I have just eaten shrimp fried rice for dinner & it was delicious. Now I’m walking across a patio to the hostel where I’ll be sleeping. Inside the hostel it’s dark. I grope my way toward my bed, but once I’m close enough I see that my bed’s been taken by a man who’s either licking or sniffing the mattress, I can’t tell which. On the top of his head he wears a thin cotton cap of dark blue, with a design painted on it in white. The design looks sor t of like Japanese calligraphy mixed with Haida ar t, & represents an angry face (quite beautifully), so that the cap is a type of mask he is wearing on the top of his head. Since he is face down, either licking or sniffing the mattress, this painted face is all that I can see, bobbing slightly upon the bed in the darkness.

Then the man removes the cap & looks up at me. He smiles. He is Japanese.

Then his father appears beside the bed, in the dark, & scolds him for lick-sniffing the mattress.