|
Left Cas: retired programmer, reading Voltaire's
Candide (as ebook), operates and Asus Eee PC, Intel Atom processor 1.6 Mhz, SSD
(Solid State Disk) 12 Gb, screen: 9 inch. At startup Asus Eee connects
to the internet servers of the Google APPS which hold his files, and his
standard office software as well. All shit remote! Captain: on-board
printout of ASCII download Thiers French
Revolution Volume IV
Cas
excelled in blending in the social landscape of the dhow. He immediately
took a chair, put his feet up, started looking at the waves, birds and
trees, and henceforth largely refused to go anywhere. But not only that! He
would listen with great attention to any of the stories continuously
execrated by the captain's restless mouth. Moreover, he would modestly add some inspiring comments just small enough not
to hinder the captain's verbal outflow. But not only that! As
everybody knows, the captain every now and then goes too deep in one of his
many interesting but intricate side paths and fails to find the way back to his main theme. In such a
case, Cas is the man to have around. "You were explaining your Microsoft
Excel sheet monitor.xls, and you were on sheet 1, expirations."
or: "You were dealing with what is your state of consciousness in the few
seconds after the guillotine has cut off your head, that is, while your head
can be supposed still to have enough fresh blood to think and move muscles
attached to crane bones only, such as lips, eye lids and eye ball muscles".
And there you are, ready to proceed!
There were however moments when Cas seemed less sensitive to whichever words I
just spoke or planned to utter. But when I took a skeptical look at him, he
transpired to be lost in my 803-page Dutch book "I 've got a bike in
Jinja", and my, let me be honest, slight disturbance immediately
gave way to reverent silence.
|
Half of
October, I received a remarkable guest. He likes to radiate an image of
having the
odds against him, and even seems at times to believe it personally, but this man has a character that yields, in all modesty,
sympathy and compassion, to nothing and no one. Apart from my father,
hors concours, he is the first
muzungu to jump straight from the dhow in the lake without any
hesitation. Getting out was not just as easy, but (see left), with his
amazing stamina and will-power he soon had the world at his feet again.
