The Nose

Nose.

I remember there was something wrong with a nose. Whose nose, I do not remember, but it was somebody’s nose. Maybe my nose. I do not remember.

The nose was there, yet it seemed it was not there. No eyes, no mouth…just a nose. Even the face was not there.

What’s wrong? I heard a voice ask that sounded like cat.

Nothing. I chuckled. Did I laugh?

There’s no nose, is there? The voice of the cat continued.

Yes, there is. But I don’t see anything beside the nose.

Huh? The cat voiced. Nose, eh? How come I don’t see a nose but a face?

I don’t know. I said.

But where’s your nose? The cat meowed.

Right here. I said, pointing to my nose.

Then, what is this in my hands. Said the voice that sounded like cat showing me a nose.

It was my nose.

Cabbages and Bamboo shoots

Nothing to eat. Cabbages and bamboo shoots. Cabbages lasted for a week. After that, bamboo shoots were all he would find.

He ate bamboo shoots in the morning, bamboo shoots in the afternoon, bamboo shoots in the evening, bamboo shoots in between. He ate bamboo shoots for weeks, months.

For some reason, he likened himself to a giant panda. The comparison shocked him and wondered if he was endangered too.

There was no mistake, he reflected sadly.

verdict

The judge was loud, bits and pieces of doma spewed out into the crowd. The crowd laughed. I smiled. The judge was furious. He could have just smiled and maintained a little decorum in the room.

You are worse than an animal. The judge judged me. I never saw any creature more precarious and snobbish than you.

It was an accident, I wanted to lie. Truth was stronger. I stayed with the fact that I killed a man.

The judge was straightforward with the verdict. Guilty as charged, he said, and awarded life imprisonment. He left the bench with a funny smile – one of dismay and disgust, one that says – I wish you rot in hell. Maybe he meant the prison.

I haven’t rotted a bit, but the toilet stinks, doesn’t it? And these mosquitoes, such tiny little creatures, such appetite for blood.

uses of lungs

Cheap cigarettes.

It was cheap because everyone could afford to buy and smoke too, said someone who was dull but important.

Moreover, he added, everyone has the right to die of cancer, yes the lung one or the mouth one and even the other ones. Cancer, like any other form of disease that took away your life, is a gift, a gift to know that you will die, he said beaming with self-satisfaction.

I did not understand what the hell he was talking about.

Broadly speaking, he continued, lungs have three uses,
- inhale
- exhale
- cancer

Wisdom according to an old man

I always see him tilling the soil or plucking the weeds off the lawn. He coughs harshly without covering his mouth then looks at me and smiles, some teeth still remaining. He wears thick glasses.

Besides coughing, he does not seem to make much noise.

Once during a hot afternoon, he goes around asking for help to assemble a mobile phone sent by his son in the city and falls down hurting himself. The heat was too much, he recalls later. A couple of men carry him to his home and assemble the phone. They play through all the ringtones for him to choose. Any sound will do, he says, just as long as I know someone’s calling. Pa, they tell him, this even has camera. The hell with camera, he growls, who puts camera into a phone?

I see him again today, plucking off weeds from the hard lawn as usual. I go towards him; he looks up at me from the glasses and smiles.

Strong old man! I try to praise him.

Smiles

You embarrass the young men, I tell him, aren’t you even tired?

He coughs dryly, breathes laboriously and smiles. He takes out tobacco from a pouch and rolls them into a paper. Tucking his glasses on the collar, he wipes sweat from his face with a large handkerchief.

We talk of his past, my past, the future and current affairs. We even talk of girls and sex and HIV and AIDS. We talk of diseases and bird flu and swine flu and flu A and flu Mexico and flu America and sars.

Every time he talks, he spits out tobacco leaves, puffing out volume of smoke from his mouth and nostrils and squint his eyes so narrow that I wonder if he saw anything.

He laughs when we talk of philosophy.

Philosophy? He laughs, it’s nothing but foolish vents of a fool! He lives a life so imperfect that he sees perfection in his ideals. Sorry but I will talk nothing more about philosophy. So saying, he throws away the cigarette butt into the bush, almost angrily.

Then what about wisdom? I ask.

Wisdom? He laughs again. Well, wisdom is nothing but an empty bag.

Before I ask him what he means, he waves his arm in the air and walks away.