Excerpt from my W. Virginia novel--by KMKaung

Excerpt--from my W. Virginia story in progress,

KMKaung--

Linda said I did not need to bring anything for the weekend in West Virginia.

I was alone and all the other meals had been divvied up already and the couples were all bringing something or the other in coolers.  I did not need to cook anything, though I offered to cook a Berm meal for all of them.

I could not really figure out why Linda had invited me.

If anything, it was I who owed her.  She had just produced, cast and directed my play Shaman about multiple personalities and nat or spirit worship in Berm at her house in Cleveland Park, with about 45 guests and 7 cast members in all.

But I was happy to go. 

I had never been to W. Virginia before, and I had never been camping before in the USA either, though I had been to Delaware Water Gap in a family friend's RV.

But I did not like it very much and the family friend had also long been unfriended, and become the model for Carl Carpetbagger in my play.

*
At the time Linda invited me, I had just returned from Bali, where I attended a board meeting of Free Burma Now.
It had been quite hot in Bali and I had traveled with a piece of roll on baggage.

So I assumed it would be OK to pack the same way for W. Virginia.

I did not know how cold it would get at night, and how there were no paths at all in Linda's jointly owned 225 acres.

--
Linda drove her van, and pointed out the small towns to me.

One was called Winchester, but she said it had nothing to do with Winchester rifles.

I took the subway to the Cleveland Park stop, where she parked on Connecticutt Avenue and waited for me, so I had no trouble with my luggage at all.

I packed a cotton dress with a long skirt and a scooped out neck, in case Linda hosted a formal dinner for me, as my hostess at the B and B in Ubud had done, with a performance of the Ramayana, and a walking on fire performance by her night watchman.

That dress also turned out to be a mistake, due to the mosquitoes and the chiggers, but I didn't know it till I got there.

"Turkey vulture," Linda said, turning her chin up at a dark shape that was perched on a tree which had no leaves.

She explained to me that turkey vultures were different from wild turkeys.

I nodded and tried to file away in my head all items of relevant information, which might come in useful later.

Copyright KMKaung
9-7-2014