Raman Jalota's Stories


Licorice and Honey
by
Raman Jalota
    Natalya’s head felt light. She noticed the new smell in the air immediately. She inhaled again. It was the smell. There was a faint trace of licorice and the sweetness of honey. It felt vaguely familiar. She breathed it in deeply. Instantly, she felt alive and awake.  A feeling of excitement started building up in her. What is going to happen now? She saw the bar down the street; a dingy, dirty looking bar that she hadn’t noticed before. She looked through the window and her eyes met the eyes of a waitress inside. The waitress smiled at her as she entered the bar.
    There were a few empty tables in the bar. Several people were sitting at the counter watching a small TV showing the Broncos fighting the Raiders. She sat at a table with two chairs, almost at the back of the bar. She had a view of the street from her chair. The waitress came over and talked to her for a while. Her mind barely registered the chit-chat about the weather and the Broncos.
    She hesitated a while before ordering a mint julep. The bourbon felt good and the mint flavor accentuated her internal feeling of excitement. She sipped contentedly as she watched the people on the street and the loud, obnoxious fans in the bar, shouting at the TV. She saw him and cringed her nose. To her amazement he looked straight at her, smiled, opened the bar door and came to her table. He was fat, at least twenty pounds overweight, his short height of five feet five inches made him appear even fatter. Natalya didn’t want to look at the ugly, fat guy but something made her look up.
    He said, “Ok if I sit here?”
    She wanted to scream “No” but felt helpless. There was that same smell again. Very powerful and definitely radiating from this man. There was a faint trace of licorice and the sweetness of honey . It felt vaguely familiar. She pointed to the other chair.
    He sat down, yelled across the bar at the waitress to get him a Bud and smiled at Natalya. “I am Tony. I knew it the minute I saw you.”
    “What did you know?”
    “I knew I had to meet you. You are the woman I want.”            
    “Tony ... Is that your real name? Do you feel ...”
    “Well it’s Anthony but everyone calls me Tony. And you can call me TJ if you like. What is it?”
    “Why do you feel you can push yourself on everyone?”
    “No, no, no. This is not like any other time. I don’t push myself on anyone ... women fall over themselves to get to me. But you ... you are special. I knew the moment I saw you sitting here.”
    Natalya sat staring at him, mesmerized. What is happening to me? Why can’t I tell this fat, ugly guy to get lost? Why do I feel drawn to him? What is it about him?
... ... ...
    Ten years and two children later, she still couldn’t answer that question.  Her mother loved Tony as much as she loved her own daughter and grand kids. The Natalya she knew as a pretty girl had been transformed into an astonishingly sensuous, caring and tender woman. She made heads turn wherever she went, but she was completely and overwhelmingly in love with her Tony. The two were inseparable till it happened.
    The trip to Costa Rica was planned in detail by the two of them. Three days in San Jose visiting museums and historic buildings; three nights in Arenal hiking and watching the volcano erupt; four nights in Tamarindo at a different beach every day; and finally Three days in Manuel Antonio Park. A well planned two week vacation to sample all that Costa Rica offered.
    San Jose was crowded but it was still fun to visit the National Theater, the Jade Museum, the Gold Museum and see the small galleries that were around the town. Arenal was the best. It rained every afternoon for a couple hours and the sky would remain partly cloudy. And then the volcano would make its entrance with a loud bang from one of its three cones. It erupted continuously every three or four minutes with a puff of smoke and lava tumbling down the slope making a boom boom sound. Sometimes there would be a louder eruption and one could see the red hot flames on top of Arenal. At night they sat staring at the volcano, listening to the rocks tumbling down, it was their own, private, unique Fourth of July fireworks.     
    And then they came to Tamarindo. The beach in Tamarindo was quite pretty, with the locals and the gringo tourists surfing the waves and having a good time. On August 6th their second day there, they drove through dirt roads and standing water to where the receptionist had vaguely told them the best beach in the area, Playa Grande, was.
    It was a small beach but quite secluded with just a handful of surfers and a few walkers on the beach. Natalya pointed to the right hand side, they all followed her to the farthest point on the beach and spread their blankets under the trees that were just off the edge of the beach. Tony played with the kids a little and then he walked into the water and took a long swim. He swam quite far. Natalya watched him for a while, she knew that he was a strong swimmer and didn’t get too concerned. Soon he was no longer visible.
    It was only when her son asked her where dad was that she got a little worried. She got up and walked a little into the water. The surf was noisy and waves kept coming and smashing on the shore. It took a while to sink in. He is nowhere to be seen. What the hell happened to Tony? She tried hard to locate him on the horizon but there was nothing to be seen and the waves kept coming up and breaking her concentration. She was about to panic when she heard him.
    He was walking on the beach with two Imperials in his hands. He saw the look in he eyes.
    “What’s wrong Alya?”
    “Where were you? I was getting worried, I couldn’t see you in the water.”
    “I swam a bit and then went to the hut and got us a couple of beers.”
    He opened the top of one bottle and handed it to her. She drank the cool beer and hugged him, a little annoyed at her own stupidity.
    After a lunch of sandwiches, chips, cookies and more beer they all started to nap.
... ... ...
    When Tony awoke, the sun was hot. He looked at the deep blue pacific water inviting him to cool down. He waded in and the cool water refreshed him immediately. He felt energized and started swimming. He swam hard to a point that he had picked about a mile away. He was a little winded and turned over and lay on his back, just relaxing in the warm water. And then he saw them. There were hundreds of them. Giant Leatherback turtles.  All around him, gently treading the water. Some of them were five to six feet long, but most were just around three feet. It looked like a parking lot full of VW Bugs. Tony was very excited to see them. He had read the little sign on the beach proclaiming it to be a nesting site for the giant turtles but had not thought he would spot one of them.
    The turtles were always around but didn’t always head to the beach till the moon’s position signaled to them that it was time to head to the beach and lay their eggs. They were mostly floating around, eating jellyfish and other small fish that filled the Pacific ocean. One of the large turtles lifted his head and turned it in the direction of Tony. He could smell something ... perhaps he smelled food. He started paddling towards his food source. A few more followed him.
    Tony was delighted. He tried to pet them, but they were interested in feeding and started nibbling at him, biting him, trying to tear off small pieces of his flesh. He screamed at them, tried to push them away and head for the shore. They sensed his fear and swam on top of him, drowning him with their enormous weight. He struggled for a few seconds but couldn’t push off the 2000 pound turtle sitting on top of him. The human flesh tasted a lot different from their usual diet but the feeding frenzy of the first group made the rest of the turtles rush to join in the feast.
    Natalya was numb with fear but she didn’t panic. She walked to the hut and asked the girl serving there if Tony had been in.
    “No, he was here in morning for buying beer. But not after that.”
    “I need help. I think he is lost.”
    The owner, a young ‘retired’ American immediately called his workers and they pulled out his boat and got into the water looking for him. She tried to remain calm and comfort her children, who sensed her fear and were beginning to cry.
    One of the Ticas saw the bobbing head in the water surrounded by turtles and they sped towards it. They thought he was alive but the head was severed from the body and the turtles had made it unrecognizable.
... ... ...
    Valentina checked her calendar. It was August 6th. She didn’t think it could be this early but knew the baby was pushing hard, wanting out of her belly. She yelled at her husband.
    “Jeff ... the baby ... it’s coming.”
    “You sure? I thought not for another two weeks.”
    “Yes ... damn it ... its coming now... let’s go.”
    “OK I will call the doctor from the car, come on Val.”
... ... ...
    She lay drugged on the hospital bed, waiting for the nurse to bring her new baby to her. A young nurse walked in with the baby in her arms and placed it next to Valentina. She touched him gently at first then held him next to her. She cringed her nose as she smelled the trace of licorice and honey. It was a sweet smell she decided and smiled contentedly.
    Jeff walked in shortly afterwards and kissed her.
    “Here’s our son “Nathan”.” She said, holding him out to her.
    “Oh ... OK. “Nathan” is good. I don’t know any Nathans or Nathaniels but I like it.”
    Nathan looked at Jeff and blinked. Jeff gave him back to Valentina. Nathan liked her soft touch better and yawned peacefully.
 ... ... ...
    Nathan grew up fast. He started walking when he was just seven months old and learned to crawl through the pet opening and get into the backyard. It was as if he wanted to be somewhere else. Valentina would be watching him and momentarily take her eyes off him for something and he would disappear. She learned to look for him in the backyard first.
    But it was when he turned a year old and learned to talk that it became very strange. He would point out and say “my home”. And would get angry at times and cry, “I wanna go home.” They didn’t understand why he did so but learned to live with his peculiar tendencies.
    When he got into kindergarten he started to draw a three storey house with a tall oak tree in the front, a white picket fence and two large black dogs. He would do it almost every time they drew a picture. He called it home. The first time he did this, she took him to the front of the house and showed him the two storey house with rose bushes in the front.
    She said, “Nathan, we don’t have any fences. No trees just rose bushes, and we have one little white dog. We have a two storey house; a beige ... light brown colored house not a blue house that you drew. Where do you come up with this stuff?”
    He looked at her with a puzzled look and repeated, “Its my home.”
    When Jeff came home that first day. He laughed and they both decided he had a vivid imagination. When he heard them laughing at him, he ran through the pet door into the backyard.
... ... ...
    Nathan woke up feeling moody and depressed. He knew it was August 6th, his twelfth birthday. But the depressed feeling he had the last several weeks was still with him. He knew there would be some kind of a party for him, maybe a surprise party maybe just a cake and pizza with the neighborhood kids. He sighed and got ready for school and the rest of the day.
    Ms Nagra’s Geography class started as a boring class as usual but something changed him that day. She had a slide show showing Central America, the forgotten continent as she called it.
    “We have North America and South America listed as continents but Central America - seems to not exist as part of the Americas. Costa Rica lies in the middle of Central America and is ... ....”
    Nathan’s mind started to drift. He saw clear blue waves of the pacific ocean as they washed over his head. He screamed and passed out.
    When he came to, he was in a hospital bed with his parents around him.
    Valentina kissed his forehead. “What happened?”
    “I know who I am?”
    She stared at him with a puzzled look in her eyes.
    “What ... What do you mean ... Did you forget who you are?”
    “No, I now remember who I am. I am Tony Carrera. I am married and have two kids ... Mat and Jess ... Matthew and Jessica. We, my wife ... we lived in Boulder, not too far from here.”
    Valentina stared at him; her face was white. There was a fear in her voice when she spoke.
    “Nathan, don’t talk like that. You are scaring me.”
    “Mom, this is the truth.”
    “What do you mean? You live in Boulder and here in Denver also, what kind of story is that?”
    “No, no. I used to live in Boulder ... I died in Costa Rica some years ago. I was swimming in the ocean and turtles attacked me ..”
    Valentina sat down by his bed and put her hand on his forehead. It felt normal. His eyes were clear and he seemed to be very calm as he kept repeating his story.
    Jeff came running to the hospital. Valentina told him what she knew. The doctors told them, there was nothing physically wrong with him but he needed to see a psychiatrist. Dumbfounded they agreed with the doctors and took Nathan home. He was very calm in the car and he turned to Jeff.
    “Dad, we are near the highway, why don’t we drive to Boulder and I will show you.”
    Valentina nodded at him and he headed to highway 36 and boulder.
    “Where in Boulder? What street .. Where?”
    “Keep going on 36 and I know I will tell you when I see it.”
    He missed the turn.
    “We need to make a U turn and get back on the Iris Street exit, I ... I couldn’t recognize it.  It has really changed since I was last here, but now I remember the name.”
    Highway 36 had ended into 28th Street and Jeff made a U turn and then a right on Iris. Nathan told him to slow down, he pointed as he saw Hermosa Street.
    “Yes make a left here. OK .. Right here and stop here..”
     Valentina almost screamed, “Oh my God.”
    They were parked in front of a three story home with a white picket fence and a large Oak tree. Jeff looked at Valentina and started to perspire.
    “Is this it?”
    “Yes, Jeff ... I recognize the house from the paintings he did ... I”
    “This is my house. My wife Natalya should be here ... and my children Mat and Jess.”    They got out and Nathan walked up to the front door with them. They rang the door bell.
... ... ...
    Natalya was feeling depressed. It was Aug 6th; the day Tom had died so horribly in Costa Rica. She had stayed home, doing nothing. She hadn’t cried for many years and she just felt sad and lonely, hanging around the house, lying in bed, drinking coffee and not doing much. The doorbell rang. Who could it be? Probably a salesman or something ... how would they know I was home today?
    Natalya’s head felt light. She noticed the new smell in the air immediately. She inhaled again. It was the smell. There was a faint trace of licorice and the sweetness of honey. It felt vaguely familiar. She breathed it in deeply. Instantly, she felt alive and awake. A feeling of excitement started building up in her.
    She noticed the young boy with a man and a woman beside him. She opened the door. The smell was strong and overpowering. A strange thought formed in her head. Tony is here. ... Somehow ... Tony is here. Nathan’s eyes lit up when he saw her. He wrapped his arms around her.
    “This is my wife ... My wife Natalya.”
The End    2882 words

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