“It was not you. It was Buda. And it was also too much chat.” He
walked over and placed an amulet around Martin’s neck. “This was
my grandfather’s,” he said, “It protects against the evil eye. But he did
not wear it today. You should wear this always. Then you won’t have
to run any more.” He then came abruptly closer and embraced him,
holding him for a very long time.
Martin was terrified; he had not yet come to terms with the
curious vectors of his damaged heart. Burdened with illness since
youth, he did not want to subject it to any more challenges. Intimate
encounters with women had heretofore been mechanical and
perfunctory, but this was different. He broke away from the beautiful
Ethiopian’s grip. In Ethiopia it was common for men to display
affection with each other, often hugging or holding hands in public,
even cuddling together in the same bed. Appearances to the contrary,
this was not seen as sexual behavior. Yet for Martin it unequivocally
had been.
That night, instead of pain and worry he felt a deeper, more
chronic wound begin to heal over. He did not have to run. He held the
amulet and wept.
Martin gave Roy a thorough tour of Gymnesia. It was a clean white
building packed with sleek hardbodies, all of them dressed in pale,
tight-fitting uniforms. No one was talking; everyone was working.
The determination on their faces was unlike anything Roy had ever
seen. They were like an army of enormous worker ants, busily
building a brave new world. Only nothing was really being built, as
far as the eye could see, other than biceps.
Martin brought Roy into a room where thirty people were riding
stationary bikes. The sound of wheels spinning furiously forced
Martin to shout over the din.
“You see how much energy is being expended? You see what a
shame it would be to waste it all?” he said. “Every day millions of
people in this country exercise for no reason other than to get fit. But
here, they can get rid of their flab and give it back to the people who
really need it.” He showed Roy how each bike was linked to a cable
that fed into a plug in the wall behind them.
Bringing Roy around to a door on the other side of the wall, they
entered into a large room filled with wires and boxes of varying
shapes and sizes. “Rechargeable batteries,” Martin proclaimed,
“Soon you’ll find these babies all over the developing world, powering
ABYSSINIA
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