24. The meal.

They were sitting in a different park now, eating their meals. He chewed slowly, considering every bite. She had devoured hers before he was half way through.

Her attitude told him that she was waiting for answers.

"I'm here to teach people," he said.

She crumpled up wax paper and shoved it inside her brown paper bag. She was still chewing her last bite. "Like, real teaching? In a school?"

"No, not in a school."

She swallowed. "What kind of teaching, then?"

"I'm here to teach people how to free themselves from suffering."

She cocked her head, examining him closely.

"I'm not under the influence of any drugs," he said.

She shook her head. "No, I didn't think you were. Your pupils are okay and you're not shaky or tweaked out on anything." A pause. "My parents are hippies, but they're also shrinks. I'm trying to figure out if you're crazy or not."

He took another bite and chewed it deliberately. "Sanity is an intricate question. If acceptance of delusion is sanity, then I am insane."

"Again with the Buddhism. How old are you?"

He had no answer for her.

"You don't know how old you are?"

"That is also an intricate question."

"Okay. In this incarnation, in this life, in this body, how old are you? How long have you been on the earth in this form?"

"Twenty two years."

"Yeah. You look around my age. Are you a college student?"

He sorted through his memories. "I was. Then I found a different path. I became enlightened. Now I am here to teach."

She didn't react. She just sat next to him, holding her crumpled brown paper bag, and watched him.