Moto Cafe
Update 3
August 24, 1998
As the red truck approached, the patrons of the Moto Cafe continued
their conversations unaware of what was about to take place outside.
Ahmed and Jane were discussing their futures as artists.
"I'm thinking of working in Saudi Arabia for a year," Ahmed
said.
"No! Why?"
"Money. And a year won't be so bad. If I'm lucky I will be so busy
that a year will fly by. Social life won't be much, but at least I'll have
plenty of work."
"Doing what? They aren't even on the Web yet."
"Well, putting up the system. So I would be working with the tools
I'm used to."
Across the Cafe, Jan and the Colonel were talking about
Panajachel.
"What sort of community do they have there? I hear it's a great
place for "New Age" types." Jan commented.
"Yeah, well, it's about half populated with Europeans and North
Americans. A lot of them are "drop-out" types, but it makes an
interesting mix.....
Just then a huge crashing sound invaded the Cafe.
"Better check the road" Ana shouted out.
Everyone headed for the front door. Outside was a rather bizarre sight:
a baboon family was rolling a little red pick-up truck down the road. No
one seemed to be in the truck, so how it got there was a bit of a mystery.
But the baboons were having quite a party-rolling the vehicle over and over
on its sides, slowly heading towards the edge of the cliff.
"Wow" Joseph said, " I wonder who was driving that truck
before the monkey people got hold of it?"
"I think I recognize that truck," Jan said, "Eva-Lena
had loaned it to a tourist from the States. A distance runner from Louisiana
if I'm not mistaken. "
"Hope she got out of there before the apes landed on it" Sharon
added.
The baboons finished their task at that moment and everyone, including
the American distance runner hiding in the bushes, watched as the little
red truck careened down the cliff side.
Only Eva-Lena missed the event, as she had been in the stock room when
the initial crashing sound occurred and hadn't heard anything. Actually,
she was working on Ana's laptop, adding a new twist to her "weird
magazine". (You should try it, really, follow the link here to her
"Weird Magazine", then goto "No,Don't Enter"....fill in the blanks and
wait for the results!)
"Hey, hey y'all!" came a voice from up the roadside, "I
could use some help."
"Look up there" Joseph said, pointing to some bushes about
150 meters up the steep road. "She looks like she needs a hand."
"You OK ?" asked the Colonel, who was first to reach the stranger.
"Well, I'm not quite sure. I think I am. But I'm not sure what
happened. One minute I stopped to see what fell into the road. The next
thing I knew, I was pushed into the bushes and a bunch of apes pushed my
truck down the road."
Somewhere up the road to Asmara, a lone goat was crossing the road.
He had just seen the strangest event. He had watched as a baboon family
hijacked a red pick-up and then threw it over the side of the mountain.
Strange. And what a waste, he was thinking! perfectly good upholstery destroyed.
He shook his head from side to side and bleated as he crossed the road and
headed towards the outskirts of Asmara. He could smell orange blossoms ahead,
their sweet aroma cutting through the city smells of fresh roasting coffee
and baking bread. A palm tree on the horizon marked the spot where he would
sleep tonight.
As the evening light filtered across the bedspread, I thought about
getting up. I had to be at work around midnight and wanted to do a few things
first. I stretched and jumped out of bed. Mr. Moto was sitting on the bedroom
windowsill, occasionally licking his paws.
"Hey you, wanna go down to the Moto Cafe tonight?" I said
to Moto.
Mr. Moto stoped licking himself just long enough to give me his patented
"are you nuts?" look. Then he continued licking his paws.
I put on some jeans and a workshirt, got into my Morris-mini and headed
towards the Massawa highway. . . . . . . just ahead of me was an old goat,
shaking his head and crossing the road. I wondered where he was coming from
and where he was headed.....