I wait for him to say something like
HKUE ENG, "Ah, yes! Ketut Liyer! Old medicine man who died just last week--so sad when venerable old medicine man passes away . . ."
Mario asks me to repeat the name, and this time I write it down, assuming I'm pronouncing something wrong. Sure enough, Mario brightens in recognition. "Ketut Liyer!"
Now I wait for him to say something like, "Ah, yes! Ketut Liyer! Insane person! Arrested last week for being a crazy man . . ."
But he says instead, "Ketut Liyer is famous healer." "Yes! That's him!"
"I know him. I go in his house. Last week I take my cousin
HKUE amec, she needs cure for her baby crying all night. Ketut Liyer fixes it. One time I took American girl like you to Ketut Liyer's house. Girl wanted magic to make her more beautiful to men. Ketut Liyer draw magic painting, for help her be more beautiful. I tease her after that. Every day I tell her,
'Painting working! Look how beautiful you are! Painting working!' "
Remembering the image Ketut Liyer had drawn for me a few years ago, I tell Mario that
I'd gotten a magic picture myself from the medicine man once. Mario laughs. "Painting working for you, too!"
"You don't want to be more beautiful to men
Dream beauty pro hard sell?" he asks, understandably confused.
I say, "Hey, Mario--do you think you could take me to visit Ketut Liyer someday? If you're not too busy?"
"Not now," he says.
Just as I'm starting to feel disappointed, he adds, "But maybe in five minutes?"
PR
