Nirvana Effect Read Online Free PDF

didn’t want to risk that without assistance.  It had been hard enough just lifting his head to an upright position.  It felt like he’d had his head amputated, used for a football game, and then screwed back on. 
    What is this hut?  Manassa’s?  Who is this man? 
    Edward speculated that Manassa was an elder from outlying tribe.  In Edward’s other missions, there were always respected outsiders coming in and out .  These primitive opinion leaders had always been his key to getting any work done.  Being roamers and travelers, they were more open to new ideas.  Often they’d already been introduced to Christianity, and were at least familiar with the concept of missionaries and Western advances . 
    Unlike the Onge, any travelers’ great-grandparents and entire descendancy didn’t all live and die within a thousand yards of an old tree.  Perhaps this Manassa is such a traveler.  Perhaps he can help me.
    Immediately Edward dismissed his own thoughts.  It was pointless speculation, as his position on the island was untenable.  Even with the support of this outsider, Nockwe had to follow the laws of the tribe.  As evidenced by my aching head.   If he couldn’t bend the rules for Mahanta, he certainly couldn’t do so for a white man.  Both the medicine man and Nockwe’s main adversary wanted Edward dead.  The best Edward could hope for would be a return to Sri Lanka, and from there back to London.
    He kept at examining his surroundings as though the dust motes floating near the rafters of the hut might suddenly give him answers. 
    There was nothing else he could divine by looking.  Tomy had not yet returned.
    For the second time in less than a week, Edward pray ed.  This time he started with one his father had drilled into him from the first day he could say the words .
    Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.  Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  Amen.
    Then Edward added:
    I hope somehow Mahanta’s still alive.  And if he isn’t, I’m sure you’re taking care of him.  It’s a shame, though.
    Whenever Edward did really pray, he just talked to God.  He didn’t even throw in an “amen” at the end. 
    “You’re crying.”  A female’s soft voice, in Onge.
    “Hmm?” Edward mumbled. He opened his eyes.  A woman stood over him.  He recognized her at once as Nock we’ s young wife, Bri‘ley‘na.
    “Water?” she asked.
    “No, Tomy helped me with that,” he answered.
    Bri’ley’na was twenty-five years old.  Edward had never seen an Onge woman with hair even slightly cared for, but hers was washed and combed that day. Her thick black hair ran straight down the sides of her dark face and swept back and forth gently as she moved.  She was full-figured and quite beautiful, by any standards.  He suddenly felt excruciatingly aware that she was topless.  It must have been something about her hair.
    “What happened?”  Edward asked, keeping his eyes on her face.  He ignored the tears that had collected on his cheeks.  He didn’t want to wipe them and make the pain worse again.
    “Nockwe kicked you.  Manassa saved you.”  Her voice carried a kind tone.  Her eyes assessed his injuries.  It seemed Bri’ley’na actually cared how Edward was doing.
    I must look terrible if I’m getting sympathy from an Onge woman .  Their society was patriarchal; so was American society, and that didn’t mean anything in either case.  The Onge village ran on the hardened backs of the women. 
    Here was a woman who didn’t seem so hardened, and yet he knew that she was probably the toughest of them all.  Edward had heard that one fool challenged Nockwe after he had become chieftain.  She had killed the man personally rather than have her husban d be troubled with the duel