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'Luna'
by Sarat Chandra Das
dotlit australian literary magazine
http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/13551/20030828-0000/www.dotlit.qut.edu.au/200202/luna.html
http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/13551/20030828-0000/www.dotlit.qut.edu.au/200202/luna.txt
'Luna'
by Sarat Chandra Das
Luna could not believe it when a shaggy haired man showed up on her door
and told her that he could find her lost vanity bag. It was a bulging bag,
which she had difficulty hanging on her bony shoulder. The almost
threadbare long strap used to swing like a magic pendulum when she walked.
She described the bag to the shaggy haired man. However, observing the
falling patience of the man, she said the bag was precious to her because
it contained various valuables. Two credit cards, a diamond ring, a charm
which she always kept close to herself since her marriage, and a fat wad
of cash which she said would have taken care of her weeks' groceries and
retrieving her Ford Falcon from the garage.
"How can you help me?" she asked, realising she wasgiving away so much
information which had not been asked for.
"I can help you finding your lost bag and subsequently bringing the thief
to your door is my promise," the shaggy haired man solemnized, cutting his
baritone-like voice through the rain which had started drumming her door
outside.
"How?" Luna exclaimed.
Without paying any attention to her questoin, the man sat down and
emptied the contents of his worn out satchel on the floor. Phials of
different measures which he neatly arranged on the floor like a barmaid
with her crystals. A wooden castanet, an untanned buffalo hide, a bone
clavicle and a thread which appeared to be catgut. He counted them from
the right to left and then from left to right. Then he stroked the phials
with the bone clavicle. He reached for the catgut and wove his fingers
hurriedly into it, creating multiple loops. Soon his palms became a
spiderweb.
He strolled in the room, flaring his nostrils. Then he bulged out his
eyes holding his catgut spiderweb palms close to them. Perhaps, he saw a
departed soul. Then he returned all his treasures into his satchel and
