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Johannesburg (South Africa) - January 6, 2029 - A Texan tourist returning from South Africa wanders the streets of Dallas talking to objects and people. Following several complaints, he is arrested for harassment. The trial is in progress.
In Makopung Nyeleti F. was considered the sweetest and most beautiful woman of the village. She was loved by all. As an elementary school teacher, her performance with the children was outstanding, and all her students loved her. She had many suitors, but none of them dared to approach her too closely for fear of upsetting her and destroying their chances of seduction. She lived alone, both sheltered and isolated by the benevolence of the villagers.
Every day at sunrise or sunset, Nyeleti fetched water from the well, located six kilometers from the village. With her jar on her head, she took the road that led to the well, chatted with other women, played with her veil to charm the men, and laughed with the children. When she was alone on the path, she secretly greeted the trees and wild animals. She spoke to the wind and shared her melodies with it. Every day was the happiest day of her life.
One day, as she was walking home from the well with her heavy jar on her shoulders, she met a sweaty, awkwardly dressed, slightly fat white man sitting under a tree to take shelter from the sun and to rest. He seemed lost, and she inquired if he was looking for directions. The man nodded and said he was one of a group of tourists who had forgotten him while he was in the toilets at a gas station where the bus driver was filling up. Nyeleti offered to accompany him to the village where he would find help.
On the way, they got to know each other. The American tourist was in his forties, divorced with no children, living in the suburbs of Dallas, USA. He was a computer engineer and what he told Nyeleti about his job made no sense to her. She told him about her life, the children's school, her constant trips to the well early in the morning or after work.
— Don't you ever get bored doing the same route every day, the same things, seeing the same people?
— No, I don't know what boredom is, I really mean I don't know. I never go the same way, I never meet the same people, the same animals, or the same wind. Each day has its own light and taste. Every day is another story. The country where I live will not change because I wish to change.
— Yes, but you can do like me, you can travel, discover other countries?
— I understand what you mean, but, don't take it the wrong way, I don't think that the tourists, who come here from all over the world, are traveling. I think they are so preoccupied with themselves, so blind, that they have so much power over matter and energy that they manage to make the planet revolve around them without ever moving. It is not by moving my body elsewhere that I really travel, it is by moving my gaze from what seems to me banal here.
Once in the village, the tourist is invited to share a meal with a family that has a pickup truck. One of the family members takes him to Tzaneen to meet his bus that will take him across the country for a few more days before leaving for the United States.
In Dallas, a man was arrested in the street following several complaints. The man's behavior was suspicious: he was apparently walking aimlessly while talking to himself. He was holding unending conversations with garbage cans, lamp posts, ATMs, cars parked on the street. He also spoke to a dog that bit him. But the most serious thing is that he spoke without reason to passers-by, who became frightened. During the trial, he explained that he had been influenced by a sort of African voodoo priestess, whom he had met during a tourist trip to South Africa.
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