A message, written in a traveler’s log at a remote Himalayan outpost, says: “Wonderful people ..great food ..spectacular scenery.” It is the last trace anyone has seen of Charlie since he disappeared ten days ago. The websites and blogs, keeping track of the search, say his prospects are growing awfully dim. One catastrophe after another flashes by my computer screen. It could have been a rock fall ..it could have been a stream crossing ..it could have been a snow storm. Another possibility occurs to me though ..he could have found shelter in a nearby monastery (there are several hundred of those scattered throughout the area). So, I decide it’s time to contact my Indian friend, Dakini, who knows this region better than many. She tells me it’s possible that he could have crossed paths with a wrathful deity (there are also hundreds of those patrolling the area) ..or slipped the shackles of gravity on a high mountain pass ..or found a path leading to Nirvana. Hmm, OK ..what are his chances of finding his way back ..I ask. We can only wait and see ..she says. Time goes by and more messages arrive. Finally I receive word that Charlie has been found ..alive and well ..and passed-out in an opium parlour in Kathmandu. I guess that, in some mixed-up sort of way .. Dakini was right.
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