Honey Ko - A Novel

Chapter Four

Aida, sweet and lovely like the opera, searched for treasure among the debris washed ashore by the latest storm of the monsoon. Her breasts filled her top as she leaned over to examine a bright and colorful smorgasbord of seashells, pebbles, smooth-worn glass, and curious shapes of driftwood. Breath caught in my throat as she turned, and I followed the long line of her legs as they curved with the round of her bottom and the straight line of her back that flowed beneath the hair that fell below her shoulders. This beautiful woman of twenty-one made every move a display of feminine eroticism, and she was entirely unconscious of the fact. I told her often how beautiful she was, and she blushed each time and replied, "Oh, thank you, honey ko."

Aida collected her treasure in a net bag that let sand fall away. She'd add the shells to jars lining the sill of the window over the kitchen sink of her apartment. The mix of colors, shapes, and textures would look pretty in the bright afternoon sunlight filling the window of the tiny kitchen. I thought of a similar kitchen I had known several years before and how Susanna had arranged seashells on the sill of the window of our bungalow in Rota, Spain.

Susanna was as real to me as though she were not dead. She often returned to my thoughts when I questioned whether I could love Aida with only half of my heart, for Susanna held the other. Aida knew of Susanna. I had spoken of her so Aida would not have to ask questions later. She thought I was carrying grief too long and too far, but Susanna was not just an image brought about by a misfiring synapse in my brain. The love between Susanna and me predated all other human love and was always meant to be. Our lives before finding each other were years spent waiting to find each other. We both knew it. When God created love, he created it from a perfect form. The love between Susanna and me was that form. All other love was a copy of the love we shared. When Susanna died, our love remained, for you can't kill love. Once given, once reciprocated, love is eternal.

Holding the bag in both hands behind her back as she crept along, Aida scanned the beach for those simple touches that bring the outdoors indoors and render a home warm and cozy. A glint of reflected sunlight in the sand drew her attention. She stepped across a rivulet running across the beach from the jungle to the sea. She stooped to turn over a fist-sized rock and screamed. Yoshi dashed over, sniffing and barking at the rock. Aida laughed, and the wind blew away her tinkling laughter as she fell onto her bottom.

"Are you okay, Aida?"

"Yes, Tommy. I'm okay." She shooed Yoshi and he ran into the jungle, thrashing through the underbrush and barking.

I stifled a laugh as Aida stood and brushed sand away. The gesture aroused me, and I pressed my hand to her bottom and spoke close to her ear. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Oh, Tommy. Not now, honey ko. So many people might see us." She laughed again as she moved away from me and said, "A crab surprise me when I am turning over a rock. He looks so funny snapping his claw to me. Maybe he's thinking I'm going to eat him."

"It would take a bucketful of those little guys to make a meal. Why don't we buy crabs at the market on the way home?"

"If you like, honey ko, I will buy the crabs fresh tomorrow and make the soup for your supper."

"Okay. Buy crackers too, oyster crackers. You can't have crab soup without oyster crackers."

"Oh, they don't sell those at the market."

"I'll stop at the commissary after work and buy them. Do you need me to pick up anything else?"

"Yes. Napkins."

"There's a whole case of napkins in the hall closet, Aida."

"Not that kind of napkin, Tommy."

"Ohhh. Okay. Too bad you can't come with me."