By the city, then the stream

"You're no explorer," she said. "You're a boy scout."

"Back in the day that would be a fine compliment," I said. "Take me back 100 years and I'll take boy scout."

"You're a spy and a sneak and a fake," she said.

"Madame, perhaps we've met, but I thought you were long gone," I said.

"You think you went your away for yourself. You think you had your 'experience.' All you did was uncover what should have been left alone. What's the matter with you?", she asked.

"I didn't try to write anything. I just wrote my war diaries and my captain's log. I kept it simple. I'm not famous. I didn't write any guide book. To do it, you still have to have your own motivation and drive. So don't call me a spy. Go ahead and follow in my footsteps," I said.

The old woman got up, fell backwards, and turned into dust.

I put in three quarters and began to shoot. I thought of hot days and lonely days. I remembered Santa Claus when it was hot and sunny in November. I remembered the white sand of Minas Gerais. If I was a boy scout, I had left my troop. But Sam Houston left his troop, too. He picked up several letters of marque. Then he beat Santa Anna, then he went into seclusion because the war between the states was shit.

Look what China was doing 12,000 years ago. Why did language occur? Did 'we' do it? Was there a prompt from the 'outside?' If there is no outside, no inside, no noumena, no phenomena, then the old woman blows hot air for no good reason. "Get up that mountain," I tell her.