One day, the Cool family took me to a temple in the countryside, in a forest area. It was being renovated and a lot of building materials were in the way but the brightly painted fierce god figures were impressive. There was another shrine at the top of the hill behind the temple but it was hot and I didn’t go up the steep track to see it. I started but decided to turn back. When I got down my friend’s mother was talking to an old man, a very healthy looking eighty-seven year old who later told me he had fought the Japanese for eight years. He was a nice old guy and was reading her palm for her. I told him my Uncle Charlie fought the Japanese and died in Burma and we had and instant understanding. He still had some pain in his face as he remembered those days and what he had done. Today he is full of peace and wisdom and helps with the temple. My friends and I had a meal of rabbit, bird and chicken, beans and a wild herb thing I didn’t like, and of course some rice. Cool Jingli, manager Cool, always forgets I don’t like beer and offers me it. This time he had the can open before asking me so I thought what the heck and drank it. It wasn’t as bad as I thought and was good for the heat. It was really hot.
Then we went back to the old guy and I asked him to read my palm. He read my head as well, by which I mean he felt the bumps and checked out where my ears were, my nose and stuff. He said about the same as the two guys I saw in Australia though they use different methods and look at some different things. I saw one guy in the Valley Market who was the head of the Queensland Psychics Guild and he said I would live to more than one hundred and maybe even one hundred and ten. A guy in Darwin said I would get to eighty-five. This Chinese man told me I would be at least eighty-five when I die and maybe one hundred. Apparently the lines say I have a very strong life force. They also all say I am really, really intelligent (this man was really impressed) and will be well off. The Valley guy said that will happen after I am about fifty-five. This year’s the year. I am going to make it come true.