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I haven’t seen Ketut Liyer in so long. Between my involvement with Felipe and my struggle
to secure a home for Wayan, my long afternoons of aimless conversation about spirituality on
the medicine man’s porch have long since ended. I’ve stopped by his house a few times, just
to say hello and to drop off a gift of fruit for his wife, but we haven’t spent any quality time to-
gether since back in June. Whenever I try to apologize to Ketut for my absence, though, he
laughs like a man who has already been shown the answers to every test in the universe and
says, “Everything working perfect, Liss.”
Still, I miss the old man, so I stopped by to hang out with him this morning. He beamed at
me, as usual, saying, “I am very happy to meet you!” (I never was able to break him of that
habit.)
“I am happy to see you, too, Ketut.”
“You leaving soon, Liss?”
“Yes, Ketut. In less than two weeks. That’s why I wanted to come over today. I wanted to
thank you for everything you’ve given me. If it wasn’t for you, I never would’ve come back to
Bali.”
“Always you were coming back to Bali,” he said without doubt or drama. “You still meditate
with your four brothers like I teach you?”
“Yes.”
“You still meditate like your Guru in India teach you?”
“Yes.”
“You have bad dreams anymore?”
“No.”
“You happy now with God?”
“Very.”
“You love new boyfriend?”
“I think so. Yes.”
“Then you must spoil him. And he must spoil you.”