Munni's LIA - A Serial Fiction - Episode 5

Note: All characters and venues are totally fictional; any semblance to real persons or places is merely coincidental. 

Synopsis: After Dinner Sheila suggests they stay overnight in a hotel nearby and Munni goes along.

Munni's LIA - Episode 5

Sheila takes Munni to stay in a Hotel

LIA=Life in America

There were two scallops on one plate with a green sprig of parsley, eight 2" pieces of butter fried asparagus with some fine shavings of crimson red capsicum in the second and on the third there were four squares of salmon with criss-cross roast patterns. " yes…small portions", thought Reddy. Jeanine had picked up the wine bottle and poured some into Reddy's glass and the rest into Sheila's, and asked, "would you like to order another wine?"
"mm…", Sheila paused, then opened the drinks menu and pointed at a half bottle of a chardonnay,"this one".
Jeanine nodded, took the pasta bowl and the empty plates, used forks and left. Sheila started partitioning the fish and asparagus into two serving plates. Jeanine returned right away with the wine bottle and different wine glasses, much smaller this time.
She poured the wine for both of them, and set the bottle down on the table and left.
" try the fish with some white wine", Sheila said, as she picked up the water glass and drank some water.

Reddy was still mulling over what Sheila's "I'd be damned…but YOU LOVE HER !!" outburst before the waitress came. He wondered if she was really angry that he never "asked his girlfriend out". Besides wanting to find out more about this "asking out" thing, he also thought he ought to explain boy-girl interactions of the indian scene. At the same time, it seemed to him like he ought to let the matter rest, now that Sheila seems to be concentrating on the fish and white wine scheme. But then again, he wasn't sure. After playing should-he?/shouldn't he? bit for a few times, he took the plunge.
"Can I explain ?" he asked
"explain what?", Sheila smiled and gave him the salmon and scallops in a serving plate.
"….about my girlfriend…"
"only if you didn't promise her about not telling cousin Sheila…", she said and tasted a portion of her scallop followed by a sip of the white wine. Reddy tried the salmon as well and the white wine. The wine was chilled and tasted very good; he liked it much better than the warmer red wine they had been drinking. He ate a couple of pieces of asparagus; it tasted very good. He decided he should tell his roommates to get this for making subji in their flat.
"in Mississippi we get some of the best shell fish there is…"she stated very seriously, like she was reading from a brochure.
Reddy couldn't understand the connection; may be Sheila wants to change the topic from girl friend to shell fish, he thought.

However, she came right back and said," ….ok …I am ready now…explain away "
"….I promised her that I will write her letters from here ….she gave me her address…."
" ….no daily phone call before she goes to sleep ?"
"….well…it is expensive for us to do that "
" …oh…that…it is all coming right back to job and money….right ?…..if you had job and money, you'd marry your uncle's daughter in India ….or ask your bus station girlfriend out on a date…right ? "
"..yes..yes..that is right" Reddy was eager to agree and thankful that Sheila got hold of the reality of his situation rather easily. Agreeing to her understanding was a lot easier than groping for the right way to explain India to his foreign cousin. He almost thought that is the concluding end of that explanation, because as he would learn much later from his uncle Benny, a phrase that sounds right especially in a jamaican-african accent: "No money….no honey…move on dummy".

He continued with the fish and white wine and ate some more bread. And drank some cold water. Contact of ice water against his upper lip soothed him.
"….pity is…", Sheila hadn't let go yet; she paused and seem to think about something. Then continued,"….you keep working on getting job and money over here….in the meantime some body else in India who already has job and money will be asking her out….. or even marrying her ….". She held the empty wine glass against her cheek, perhaps wanting a cold-press herself.
Reddy pounced on that as if he had already considered that angle. "no…no..that cannot happen, because she has health problem and it will be difficult for her to marry anyone." That switched on big red lights for Sheila right away.

"eh?…..careful…there…cousin….nevah nevah evah talk about that kind of thaiyng to a third party, y'all hear?", Sheila leaned to his side, grabbed his shirt-sleeve at his shoulder and pulled him towards her, and hissed in his ear; her yankee speech was gone in a second. She seemed to be shivering a little. If she had known him more than one day, she'd have pulled his ear to her mouth to deliver that. She was livid.

"…but Sheila…I want to talk to you …it is ok"; he had called out her name for the first time.
"not here …..in a public place…if you really should talk about that, let us do it some other time", she admonished, coming back to her local speech with some effort. They both fell quiet for what seemed like a very very long time. Hardly half a minute in reality.

Then Sheila opened up with,"how is your fish and wine?", her voice somewhat shaky, still carrying a hard edge. She had noticed that he had already eaten his portions of everything and drank the wine. She refilled his wine from the bottle, and poured herself some as well.
He was a very flustered, and now wished he could somehow take back what he had blurted out.
"fish is fine… I really like white wine better" he said.
"oh…really…some people say that it goes well with fish and pasta….but then that is just a preference". She worked very hard at getting her usual lilt back to her words.

She drank a little more wine. Then, she stood up and declared,"I am going to the restroom for a bit…could you handle on your own here ?". Reddy felt she was taking some time off from being with him at the table.

He said,"oh..sure". She slid out from behind the table, straightened, took her bag and walked away. He noticed her taking a cell phone from her bag as she walked to the corner of the restaurant where the restrooms were.

Reddy worked on drinking the remainder of both the wines and looking around. Jeanine, the waitress, came to the table, and smiled and said ," ..let me get these things out of the way for ya….". Reddy wasn't paying any attention; she might as well have said,"..Oh'…Boy !! did you goof that one up real good!!" she stacked and took all the empty plates and walked away

It seemed like 15 minutes before Sheila came back to the table. The waitress Jeanine came right behind her and asked about dessert.
Reddy couldn't understand whatever that Jeanine said about the deserts they serve; just too rapid fire for him. When she stopped her recitation, Sheila asked Reddy," a cake for you ?". Eating small portions and talking about various things had left Reddy still somewhat hungry. He said,"…yes…I will have one". Sheila ordered a cheesecake for Reddy and a gelato for herself and turned down coffees that Jeanine had suggested. The time was close to 9:30 PM.
After the waitress left, Sheila asked "….doing ok?"

Reddy considered what he could say; Sheila's voice seem to have gone back to early dinner state and this question sounded like a kind offer of truce. Before he could say anything, She reached into her bag and pulled her phone out. It had been saying "…izzzttt…izzzttt…izzzttt". She pressed a button, said "..'cuse me.." to Reddy and put it to her ear and said,"…hello".

And Reddy heard her say between pauses to listen:
"……hey…..what time…
I am out in east bay now… ….not too far
…….but don't want to drive……..
oh…….that'd be fine…….
call me later, ….ok" and then saw her press the button to finish her call.

She then turned to Reddy and said,"…have to make another call…so..keep an eye on my bag till I come back…OK?", and without waiting for an answer, got up with her mobile phone and walked to where the coin telephones were. He could see her at the phone looking at the directory. Then use her mobile phone to make a call. She talked for less than a minute or two; she smiled as if pleased with the call/caller and then came back to the table. When she sat down, she said, "….all set". He didn't understand what that was or meant; but then the waitress came with the desserts.

Sheila's ice-cream was a very small green globe in a black plate and had what looked like a shiny toy stainless steel spoon with it. Reddy's cheesecake was a counter statement to all the small portions he had been looking at all evening. It was of substantial size, sat on a white plate as big as the pizza plate from before and had some swirls of chocolate around it. Jeanine had placed a regular size two pronged fork next to the cake.

Sheila asked him,"how does it look?"
"…very nice looking", he said and added,"..but yours... is that all you are eating ?"
"…..yes…but I am going to steal a teeny weeny piece of yours first…", she took her spoon and scooped off a little of the cheesecake from one side, so as not to disturb the wedge shape or any of the chocolate swirls. She put the tiny smear of the cake on the spoon in her mouth…closed her eyes ..and said," wowwieee…"
"..have some more.." he pushed the plate a little to her side.
"…no..no …that is enough" she pushed it back. Then scooped a little of her ice cream.
Reddy ate a little of his cheesecake and understood what her wowwie was about. It was quite good, pleasantly melting in its wholesome creaminess in his mouth without being shockingly sweet.

After he had been through about half of his cake, she told him,"….I need to meet a friend tomorrow on the east bay…and I have a little more wine than usual today….I called her to see if she can drive us both…but she is busy too……soooo…I am staying here for the night". She had already finished eating her gelato.
"Where ?"asked Reddy.
"right here….", she said,"you can either stay with me ……and then I can drive you back to your place after breakfast tomorrow…….orrrr…I can put you in a taxi to go home….."
"right here?" Reddy was truly confused….
"..not here here…", she smiled," in the hotel next door", and tilted head to one side as if pointing out where the hotel was.

The proposition dawned on him. His brain raced ahead with all manner of ideas. He thought he has already had quite an afternoon and evening. But then, he didn't want to go back in a taxi, a very reasonable thought for a young man who had no money, job or the wherewithal to make a daily phone call to his plain girl.

" .....oh...that is ok…I will stay with you ....it is weekend and I can go back tomorrow", said Reddy.
" …alrightie then....let me get the bill", said Sheila; when she saw Jeanine a bit far, she made eye contact and that universal air-writing hand signal.

Reddy didn't feel like leaving the red wine behind. He drank it in one gulp and put the empty glass down.
Sheila drank some water and fiddled for something in her bag. Then she pulled her wallet out.
When Jeanine came and presented the bill in that ubiquitous black folder, Sheila pulled out a credit card from her wallet and gave it to her. Jeanine took it and went back to the cashier's.
"would you like to use the rest room?" Sheila asked Reddy. He said yes and got up; his napkin fell off his lap. He picked it up and put it back on the table and walked to the rest room.

When he returned, Sheila was ready to go. She had already paid the bill. Reddy wanted to know how much all of that cost; but he couldn't bring himself to ask her that. He felt he hadn't been saying the right things of late.

When they came out of the restaurant, it was dark but for the car park lights and the shop lights of the restaurant and the drug store. The hardware store had closed already. It was getting close to 10 PM. Sheila looked at her watch, turned and said,"come" to him, and briskly walked towards the Snyder's Drug store. Once again, he wondered why they were walking away from the car or the hotel around the corner; but did not call out to her and ask. He simply followed her.