Books and judging them by their covers

Nurd has a past he would rather not talk about and a future he's immensely positive about.  At the junction is Buddha.  He celebrates his 33rd birthday next week and, reading between the lines, there's a lot of mileage on the clock already.

While he won't talk about his past, the dragon snaking it's way up his back , across his left shoulder and onto his chest looks rather tortured. The local Thai's all give him a very wide berth, even although he is short in stature. His torso looks like an inverted triangle and there's no fat on him at all.  He watches,   His eyes sparkle as he practices his English on me.  We seem to have adopted each other over the last few days and he is good company. 

I wondered why he was so talkative at least to me.  Probably a case of being a bit shunned here by the Thais and a little scary to the farang (foreigners).  He has some catching up to do when it comes to talking. He retreated to a monastery for 2 years (sounds like an imposed exile as an alternative to a different kind of incarceration).  After that, an additional year of silence and reflection living by himself in a small village.  No talking for a year, he has a lot of catching up to do and his reflection and wisdom belie his years. 

Nurd doesn't have a cellphone or an email address.  He exists very simply and mainly in his head.  He seems convinced that we'll catch up again, not with the assistance of modern day technology, rather when time is right our paths will cross again.