When the Mountain Rises Up in Him
Bagus is the male who at some point left the herd, the way males of his species do — they don't stay. In his story, every so often an old restlessness he can't fully name rises up inside him again: he gets short-tempered, takes just what he needs and heads off alone, up the mountain, for a few days. Nobody asks him where. He comes back calmer, like someone who's gone off to leave a weight somewhere far away and comes back light. For someone like that, a backpack isn't a whim: it's the way of hoisting his life onto his shoulders and walking until it passes.







