Toys are to play

Day 14| The buddhism monk

      Day 14| Part II

       Sebastian and I went back to the Soup House carrying a bunch of spaghetti and salt. He pushed the front door with his back so I could walk first with my bags; but when I was passing his feet stopped mine. "Are you going to get scared again?" He raised an eyebrow. I shook my head no and blushed, remembering the fist time I entered in there.

All families who came to eat in the soup house were tight on cash. Some were tighter than others, sometimes with big sunburns on their shoulders, faded shorts, raggedy shirts and shoes with holes... or no shoes at all. But Sebastian made me see that "poor" didn't mean "evil".

      I helped the other volunteers with the shopping and then went to the kitchen. A woman named Abby taught me how to quarter and truss a chicken, and a man named Brad taught me how to test sauces. By the time I had done it all, I could easily have worked an entire head of garlic with a chef knife. First I put my nail in the interspace between the cloves and plucks off one by one, watering them too. My hands begin to exhale that smell and would probably continue to exhale until my 70th birthday.

      "Mrs Agatha!" I called. "Can I put the garlic in the pot?"

      Mrs Agatha, who was slicing carrots, took a look at my work and said. "Only after crushing it with the garlic press on the table!"

      I squeezed a clove inside the presser but nothing happened. I frowned and shook stronger. Nothing.

Grrrr

      "Why you girls never know how to use muscles? Give me that." Sebastian yanked the thing from me. "Look, that's how you do it." He pressed the two rods and the garlic gunk came out from the other side.

I felt like pulling that piercing from that annoying smirk. "Yeah.. I think crushing garlic is a job for lower people."

     He stopped with the presser and stared at me. "There is no lower people, cutie, much less lower jobs. C'mon, help me with these."

•••

      The soup of garlic was a bit too strong but people loved it anyway. At the end of the day, with the establishment already closed, Sebastian came to tell that I was winning all the other volunteers' affection, and it was for me to stop. My heart boomed with happiness. Perhaps I was finding my place in the world?

       He said my hair smelled like garlic, and I pretended I was going to pour the rest of it on his hair, which only increased our laugh. Suddenly the Soup House's door opened and a very weird man walked in. Okay, I will take this back because Sebastian would say there isn't "weird people". The man had his head shaved, was barefoot and was wearing an orange tunic. He had a gentle expression as if he was walking on paradise that very moment. Sebastian exchanged looks with me and went forward to the man, who was already sitting at the first table. I knew he was a monk but I knew nothing about monks. I waited till Sebastian come again and we both went to the kitchen.

      "He asked if there's soup left."

      "Is there any?"

      "You're holding it, Angelina."

      "Ah... But there is meat in this soup, can he eat meat?"

      "It depends; maybe he is not so radical."

      "What do monks do?" I asked.

      He spent some time thinking. "Monks usually come from Buddhism, people tend to call it a religion but actually it is a path you follow for peace and happiness. They practice meditation and stuff to develop a kind of light, hm... and their goal is to end suffering by seeing the nature of reality just as it is, something good, something beautiful... And they don't believe in a god."

      We finally decided to give him some reheated soup and if he didn't like meat we could prepare something vegan. But when Sebastian arrived at the kitchen once again after serving the monk he had a total different expression, as if he'd seen a ghost. He held the doors well closed while saying:

      "Angelina, this man is an Arian."

      I asked how he could possibly know the man was Arian if we were exactly like normal humans, and he said he could recognize Arians easily... because of the Finder training he'd had with Gene.

      I felt my own face grimacing. So Sebastian was exactly like Oliver?

      "But that's not the point", he continued, "I think he is a rebel; an Arian without the special document from the government. Rebel Arians are people who hate Oxygen and everything related to hide their powers for a greater good — he's illegal."

      "And how do you know that?" We peeked through the kitchen's glass. He had finished and was opening the door to leave.

      "We need to go after him" Sebastian said.

      Some minutes later I found myself outside  the subway station watching Sebastian take his seatbelt off. He said it was best going by car so the monk wouldn't see us. It was not an intelligent decision, though; the man and his turtle pace made us waste a lot of time looking for places to park while he walked.

      "...I still don't think this is a good idea, Sebastian."

      "I know, but imagine how many stuff we can get by discovering their place of hiding. Imagine Gene's face! Let's go."

      We followed the man into the subway.

~~~~~~~~~
Merry Christmas!