Encante

I was sitting in a no name bar in a no name town drinking no name local rum somewhere in the middle of the Peruvian Amazon. Kerosene lamps and warm drinks in this no electricity town, with plenty of mosquitos and heat to keep me company. In the jungle we pass around one cup and one pitcher. You fill the cup, pass the pitcher. After you finish your drink from the glass, you pass the glass to the man with the pitcher. It can go on like this for hours. After some Spanglish small talk with some of the town residents, I went down by the boat dock (the only means to get to this small village on a blackwater tributary of the Amazon). I needed to relieve myself from drinking the rum, and when I finished and turned back to the thatched roof bar I was in, I saw a pretty, fair skinned women clad in flowing white standing on the river bank. Buenos tardes, I said to her. Where are you from, she asked. I am from the United States, a long way from here. I only know the jungle, she told me. I like the jungle I said, but not the mosquitos. I live in a jungle city, she said, but it has no mosquitos. I would like that city I think. Do people look like you in your city? Yes, but we like to wear jewelry, like you. Would you like a necklace, she asked. She gave me a green necklace and put it over my head. It is very nice I told her, I am sorry I have no gift for you. I do not need gifts, she said, I have almost everything I need in Encante. It sounds like a very nice place. And she invited me to visit her city, but I told her that I could not because I could not leave my friends at the thatched roof bar. She said that she was sorry to hear that, and that she would go. I told her goodbye, and when I turned to return to the bar I heard a splash, and when I looked back into the black water I saw a pink river dolphin bob to the surface. Then I felt me necklace fall off my neck and I saw on the ground a bright green tree snake slithering away. The dolphin made a loud breath from the water and I went back to the no name bar in the no name town in the middle of the Peruvian Amazon.