Shantaram p2

'Maybe I'm not what I used to be.'

'We're all what we used to be, even when we're not.'

'That's not telling me what you're doing here,' she said.

'What we tell, is rarely what we do.'

'I'm not doing an aphorism contest,' she said, frowning a smile and sitting down beside me.

'We are the art, that sees us as art.'

'No way,' she said. 'Keep your lines to yourself.'

'Fanaticism means that if you're not against me, you're against me.'

'I could report you for aphorism harassment, do you know that?'

We were speaking softly, but our eyes were sharp.

'Okay,' she whispered. 'You're on. My turn?'

'Of course it's your turn. I'm already three up on you.'

'Every goodbye is a dress rehearsal for the last goodbye,' she said.

'Not bad. Hello can lie, sometimes, but goodbye always tells the truth.'

'Fiction is fact, made stranger. The truth about anything is a lie about something else. Come on, step it up.'

'What's the rush? There's plenty more where they came from.'

'You got something or not?'

'Oh, I see, it's to throw me off, and put me off my game. Okay, tough girl, here we go. Inspiration is the grace of peace. Truth is the warden in the prison of the soul. Slavery can't be unchained from the system: slavery is the system.'

'Truth is the shovel,' she fired back. 'Your mission is the hole.'

I laughed.

'Every fragment is the whole entire,' she said, firing at will.

'The whole cannot be divided,' I said, 'without a tyranny of parts.'

'Tyranny is privilege, unrestrained.'

'We're privileged by Fate,' I said, 'because we're damned by Fate.'

'Fate,' she grinned. 'One of my favourites. Fate plays poker, and only wins by bluffing. Fate is the magician, and Time is the trick. Fate is the spider, and Time is the web. Shall I go on?'

'Dark funny,' I said, happier than I'd been in a while. 'Nice. Try this - all men become their fathers, but only when they're not looking.'

She laughed. 'The truth is a bully we all pretend to like.'

'That's an old one!' I protested.

'But a good one, and worth a second run. Whaddya got?'

'Fear is the friend who warns you,' I offered.

'Loneliness is the friend who tells you to get out more,' she countered.

'There's no country too unjust, too corrupt, or too inept to afford itself a stirring national anthem.'

'I like it,' she smiled. 'Try this for size - tyranny is fear, in human form.'

I laughed. 'Music is death, made sublime.'

'Grief is ghost empathy,' she hit back quickly.

'Damn!'

'Give up?'

'No way!' I licked my lips. 'The way to love, is to love the way.'

'I can kick that ass. How about this - love is a mountain that kills you, every time you climb it.'

'Courage-'

'Courage defines us. Anyone who doesn't give up, and that's just about everybody, is a man or woman of courage. Stop with the courage, already.'

'Happiness is -'

'Happiness is the hyperactive child of contentment.'

'Justice means -'

'Justice, like love and power, is measured in mercies.'

'War -'

'All wars are culture wars, and all cultures are written on the body of women.'

'Life -'

'If you're not living for something, you're dying for nothing!' she parried. 

'Damn.'

- The Mountain Shadow, Gregory Davis Robers