He bid them both goodbye and set out strolling slowly down the
dirt road with a fifty pound bag of dried beans on his back. The
highland sun baked his brow, stoked his ardor and fanned the flames
of an indefatigable desire. Feed the worldhad once meant that the
world should help feed Ethiopia. But Roy was going to turn that on
its head. With his help it would shortly be Ethiopia, agrarian symbol
for catastrophe, a misunderstood beauty, that would be feeding the
world, feeding the heads, spreading the garden far and wide until
there would be no question as to its location. For in time the garden
would be everywhere. And the great lonely blue ball, that
unconnected dot, would swim wholly green in her own rich waste
fertility.
He found the girl waiting for him out on the main road. She ran
up to him but then stopped abruptly, a questioning look in her eyes.
Kissing her forehead he said only “Ameseganallo.” Thank you. He
thought she wanted him to take her away, to free her from her
unhappy circumstance. What could he do? When he looked back
moments later he saw her watching from a distance, a soiled statue
in her dingy white shamma. He waved one last time but she did not
reciprocate. As he turned, her heavy gaze fell hard upon his back.
ABYSSINIA
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