A Gambling Man by David Baldacci (ebook audio reader .txt) 📕

trip and Mr. Pasang had been most compliant. That I could not get Bim or whoever to bring anything but tea at first light was acceptable as long as I had coffee when I sat down to breakfast. Bim was waiting at the table in the courtyard and he had a pot of coffee ready for me.

When Curtis showed up I asked him what had happened to Esra, last night.

“Don’t know, just that she was not feeling well.”

“Who was?” I asked.

“Well, I know she seems to be a little more pampered than Celine, but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t genuinely sick.”

“Sorry if it seems like I was implying she wasn’t,” I said. I drank my coffee and thought about the situation. “We’ll see. Daylight has a way of making things better.”

He nodded and we waited while everyone else showed up for breakfast and the first full day on the trail. Yesterday was just a warm-up.

“Good morning, Sensei!” Celine danced up to the table and swirled around in a lovely pirouette. How she did it in hiking boots, I’ll never know, but I do train my students that a pirouette is one of the fundamental movements in aikido. I’ve just never seen it done like that. She was wearing a pretty sweater and a full loose skirt and it occurred to me she would be a lot more comfortable in that skirt than in her khakis from yesterday. I wished I had my hakama. Well, not really.

“Celine, you look wonderful. I think the skirt is a fine idea. How do you feel?”

“I feel wonderful! I love this place! It is so beautiful!”

And in truth I had been so immersed in how bad I had been feeling, my knees, and my tired old bones, that I had forgotten to smell the roses we passed. She was right. It was beautiful. We walked down the trail to where the family lodge ended at a sharp turn in the trail and were able to look out at the morning sun breaking over the terraced mountainside. The green cabbages and the golden marigolds literally vibrated with pulsing color and in a moment I felt uplifted. I turned around and walked back toward the breakfast table and when I passed her I softly said, “thank you,” then went back to find Cook and Bim waiting to serve us breakfast.

Esra was sitting with Christian and Chris and I asked her how she was feeling. She spoke at length and turned to Chris and Curtis and continued to speak with ever-expanding gestures and more and more animation. Bim looked startled and I caught Cook sidling away, disappearing toward wherever they had prepared our breakfast, giving me a sly grin and helpless gesture. I looked back at Esra and smiled and nodded and finally she jumped up and gave me a huge hug and disappeared back toward the supply shed. I had no idea what had been said. I turned toward the others and opened my hands in my best inquisitorial gesture. They returned it and then we all laughed. She was clearly speaking English in her mind and with her best intentions, but it was simply gibberish. She was very pretty, though.

“I remember old Ed Baker, Sensei,” I said. “He used to say that he had been around women all his life, and could understand why men and women can’t communicate. He said he was forever telling them not to say anything to him… but that he couldn’t make them understand that he didn’t care what they thought about what he ate, what he wore, and what he drank, but they were always talking anyway. He said he understood that perfectly. But then he said he couldn’t understand why they just didn’t…”

“Sensei! Did you tell my sister we are staying here today?”

I turned and looked at Celine, startled, and shook my head no.

She smiled and turned around and walked off. I turned back to the group and tried to remember what it was that Baker Sensei used to say and couldn’t. It was probably just as well. He had been a submarine sailor. Of course, I had been a sailor myself. It was probably why we liked each other.

“Sahib? Will you be eating the breakfast?”

“Yes, Bim. Please tell Cook we will be eating the breakfast now. Anyone not present can walk hungry.

Eventually Celine and Esra came to the table and Esra was clearly not as happy as she had been when she left, but the porters were at least on their way with our gear and today it was Nawang who got to leave the expedition and go ahead to arrange for lunch and lodging. I hoped he would be more successful than Hadim had been. We had muesli, a European granola, and a nice one egg omelet each, with a few bits of herb and cheese. When we finished and stood up I was still starving. It was time to go.

***

Celine fairly danced her way down the trail while we crested the ridge and slowly wound our way through the pass. After the day before we found the going easy during the morning and after a short consultation with Bim we decided to press on through lunch and stop early in Bhandar. We crossed the 9,000 foot pass and stopped to admire a large group of mani walls. There were a few pilgrims praying at the walls so we silently took a few pictures and moved on.

The trail leads down into one of the most beautiful valleys in the low Himalaya and bottoms at about 7,200 feet. After the previous night we felt like we were swimming in air and found Nawang waiting for us with our porters in a very nice lodge in the center of the community. He led us up the stairs and down a wide hall and showed me into a nice single room with a window. I did