6 Degrees Of What The Fuck

In 2017 I was sitting in a cafe in Canggu, Bali called The Shady Shack. It was a personal favourite of mine and whenever I am in Bali I often go there a at least once a day. Sometimes twice.

On this particular day I was sitting there alone having a smoothie watching the world go by when suddenly I heard the most sickening noise. A very loud cracking sound which immediately made me turn around.

As I turned around I saw an older man laying on his side with a few staff members surrounding him and he was shaking uncontrollably, eyes rolling into the back of his head, bleeding from his nose and ears. He was having a seizure.

There staff members were trying to contain him. I jumped from my seat, raced over with a cushion and placed it under his head and instructed the staff to call an ambulance. It was chaotic and a frantic moment that still stands out in my memory nearly 10 years later.

There were other people around to help and due to the Bali traffic, it was decided that he would be placed into a car to save time and get him to hospital. Four of us carried him out of the cafe into the Bali heat carefully placed him into the back of the car.

As I watched the car drive away, I had no idea what would become of this mans fate. Would he be ok? Was it a seizure? Did I know enough about what to do in that situation where my actions were sufficient to help him? I had a lot of questions but then, as the chaos settled everyone just continued their day. Including me.

Two years later I was again in Bali and once more I was seated at The Shady Shack by myself having some lunch and a smoothie. After a short time I recognised a woman pulling up on her motorbike. It was Gypsy, the Australian owner of The Shady Shack. I felt compelled to introduce myself to her and ask what happened to the man all those years ago.

Upon introducing myself and explaining that I was there that day and one of the people who assisted I was pleased to hear that he was ok and remained friends with Gypsy to that day. It turned out to be Gypsys car that we loaded him into.

Satisfied and at peace with what happened that day I returned to my seat and continued reading my book. Still, something felt a bit off.

Initially I shrugged it off but there was something that was bugging me. An energy that I couldn’t shake. As I raised my eyes from my book I noticed a woman across from me on the big communal table and she was drinking the same smoothie as me. From memory I believe it was called the Nutz N Bolts smoothie.

Smoothie aside, something was telling me that I needed to talk to this woman. This inexplicable feeling that I had to have a conversation with her. I had never felt a sensation like that before.

I have no idea why but I found myself commenting to this woman that the smoothie was my favourite and with a big smile she responded it was her favourite too. She had big green eyes, frizzy brown hair and an accent. German. Her name was Alexa.

We got to chatting and after about 30 minutes Gypsy walked by and said hello to Alexa. Our conversation continued and I shared with her how I had only just formally met Gypsy and explained how we came to meet.

Alexa just sat there stunned. Eyes wide and mouth open as I explained the story of the man who had the seizure 2 years earlier. To my surprise Alexa interrupted me to explain that she too was there that day and was among one of the four of us who had assisted the man into Gypsys car.

I was speechless.

Two years earlier a traumatic event had occurred with a group of strangers focussed on a central figure who was having a medical emergency. From that day I had finished my holiday and returned to Sydney, Alexa had finished her holiday and returned to Berlin and almost two years later we were strangely sat opposite each other in that exact cafe that bought us together to begin with. Not only was this insanely unsettling but the feeling I had that I needed to speak to this woman was out of this world.

Alexa and I sat and talked for nearly 3 hours and shared with each other all about our lives and what had happened in the time since that day. Still as I write this I am blown away by the events that took place for this meeting to happen. All of the decisions that would’ve been made by each of us over two years that bought us to be seated opposite each other at The Shady Shack.

As we finished out conversation we said our goodbyes, had big hug and went our separate ways.

Reflecting on this experience it makes me wonder how many other times in our lives have we crossed paths with other people who have unknowingly gone on to impact us in some way and we may never know about it.

This was definitely a six degrees of what the fuck type experience.