36. The search.

Nan sat at her computer, frowning. Sid had gone to sleep earlier. They were talking, and gradually she saw a bit of fatigue cross his face, and asked him whether he was tired. He said that he was, excused himself, closed his eyes, and was asleep immediately. She'd never known anyone who could do that.

Now she was online, looking things up.

She had found thousands of web sites discussing Buddhist matters, hundreds of versions of the life of Prince Siddharta Gautama, and seemingly innumerable sects and schools of Buddhism.

There were translations too, of texts of every type: sutras and aphorisms rendered into incredibly cumbersome English translation from Sanskrit, Chinese, Pali, and other languages. A confusing morass.

One site offered the parables told by the historical Buddha in easy to read language. These had apparently been taken from the words of the Buddha as written by his first disciple, her namesake, Ananda. She hunted for what she was looking for.