The Inside Diaries

Melagueta

Drifting off to sleep among the rustling palm branches, the gentle lap of ocean, and sweet spiced scent of melagueta peppers and cinnamon, she beamed contentedly. Now this was how life was meant to be lived...

A swirl of clouds later, she found herself back on a familiar Gothic castle campus of yore, plodding uphill past two students pleading for passerby to stop and learn about their club. Without knowing where she was headed, or why, her feet instinctively directed her to the student union, a large frost-glass moss-green building, filled with people-watchers sitting on lawn chairs near circular translucent tables. Just outside the mouth of the entrance, she spotted an acquaintance. Tedros. A doctor, his curly hair thick-set upon his visage. She ducked her head, meaning to hurry past, assuming he wouldn't remember her, for she was as forgettable as—

"Hello!"

She whirled around, spotting Tedros who'd leapt up from his seat, carrying a child wrapped in terry towel. "Twenty-nine," he spoke. Months, she assumed. After saying her pleasantries, she entered the building, noticing lines upon lines of people sitting upon department store balustrades, those elegant tiled marble sidings feet above the glossy floor. The very opposite of isolation.

Ascending an ornate stairwell mere moments later, a glimmer caught her eye—her left hand sported a beige tea-colored gem, a Swarovski creation. Even in this reality, her appreciation for costume jewelry clearly knew no bounds. A stately mahogany library with colorful purple, blue, and green medieval hanging banners met her soon after, as did the voices of various celebrities as she passed one library reading corner after the other. Individually-tailored book talks, perhaps; she could be privy to whichever she chose, for the world was indeed her oyster...

She found herself prodded by a tiny pink feline nose, gently nudging her awake.

"Mrrrrrrreoooooooooow."

Groaning, she blinked, taking stock of her garishly bright surroundings, and the pair of eyes staring at her, unblinking. "Morning to you too." How had she gone from the islands to...home?

Shaking her head, she donned her bathrobe and headed to the kitchen. Kitty must be hungry, she imagined, as she poured a can of wet food into the elevated miniature bowl. And indeed, the feline licked the bowl clean less than ten minutes later.

How do I return? She contemplated the question to herself. Studying her cat, she too wondered—

How do I take you with me?

Once she finished her own breakfast, she placed a disposable kitty litter tray, cans of cat food, two small dishes, and a handful of mouse toys into a large canvas tote. After, she retrieved the cat carrier, encouraging the feline inside. Done and done. As for...

Glancing at her laptop on the table in front of her, she turned it on, retrieving her story, imagining, once more, the tropical paradise that was the Azores Islands.

She began to type, closing her eyes for the briefest of moments.

Once upon a time, there was a lady and her cat; they went on a wondrous journey to a most unique tropical island, filled with the scent of cinnamon and melagueta peppers, the flutter of palm trees, the lap of aquamarine waves, and stop signs inveigled by hibiscus blossoms, bright, pink, and beautiful...