’s done this yet.
That evening at the hostel we passed a room full of party and stopped in. It was the nuns, hosting British card tricksters and other hangers-on to a photo-taking extravaganza. Holly heard exhortations to come visit their nunnery. I may have heard them as well, but didn’t understand.
The next day the nuns were gone. Neatly-made beds all that remained.
