GURDJIEFF, G.I. – Life is real only then, when I am - Integral Book

On this original instrument I then played, I confess, not badly —although I played only two tunes: "The Peaks of Manchuria" and"Valse Ozhidanie."Arriving in the Transcaspian region we decided for the time being to establish ourselves in the city of Ashkhabad.We rented two good rooms in a private house with a charming garden, and I could finally rest. Yet, on the first morning when my only near person there went to a pharmacy to get for me the necessary medicaments, he did not returnfor a long time. Hours passed, but still he did not come ... he did not come. I began to be anxious, chiefly because I knew that he was here for the first time and did not yet know anybody. Night is falling and I have no more patience. ... I am going to look for him.But where? First of all I go to the pharmacy. There they know nothing.. . . Suddenly, listening to my questions, the druggist's boy says that he sawthis same young man, who was there in the morning, arrested by thepolice in the street not far from there, and taken away somewhere. What is to be done? Where to go? I know no one here, and besides I amhardly able to move because during the last few days I have becomecompletely exhausted.When I leave the pharmacy, it is almost completely dark in the street. By chance an unoccupied carriage passes. I ask to be taken to the center of the city, somewhere near the bazaar where after the stores close there is still life.