Mr. Smiley's barbecue

The story goes like this. On our first night of the trek we ate dinner and sat around a campfire. La said we were staying in a million star hotel and he was correct because we could see at least that many after dark. La has a friend who keeps up the lodge that we stayed in and brings water, soft drinks, and beer in for tourists to buy. He drives the food in for the group and helps prepare it. I cannot remember his name but we later called him Mr. Smiley due to his extraordinary happiness.

Mr. Smiley sang and taught us songs, told jokes, and shared his rice spirits with the group. At around 9:30pm after drinking most of his bottle of hard rice liquor Mr. Smiley disappeared with another assistant. We calmly sitting suddenly saw Mr. Smiley in a dead sprint up the path from the creek. He ran past us into the kitchen area and emerged a second later with what looked like a rifle. He again ran past back down the pitch black path towards the creek. He had put on a ski mask earlier in the night and propped the part that should have been around his chin up to his head using a head lamp which made it look as though he were wearing a turban. After a few seconds we heard one shot of the rifle. We looked at each other in silence and then heard an exclamation of joy from the creek.

After a minute or two our curiosity got the better of us and we made our way down to the creek. Ashley arrived in time to see Mr. Smiley on the far bank rooting around in the vegetation making a joyous racket. In time he found what he was looking for and held up to the group a river otter the size of a small house cat. He then ran it back across the creek and informed us that he had seen second one. I maintain that he definitely saw two of them but whether there actually were two is up for debate. He put down his rifle and poured something into the barrel and that is when I noticed that his rifle was actually a muzzle loading, powder charge, flintlock musket rifle. We're talking circa 1850 make-your-own-musket-ball here.

This man had shot a river otter with a musket rifle in the dark with only a headlamp for light after drinking 750ml of rice liquor. They then skinned and gutted the otter, marinated it in spices, and barbecued it on the fire. It was quite a tasty experience truth be told.

Oh my buddha.