HOT BLACK COFFEE - 2

A fable retold every time the coffee beans would ripe, the one hundred years of solitude completed... and i would wake up...

Ayappa is a small village of hundred adobe houses, hidden amidst a thick grove of eucalyptus trees. The town is enveloped in the highlands of the Western Ghats covered with coffee farms, such that if you see it from the top of the Kalinambe peak, you can see a thick green carpet with clouded ceiling on its head. Go down the Corbett Lane and stop when you can visibly smell the aroma of roasted coffee beans. A small wooden cottage, with its roof covered by the dense branches of the nili tree would welcome you. “Ayappa’s Coffee home” with white paint would be embedded on the trunk of that tree.

He also came that day. She was filtering the coffee through an old muslin cloth. He rapped on the counter. She looked at him, and kept staring for a moment, which seemed like hours.

“Kopi” he said. “kopi???” she asked.

“Give me milky coffee with a lot of cream” he said. “that’s called kopi in Malaysia” he added.She looked at him. He spoke with care. Care which came from people who were loving and gentle. She made the kopi.. two kopis“ and poured them in small steel glasses. She gave one to him and sat across him with the other in her hand. ”here from Delhi for exploring“ she said. ”What are you doing in the coffee house?“ he asked. ”I wanted to serve coffee for a day“ she said. ”I would love to do that too. Someday, I would do everything I loved to do.“ He said it to someone he knew nothing about. ”My someday is today.“ she said.

They started with coffee. He talked about things that mattered to him, his thoughts. She listened silently. ”whats your name?“ ”whats your name, whats your name , whats your name’’“ it echoed. I turned around. ” Does it matter? “. They kept talking till the sky turned black. ”Any place to spend a night?’

And she guided him to the only guest house (kuttie) in the town. The sky turned dark.

They were sitting on the banks of the Ittuzi. Her fragile fingers feeling the water pass through them. She had taken him to the coffee farms today. They stole some moist swelled beans from the coffee warehouse. He promised to make kopi-o ( Black coffee) for her in the night. “apppppppppppaaaaaaaaaa”’’’“.” Someone screamed from a distance and she ran away.

“where did you vanish last night.. .where where where”..“ I was feeling thirsty. He asked her possessively. ”never ask me questions. Let the beans ripe, and then I’ll answer all of them.“ she promised” “when when when”“.” It echoed“ The first train came at Ayappa that day.

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To be continued”