Henderson the Rain King - Saul Bellow [133]
the future. I can swear to you, Romilayu, there are guys exactly like me in India and in China and South America and all over the place. Just before I left home I saw an interview in the paper with a piano teacher from Muncie who became a Buddhist monk in Burma. You see, that's what I mean. I am a high-spirited kind of guy. And it's the destiny of my generation of Americans to go out in the world and try to find the wisdom of life. It just is. Why the hell do you think I'm out here, anyway?" "I don' know, sah." "I wouldn't agree to the death of my soul." "Me Methdous, sah." "I know it, but that would never help me, Romilayu. And please don't try to convert me, I'm in trouble enough as it is." "I no bothah you." "I know. You are standing by me in my hour of trial, God bless you for it. I also am standing by King Dahfu until he captures his father, Gmilo. When I get to be a friend, Romilayu, I am a devoted friend. I know what it is to lie buried in yourself. One thing I have learned, though I am a hard man to educate. I tell you, the king has a rich nature. I wish I could learn his secret." Then Romilayu with the scars shining on his wrinkled face (manifestations of his former savagery) but with soft sympathetic eyes which contained a light that didn't come from the air (it could never have penetrated the shade, like an umbrella pine, that grew across his low forehead), wanted to know what secret I was trying to get from Dahfu. "Why," I said, "there's something about danger that doesn't perplex the guy. Look at all the things he has to fear, and still look at the way he lies on that sofa. You've never seen that. He has an old green sofa upstairs which must have been brought by the elephants a century ago. And the way he lies on it, Romilayu! And the females wait on him. But on the table near him he has those two skulls used at the rain ceremony, one his father's and the other his grandfather's. Are you married, Romilayu?" I asked him. "Yes, sah, two time. But now got one wife." "Why, that's just like me. And I have five children, including twin boys about four years old. My wife is very big." "Me, six children." "Do you worry about them? It's a wild continent still, no two ways about that. I am all the time worrying lest my two little kids wander off in the woods. We ought to get a dog--a big dog. But we'll be living in town anyway from now on. I am going to go to school. Romilayu, I am going to send a letter to my wife, and you are going to take it to Baventai and mail it. I promised you baksheesh, old man, and here are the papers for the jeep, made over to you. I wish I could take you back to the States with me, but since you have a family it's not practical." His face expressed very little pleasure at the gift. It wrinkled especially hard, and as I knew him by now I said, "Hell, man, don't be toying with tears all the time. What's to cry over?" "You in trouble, sah," he said. "Yes, I know I am. But since I'm a reluctant type of fellow, life has decided to use strong measures on me. I am a shunner, Romilayu, and so this serves me right. What's the matter, old pal, do I look bad?" "Yes, sah." "My feelings always did leak into my looks," I said. "That's the type of constitution I have. Is it that woman's head they showed us that worries you?" "Dem kill you, maybe?" said Romilayu. "Okay, that Bunam is a bad actor. The guy is a scorpion. But don't forget I am the Sungo. Doesn't Mummah protect me? I think maybe my person is sacred. Besides, with my twenty-two neck they'd have to have two guys to strangle me. Ha, ha! You mustn't worry about me, Romilayu. As soon as this business with the king is completed and I have helped him capture his dad, I'll join you in Baventai." "Please God, 'e mek quick," said Romilayu. When I mentioned the Bunam to the king, he laughed at me. "When I possess Gmilo, I am absolute master," he said. "But that animal is raging and killing out there in the savanna," I said, "and you act as though you had him safe in storage already." "Lions do not often leave a given locale," he said. "Gmilo is near here.