“You’re ecstatic,” he utters, and I look up to his direction, fighting to cease on my smiling. “I think I should have them spending more time around you,” he adds and leans back in his seat.
“What are they?” I turn to Zhai, directing my question to her.
“They serve, by nature,” he says as his right hand’s index finger strokes his chin slowly and I turn to him. “Their craft in preparing food is irresistible for your kind,” he adds. His eyes are narrowed and his gaze is stationary in my direction. “They’re harmless, just focused on serving and working…cooking.”
“Cooking?” I ask, turning to him.
“And cooking alone,” he says and nods to the three of them standing below a step away from the start of a tread. I turn to face the one approaching my direction and I gasp, loading my chest with air. He nods to the three of them, standing three steps away to the first tread and I fix my focus to the one approaching my direction. “Everything is harmless in their own space, but if unleashed into your world…” he ceases on his words and I frown, stuck in thought.
To serve the plates in its hands, it gets closer to me. Up close, it looks a bit scary. Its skin looks too smooth. There is no trace of hair and not even eyelashes. Its hands are big and with long fingers but no nails at all. I turn my attention to the table and all three of them have done an exquisite job in grooming it. I look up and they have already left our side and have cleared the dining room.
“What will happen?” I ask him, and he presses his lips in a fascinated smile. If this was under a completely different situation and under a completely new circumstances or subject, I would just jump on him for a kiss.
“You will eat and eat and eat…. And eat,” I frown, and he lends forwards to the table. “But you would not be able to fill your belly. Even if you want to stop you just can’t, the need will get stronger by the passing minutes. There’s power in their recipe and they grant it to some of your kind.”
“Do they?” I ask hesitantly and he deepens his smile. “I mean, do they pass into our world?” I think I suddenly fear them as much as I enjoyed their presence.
“That’s the part to limit the fun,” he says, leaning back again. “They have to be summoned by man itself, or they can’t get a pass into your world,” he answers, and I exhale loudly in relief.
“That’s a good to know,” I breathe a relived simple laugh.
“Oh, human, the worst creature,” he exclaimed, and I turn to face him perplexed. “Human, the most curious creature.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask, a little disappointed at him and Zhai steps on my feet to help me stay calm on my ground. This is not my choice or my life and to get out of here, we should play by the rules.
“Simple,” he says, looking to Zhai and then back to me. It feels like he understands that we are trying to be there for each other to keep our cool. It’s obvious what I am trying to say. I think I understand that he wants to hit me with another ‘oh, human’ hurricane of thoughts, hitting us on what he thinks is our fault. “By nature, you are eager to know things, as by nature, greed is part of you.”
“That’s an insult.” I think I am officially disappointed and Zhai clears her throat as if to remind of my tone of voice. Pressing a smile, he looks at Zhai and then me. I think he is amused to the way we understand each other…after all, I am as well.
“Why is that the truth appears to disappoint your kind, in general?” he says, pressing a smile and nodding once with his eyebrows. I can see he is enjoying this conversation.
“Why do I get the feeling that you envy us?” I utter, fixing my gaze and his smile fades completely away from his face. I smile in victory since I have managed to take his enjoyment. “I mean.” I shake my head as I shrug my shoulders up while pressing my lips down. “Despite you think, we’re the reason for many wrongs, you seem to enjoy our presence around you.” I look around to support my theory, “you need us so much but you can’t have us…not for real, the thought of it have you envy us…blame us for everything.” I press an innocent smile and direct my focus to him. “Can you test that in your mouth?” I ask him, leaning forwards on the table but a little too close to him. “That test; the feeling is too much to bear, right?” I can see his jaw lines forming hard lines, pressing his lips in a hard line. I can see his neck moving as he swallows hard, moving up and down, he’s handsome and for the first time disappointed…I think. I mean, his eyes are too focused and narrowed as he is looking into me…shit! I shouldn’t focus on him or I’ll miss a point. A momentary silence takes over, while staring at each other. He then leans forwards and sits too close to me and I start feeling his hot breath on my skin. Clearing my throat hard, I shake my head and lean back in my sit, “That’s the truth, your truth and what it tests like.”
“Fascinating,” he says and smiles. “You are fascinating that you can deny my power up on you. No one can.” I gasp to say something but the help once again fills the room with their presence.
I think I understand about the cooking skill of these creatures he was talking about earlier. The moment they walk into the room with food in their hands, the whole house changes aroma, smelling like the greatest kitchen in the whole world. I just realise how hungry I am; I didn’t have lunch as well a proper breakfast. Damen, I’m so hungry, I wonder frowning as I bite hard on my lower lip. I am craving to have something to eat or I might die; funny I didn’t notice it until now. Oh no, I think in fear, just as I recall what he was telling me about, about their cooking skill and the impact on human. But I am hungry, I can’t stay one more minute without eating, not more than this. I lick my lower lip wet.
“Do not be worried,” he says, smiling. “Did I not mention how things in their space are normal?” he says composed as he presses a simple smile.
“I know,” I lick my lower lip wet, again, and look to Zhai, who is already digging in.
“It’s really good,” she says, smiling, and she turns her head back to her soup and smiling, I look back at my plate.
“Trust me,” he says.
“I did but look where it got me.” I pick a spoon and take a test from my bowl.
For heaven’s sake, I close my eyes as I succumb to the deliciousness of my soup, that I just fill my mouth with. It can’t be possible that they would know about my soup, I wonder as I open my eyes so slowly. Trust me I am no good cook, but my mother makes sure that I know my way around a kitchen; not that I like it but because it would ashamed my father if I say I don’t know how to cook. Anyway, my point is that I have tested great cooking other than my mother’s, but I assure you, this is something different.
I’m not wasting time to join Zhai in this; I keep pushing my spoon, filled with the soup, into my mouth, over and over again. I’m humming and moaning before I even know it. Looking up at Zhai, we both giggles, doing the same thing, supporting one another. I guess we are both hungry and we are simply enjoying it. Just as we’re both done, we both place our spoons on the table.
Looking back at him, I realise there is no plate set for him, he is just staring at us with fixed pleased smile on his lips.
Oh Shit! I frown as I realise, we have just completed our start up soup and I turn look back at the ladies that are staring to our direction, perplexed, as Katrin is still smiling with her arms crossed on her chest. Some of them are holding their spoons but most of them haven’t even touched it. One thing they all have in common is the fact that they are all staring to our direction. “Why are they…”
“It’s okay.” Zhai holds me on my left shoulder to calm me down. “We weird…none of us eper did this…” she says, and she steals a fearful glimpse to his direction and she places her hands between her thighs.
“Why aren’t you…”
“For I enjoy discerning you.” I look down as I feel my cheeks rises the temperature. “I don’t eat,” he says quietly, and I look up at him. “I can’t recall the last time I did,” he adds shrugging his right shoulder.
“What cha
nged?” I ask, suddenly feeling a bit sad for him.
“I met mankind…up close,” he looks down at the table. “I once, did what your kind does and my falling began, as I start feeling like your kind. Doing what your kind did, sharing my knowledges... it made me feel like... human,” I wet my lower lip and look at Zhai, whose eyes are still on the table, then I turn for a glimpse to the ladies dining quietly and elegantly. His last word is uttered in whisperer as well aversion.
“What are you exactly?” I ask whispering, and he partially smiles and looks up to see me.
“You don’t want to know,” he says. “And not that I haven’t told you either.”
“What did my kind do so wrong to you that makes you hate us all?”
“Is that what you think?” he asks, hardly frowning. “Indeed, I hated you all long before I come to your home, but something changed me…and my brother’s heart. We were condemned to think and act more like you than us…we start losing what we are.”
“Which is?” I ask, and a momentary silence takes over.
“Which is something I manage to see in you, once again.”
“Do you mean I remind you of what you were?”
“No, you’re far from that,” he says, smiling, and he leans forwards on the table. “More like, when I am with you…”
“You recognise the man you were before,” I complete his sentence and he smiles, nodding.
“Besides, I start to feel the feelings I thought I would never feel again…it feels right.” He whispers his last sentence…more like murmurs it with that stern voice. I clear my throat and look down, trying to clear the thought that just crosses my mind. I guess I finally understand why he wants to dine alone with me. I will also be able to get a lot about him, to understand.
Once again, those creatures fill the room with dinner, though I can’t say to whose mercy, their presence once again takes us off from the subject that feels a lot to take in.
It’s hard to explain, but to simply put my guess, to what’s served before me; I can see a mixture of soy sauce, sake, ginger, and other flavourings that are hard to explain… I guess these since the dish before me is my favourite, teriyaki chicken. I love it to the point that I don’t mind repeatedly having it a million times per day. I cut a peace from my plate as the creature start pouring me some wine in wooden goblet. It smells good, my dinner, and the moment I press it with my spoon and it gets juicy, I feel my mouth getting filled with saliva, in response to the excitement of need to take a bite of it. I finally place it in my mouth; my lips shut, and suddenly, I feel my body secreting more saliva that I have to squeeze the piece hard between my teeth, and just at that moment, the sausage starts spreading on my tongue, wetting it with the loving touch of deliciousness. I close my eyes in pleasure and exhale the aroma of the piece in my mouth through my nostrils. I send it down my throat, and gasping, I open my eyes back to the plate. I suck my lips and bite my lower lip at the realisation that I am officially yielding to the cooking before me.
Oh, boy! And I thought I knew how to cook my teriyaki chicken.
Chapter Eleven
“I should go back,” Membere whispers. She is on a single seat sofa; huddled, as she moves back and forth repeatedly.
“Go where?” Bamlakfekad asks in exhaustion.
“Home,” she answers, still whispering. “I’m anyway paying for my taxes and that’s it,” she mumbles.
Membere hardly changes clothes or communicates with those around her. Even if she has to, the only topic that’s of her interest is about her daughter’s voice she heard, three months back.
She has many regrets; she blames herself for not being calm when she heard her voice that she would have figured the direction to find her. For the first month after she heard her voice, she was filled with hope of finding her, she feel her like she was around, she stayed in the bedroom longer than the usual; screaming for her name…days and weeks pass and she starts a door to door search in the neighbourhood; everyone collaborated with her, she did everything she could in every way possible and nothing until now. The fact that her voice disappeared completely and that she only heard it once is starting to get to her; she’s somehow feeling that she might be losing her mind, like others think. She is starting to think if she was mistaken, about hearing her voice.
She can’t be mistaken; she did hear her voice and she remembers what it sounds like; a voice swallowed by tears and in pain. Membere is willing to do anything to see further than this, willing to go to the edge of this world till she finds her daughter. She can feel it in her bones that something is wrong.
“This is your home,” Bamlakfekad utters quietly. He, on the other hand, compared to her, has already gave up; he is rather looking for a lifeless body. He believed that Membere had a moment then, he thinks she thought she heard her voice. She was worried enough to think like that.
“Did you forget?” she asks, looking at him ceasing on her rocking. “We were on the edge to complete our divorce,” she went back to her first mood. “I want to look for her there.”
“You were there, twice.”
“A person is crazy for being able to hear or see somethings others can’t,” She shakes her head, whispering.
“If what you said is right, I…what was her name…” he waves his hand in the air, as if it will help him recall Membere’s friend’s name. He never liked her since she was the first reason for Membere to ever dream about traveling and residing in Canada. “Tselot,” he utters with despise towards her.
Tigabu sneaks out the living room. He is tired of listening to their fight. Not that he doesn’t understand them, but he just can’t see the use of it.
“When you can’t find a solution in one way, you got to go seeking for it the other way,” she looks at him.
“Are you fooling yourself?” he asks, in sarcasm.
Membere wants to try something different to look for her; her neighbour, Mrs Asnakech, suggested a spiritual guide who can help her in their situation. She told her it’s best to be sure if she is dead or alive before anything.
At first, she thought it was insane to even think about it, but now, especially after hearing her voice, her mind can’t settle on not trying it. She wants to know, settle her thoughts to a point; bona fide or not, she wants to try it…she is looking for something, anyone, anything that can give her hope.
“I don’t see the use in waiting for her, as if she would show up after all this time, looking all… and looking freshened up isn’t the solution either,” she is looking at him in disgust and hate.
“I hope you’re not saying I don’t care.”
“I am,” she says, standing up. “I am saying it as loud as possible,” she hits her chest hard with her right hand. “I raised her; she is more like me than you. So, tell me, why would you care?”
“Membere!” he springs up from his seat. He is disappointed and she just pushed him too much.
“That’s my name,” she says and sits back on the seat she was on. “Tell me how hard you’re trying, except looking for a body?” he takes his gabi; a big white worm, culturally prepared, garment used as a shawl, off and throws it on the floor too hard and she raises her eyebrows up in surprise.
“I don’t know!” he screams until his face turns all red. “What do you want me to do? Kill someone?”
“Oh, so that’s your solution?” she asks sarcastically. “Sounds like that’s the only thing you know to do and have been doing.” Shaking his head, he sits back on the two-person seat sofa in front of the single seat two sofas. She is making sense more than ever. He doesn’t think outside of the box. “I want to go back home because I want to try it there,” he looks up to her, frowning. “I can visit those fortune tellers or something,” she clarifies herself. “I can’t do it here, after all you would fear people would talk behind your back about your faith,” she presses her lips with her right eyebrow raised in judgement.
“Okay,” he says in disappointment. “I can understand you judging me for not wa
nting to try, but it’s unacceptable to underestimate the skills in your own country.”
“Oh, no. You know that’s not what I am saying…”
“And I am saying we are both going to the place…that talkative Mrs Asnakech mentioned to you about, together,” he loads his chest with air and exhales long. “We will do it together,” he adds.
“I’m not asking for your permission.”
“And you thought I care about pride.”
“I just want to find her,” Membere says, standing. “I will go talk to her now.” She walks out the leaving room like zombie, but she is filled with better hope.
“God help me,” Bamlakfekad murmurs to himself after she leaves. “I just hope she won’t expect too much…” he ceases on his thoughts to finding something real. “Or at least get prepared for bad news.” He frowns and storm out the leaving room. “Tigabu,” he calls her brother, who is sitting in the compound with his friends.
“Gashye,” he runs to him in respect. “I was thinking about talking with you. Etaba, just left the house and said not to follow her,” he says. That’s how he addresses his sister Membere as Etaba. She is his older and culturally it’s the right way to address her that way as well.
“Yes,” he answers. “That old noisy women said something to her.”
“Who, Mrs Asnakech?” he asks and Bamlakfekad nods to confirm it to him. “What about?”
“Not something I would tell you openly about, it’s our families secret,” his response makes Tigabu frown, perplexed.
“Did she go to her place? Should I follow her?”
“Yes.” He presses his lips. “I’m worried,” he adds.
“Then I should go after her,” he tries to go but Bamlakfekad stops him.
“No, leave her be.”
Hell Again Page 19