Nirvana by Charles Bukowski (read by Lex Fridman)

00:00:00.000 | Nirvana by Charles Bukowski. Not much chance, completely cut loose from purpose.

00:00:07.360 | It was a young man riding a bus to North Carolina on the way to somewhere, and it began to snow.

00:00:14.960 | And the bus stopped at a little cafe in the hills, and the passengers entered, and he sat

00:00:21.840 | at the counter with the others, and he ordered. The food arrived, and the meal was particularly good.

00:00:30.160 | And the coffee. The waitress was unlike the women he had known. She was unaffected,

00:00:37.040 | and there was a natural humor which came from her. And the fry cook said crazy things,

00:00:43.440 | and the dishwasher in the back laughed a good, clean, pleasant laugh. And the young man watched

00:00:49.600 | the snow through the window, and he wanted to stay in that cafe forever. The curious feelings

00:00:56.000 | swam through him that everything was beautiful there, and it would always stay beautiful there.

00:01:01.760 | And then the bus driver told the passengers that it was time to board,

00:01:06.160 | and the young man thought, "I'll just stay here. I'll just stay here."

00:01:12.400 | And then he rose, and he followed the others into the bus. He found his seat and looked at

00:01:22.240 | the cafe through the window, and then the bus moved off down a curve downward out of the hills.

00:01:29.200 | And the young man looked straight forward, and he heard the other passengers speaking of

00:01:36.400 | other things, or they were reading or trying to sleep, and they hadn't noticed the magic.

00:01:42.800 | And the young man put his head to one side, closed his eyes, and pretended to sleep.

00:01:51.600 | There was nothing else to do, just to listen to the sound of the engine

00:01:56.800 | and the sound of the tires in the snow.

00:02:08.200 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

00:02:15.800 | [BLANK_AUDIO]