Today, I'm just sitting in my hut, taking a break after returning from helping a villager carry some bundles of stalks and setting them outside her hut. Hmm... I notice Maeya is walking alone past my hut, carrying a small basket. I call out to her... making my way to the entrance of my hut. She stops, waiting for me to come out. Exiting the hut, I walk up to her and ask, How are you today Maeya? Smiling just a bit, she says, Fine, how are you doing? "Fine, I was just resting... may I ask where you are going with your basket?" I'm going down to the creek to gather some cuttings. "May I walk along with you? I'd like to help and it's such a nice day for a walk!" She thinks about it for a couple seconds and simply says... Yes.
We proceed to walk through the hut area, slowly making our way to the path down to the creek where the villagers bathe. She seems occupied with her thoughts as we walk along. Her eyes glance to the horizon where flocks of birds can be seen in the distance as they make their way towards the lake. You can hear their chattering, even from this distance. The path to the creek makes for quite a nice relaxing walk, as there are a number of trees that shade the path along the way. The squirrel type creatures scamper about and run on the opposite sides of the tree as we walk by. You can hear the quiet rustling of the leaves as we pass under them. "Maeya, this is such a beautiful place to take a walk and I find it quite relaxing just simply walking along." She looks at me, and again, smiles a bit and says; I know... I never tire of watching every living thing around us.
Walking along, she turns and says, Zhimm, do you intend to stay in our village, or do you wish to travel on to see more of the land? Before I answer her, we arrive at the creek and see that the bathing area is unoccupied at this time. I notice a large rock to the left that juts out over the creek a bit. It has a flat surface on top; one could sit on the rock comfortably and hang one's legs over the edge.
As we approach, small reptiles scamper off the rock, and off into the brush. I ask; Maeya, will you sit with me for a while? She pauses for a second, says yes, and places the basket she is carrying down on the ground next to her as we sit down together on the rock. It's so peaceful here, the water in the creek is moving beneath us slowly as we watch fish swimming by, beneath our feet. Dragonflies of all sizes and colors are darting about over the creeks' edge looking for insects. The Sun is moving lower to the horizon, as it is late afternoon now. It's painting the horizon with such a beautiful color display!
I tell her; Maeya, I’d like to stay in this village. Everyone has been kind to me and I feel quite at home here. As she gazes at the horizon in front of us, she tells me; The villagers are hoping that you will stay with us, they're all so glad that you came our way. Saying that, she looks down into the water again to watch the fish swim by.
I tell her; I'm very fortunate to have been brought to your village and I feel honored to have had everyone in the village accept me so readily. No one really knew much about me, and it couldn't have helped that I looked so different. She just smiled at that statement.
She's leaning back slightly with her palms face down on the rock on both sides of her. Placing my hand over hers, I smile while looking into her eyes. Maeya, this is my home now. My heart is here. I've grown to love everyone in the village and wish to stay.
She looks at me, smiles, and says; I have something to do now, as she picks up the basket and stands up. "Can I come with you and help?" Yes... follow me. Walking along the creek, we follow it downstream. We cut across the path that the women take to bathe and proceed to follow the creek for about another hundred yards. She stops walking along the creek ridge and says; we need to climb down nearer the water. We find a place on the ridge that isn't so steep down to the creek, and make our way down to the waters edge by using a few rocks to walk on that act as steps for us. Many small colorful birds are surprised by our sudden appearance on this creek bed and take to flight with noisy chatter.
Walking just a bit further downstream, we make our way to a flowering bush that apparently caught her attention on a previous visit. As we approach the bush, butterflies take off from it and some multi-colored frogs leap from under the bush into the creek with a splash. It startles me for a second... there's life here everywhere! She spends a minute looking the bush over, and hands the basket to me after removing a small stone knife from it. Applying the knife, she carefully removes a few cuttings... branches and leaves from the bush and places them and the knife in the basket.
Pleased with her find, she says, we're finished here; we'll go up the same rocks that we took down here. We proceed to walk up the stone steps, and I offer to take her by the hand to help her up, making sure she doesn't lose her step while walking up the rocks. She looks me in the eyes as she smiles at me, takes my hand, as we climb back to the creeks edge. I hand her the basket now that we're walking along the creeks ridge. I ask, Maeya, what are these cuttings for? "I'll use the leaves and the inner bark of the branches as one ingredient of a drink to lessen the pain of the old ones if they have exerted themselves too much at one time". That’s very kind of you Maeya to think of them. How do you know this will work for their pain? I really can't explain to you at this time how I know, but it will. She doesn't elaborate any further, and I don't press the issue. We walk on, and I can't stop thinking of her smile and the feeling of my hand holding hers coming up from the creek!
Arriving at the path of the women's bathing area, we follow it back towards the village. You know, I think that today's the first time I actually had a conversation with her that lasted over a few sentences. She's still a mystery, but she's also kind, intelligent, and a gentle woman. On the path back to the village, we walk beneath the shade trees where the squirrels are nesting. Stopping, we watch them chase each other up and down the trees. We find them quite humorous and laugh at their comical antics. Glancing over at her while she is laughing at the squirrels, I notice again that she has such a beautiful smile! Her face just seems to glow when she's laughing. Walking on, we make our way into the village, she tells me, "I have to go home now". I quickly respond to her and say; Maeya, will you ask me to go with you the next time you need more cuttings? She pauses for a couple seconds and simply says, "Yes". She smiles, turns towards her families hut and walks away.
Making the way back to my hut, I take a seat on the bed with both elbows propped on my knees, resting my chin in the palms of my hands. I'm really at a loss of just what to think about Maeya. What was that saying about "a riddle, wrapped up in a mystery, inside an enigma"?