I wanted to hurry back home but my curiousity got the better of me. Also this feeling that I was still alive. Who was this man anyway? A man whom I could have once encountered? I walked up to First Cross Street with the woman. She wanted to see the body again. The body of a man who no longer had any power over a woman. Would I feel pity for such a body? In this instance I recognized the man. He was still wearing the chocolate brown shirt and the blue sarong. Only now, they were soaked in blood. He had been stabbed all over his body. Softly under my breath I uttered the words, ‘Sabbe Samkhara Anicca’ (All conditioned things are impermanent), ‘Sabbe Samkhara Dukkha’ (All conditioned things are suffering), ‘Sabbe Dhamma Anatta’ (All dhammas are without self).

Impermanence and sorrow are part of our lives. I wonder what happened to the rest of the apples he had and all his money. Why had he returned to this hotel? Did he come in search of me? Did he come with another woman? Yes, often men in this state of mind crave more and more of indescribable sensations. There is a hollow feeling, an unappeased hunger in the empty, cavernous mind and body, so they continue their search.

Who would bury this man? Who would mourn him? I had lain with him for a few hours. There had to be a bond between us. Yes, a feeling of dukkha overwhelmed me. I felt a pang but suffering was not something I could afford to indulge in. All life is suffering. ‘Birth and old age, sickness, death, association with unpleasant persons and conditions, separation from beloved ones and pleasant conditions, not getting what one desires, grief, lamentation, distress, all such forms of physical and mental suffering …’ all this is dukkha. This is what I heard as a child when bana was preached in the temple on Poya days. Then I would sometimes observe sil and meditate on the five or eight noble precepts of the Buddha. No, I could not feel entirely indifferent towards him. Part of his money would feed my children today.

I will go to the police and give evidence. I feel in a way that I am responsible for the whole train of events that took place. But it was our karma. We had to meet in this life. There were things we both had to atone for. We will be reborn. The currents of the ocean of samsara have dragged us on, beyond the shore. I have struggled out of its depths, even if temporarily. I will give dana for this man. Charity. So that his next birth will be less painful.

Voice Two