WOMEN IN HEAT

I am sweating profusely. Why won’t I? It’s mid afternoon in Phuentsholing. The heat has not only taken a toll on my being but has also subdued my hunger.

And as I wipe the sweat on my brow with the palm of my hand, there is something else that is tormenting me inside. I can’t put a finger on it. I don’t want to put a finger on it. The truth, I know, I cannot handle. I am a softie on the inside, think what you may.

Instead, I walk into a small joint, smoking a big joint, trying to appear calm and composed on the surface. The sound of the ceiling fan I can overlook as long as the woman in bright red lipstick dabbed on her lips behind the counter serves me cold beer. Well-rounded and short, she greets me with a red smile.

Smile intact, she knows I am an outsider. I think my vest drenched in sweat, gave me away. “Sit down under the fan,” she says. I oblige.

“A beer please,” I say, emphasizing on it being chilled.

A chilled beer is what I get and a few glances and giggles from the girls, probably all her age, who’ve gathered around her, and I don’t know from where. Not used to such undying attention, I smile, looking at them, but to no one in particular. Six faces smile back at me in choreographic precision.

I look at myself – feet to chest. Nothing seems unusual. Why on earth then could I be generating so much interest? Their glances and giggles begin to unnerve me.

I continue drinking. And my thoughts rove back to the events that had transpired in the last few days. It is the past now and, those events have turned into memories, but unpleasant memories nonetheless. I feel cheated and let down is all I can say.

I want to drink some more beer than step out to be molested by the heat again, but the girls and their whispers are making me feel uneasy.

“How much,” I ask, looking at the woman wearing the red lipstick.

“Fifty,” she says.

So 50 bucks I pay and head for the door. And as I am about to step out into the hot, mean sun again, I hear one of the girl’s shout ‘excuse me’.

Women, and their ways…and their promises…and their unfathomable appetite… I continue walking…