Saving Fish from Drowning - Heal Burma

SAVING FISH FROM DROWNING
San Francisco, here in this mountain valley in China, she looked pos­
itively exotic. Why was that? Why had he not sought her out before?
Could it really be that he had overlooked her because she was past a
certain dewy-skinned age? But look at her now. Everything about her
was smooth and elegant: her hair, her face, her clothes, and espe­
cially her movements and gestures. When applying insect repellent,
she looked like a goddess. Such grace, such style. She wore a simple
black sleeveless sheath and a large colorful pleated scarf, wound and
wrapped, so that it resembled a sarong, an origami shawl, a sari, the
multiple effects waiting to be undone by a breeze, a whisper of con­
sent in the night.
Naturally, he worried that his friend Moff might have similar
thoughts. The two men often did when it came to women. He
glanced over at Moff, who was staring right this moment at Heidi as
she reached into the overhead rack to pull out a neck pillow from her
rucksack. Moff’s son, Rupert, who had been playing with a deck of
cards, also stared openly at the young woman’s breasts. Harry had
noticed that Moff had given Marlena a number of second glances,
his eyes drifting down the length of her figure, lingering on her but­
tocks. By sitting next to her, Harry hoped this territorial hint would
find its way into his friend’s brain, stir some cognition where impul­
sive behavior and primitive reflexes now resided. Moff could be
thickheaded exactly when you didn’t want him to be.
There was that time, Harry recalled, when they were both at a café
in Stinson Beach, and Harry had clearly indicated his interest in the
café’s owner by saying to Moff: “What gorgeous peepers. Huge hazel
irises, fourteen millimeters in diameter, I reckon.” Harry had a fixa­
tion about eyes. And Moff had answered, “Really? Hadn’t noticed.”
The next day Harry was back at the café and ordered eggs sunny-
side up. The woman was friendly, but it was hard to move in more
closely; she was like those hand-shy dogs in shelters that had been
beaten by previous owners. But he loved the challenge of transform­
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