'Scenes from the AATA 10,' or 'The Sage of Ceylon'
mccullen: Goddamnit, where is the goddamned bus. Ugh, here comes some old fat guy (immerses self in book).
old fat guy: Excuse me, when comes the bus?
mccullen: [Looks up.] I don't know, sorry.
old guy: Ah, I thought you would know [points to the book I am reading because reading outdoors naturally renders me a sundial.]
old guy: What the temperature is?
mccullen: It is 28. Tonight it's gonna be between ten and fifteen, with winds up to 25.
old guy: Mmm, you are used to this. Me? No.
mccullen: It is warmer where you are from?
old guy: Yes, Sri Lanka. It is warm all of the year. 70 degrees!
mccullen: Ah, Sri Lanka. [ed. note: Dude, I'm down with MIA. I salt and pepper my mango.] Are you from Colombo?
old guy: Yes! You have been to Sri Lanka?!
mccullen: Oh no, but lately it has been in the news a bit.
old guy: Yes, oh yes; the bombs. Unfortunately we suffer from a terrorist group that has a lot of power.
mccullen: You mean the Tamil Tigers?
old guy: Hmm, the Tigers... here is something I bet you don't know...do you know Indira Gandhi?
mccullen: The former prime minister...?
old guy: ...of India, yeah. Well, she gives, in secret, money- MILLIONS! to Tamil fighters. And you know what happens? They do a bomb! Takes her son. She gives them money and the bomb takes her son's life.
mccullen: Wow.
old guy: Yeah!! Eventually the Tigers, they take her too, but not direct. Not directly. You see? You do this kind of bad thing, you see this type of bad things come back to you; to you and your family.
mccullen: I guess you reap what you sow.
old guy: [sounding weirdly encouraged] Yes, it seems that way.
old guy: You know, I had a friend in Colombo, he was police officer. He was trying to catch a man- this man had killed a man- and the killer was caught and sentenced to death. At the last hour they asked him what he wanted to say, he could say anything, before he was killed, and he stand up and say- "I did not know this man. I did not kill this man... but... I have killed enough."
old guy: And he died quiet, he was not fighting.
mccullen:: Whooooah.
old guy: Yes. There you have it again.
mccullen: Here's the bus.
we got on the bus and the old guy took a seat near a hospital employee with smoker's lines around her mouth and a poor quality perm. he was quiet for about fifteen seconds before he turned to her and spoke.
old guy: Boy is it cold out today! How cold you think it is?
i smiled to myself and went back to my book.