Chapter Ten

My spirit returned to the body. We were still in the Land Rover and I was lying stretched to the full, like a well-mannered and considerate corpse would normally lie. On her orders, the two men had brought a bucketful of dried yak dung cakes which they transformed into an inferno, a little away from the car. Then, they carried me like a sack of dried tapioca towards it. After about forty minutes of dung heat, some hot milk and a few very hot touches from her, my spirit stirred and the body started feeling better enough for us to continue the ascend.

Once again she was behind the wheel and I, in the front passenger seat. The climb ahead was so steep, the fuming and exasperated automobile paused for a frightening moment when and where it was not supposed to stop, forcing me to think that it had finally decided that enough was enough, and was considering going in the reverse at the speed of light. Twelve thousand feet! I shuddered. But, she was made of sterner stuf