NUMBER SIX: Cocks in the Wild

I've seen Blue Footed Boobies in the Galapagos, colorful fish in Hawaii, sea turtles in the Caribbean, rhinos, leopards, and mating lions in Africa, and now I've finally seen it all.

It had to happen while I was alone, of course, the first time I had actually been alone since arriving in La Colle. I was on a run through the French wilderness, which is really pretty and a bit like Mill Valley, if we hadn't stacked houses and streets on every spare bit of land. I was listening to LCD Soundsystem on the way out, following the road that runs alongside and above a river, and the Ruby Suns on the way back. The Ruby Sun's sophomore album, Sea Lion, starts with a song called "Blue Penguin," which is slow and followed by "Oh, Mojave," which is fast. I was at the end of "Blue Penguin" when I arrived this little bridge over the river, right next to a park with lots of kids and their mothers and next to an adorable little French café. On the other side of the street, I noticed a young man, maybe in his twenties or early thirties, dressed in the black outfits strapping young European motorcycle gents sometimes wear; shiny black shoes, black jeans, black jacket, black helmet. But I noticed with a jolt and the opening chords of "Oh, Mojave" that there he was, facing the road and the passing cars, facing the park, facing me, rubbing his gigantic purple cock!