The Kitchen

Earlier on the Chronicles of Coralende, winfry went emo and got asked out on a date. By date I mean isa asked him to have mid-morning tea with her in the small kitchen hidden in the back of the first floor. winfry, though he was more familiar with the layout of the library than the librarian herself, had never been in the kitchen before. He knew that there was a kitchen in the back of the first floor for the librarians but he always considered it off-limits and resented that fact, which of course was made up only by him. The kitchen was a small poorly lit room; there were several windows but they were blocked by the building behind the library.

isa offered winfry a seat at the table with two teacups already set and retrieved the trantruming teapot from the ancient gas stove. “I hope you like early grey. It’s all we have right now,” isabel said as she sat down and poured water for the two of them. winfry’s heart was racing a cheetah and winning. What would he say? How should he act? What if he made a fool of himself? Wasn’t it exciting?

The slight buzz of the ceiling fan dominated the first few moments of the conversation. “So… ah, nice weather were having…” “yeah” … A deep drink of tea. The buzz of fan… “You know, it’s strange but this is the first time I’ve ever been in the kitchen before. I’ve always considered it off limits for me – staff only kind of thing, ya know. For some reason I feel slightly mischievous for being in here.” With that, winfry and isabel tapped into a steady source of conversation that well outlasted isa’s 10 minute mid-morning tea break.

They jumped around from topic to topic while managing stay upright on the pogo stick for a long run. They talked about how it was so strange that winfry felt rebellious for having tea in the kitchen even though isa had invited him; they talked about mrs. weatherwood’s quirky habit of looking at people’s ears when she talked to them; they talked about hot flashes; they talked about solar flares; isa chuckled at all, and I really do mean ALL, of winfry’s stupid jokes and man, woman and child did that do wonders for his confidence; they talked about how ms. englewood would sleep alone on the quads of cafford college so she could fall asleep watching the stars sparkling and how mr. winster got into a fist-fight with one of his peers at Earlenguard University for suggesting that he was lazy-nilbmahian, which, by the way, winfry had never told anyone about before; winfry started to look at the quilaire hanging from isa’s slender neck; they talked about being odd; they talked about being odd some more; they talked about why isabel had left nighline and come to the big city.

She had explained that she was one of three children growing up nighline; since nilbmah was so set on centralization, nighline was one of the few country-side towns and hardly anyone lived there. Unlike the other country-side towns that existed as agricultural centers that fed all the nilbmahians in the capitol, nighline served no agricultural purpose and instead existed because of cafford college, an extremely rigorous academic institution. In other words, nighline was an absolute anomaly. cafford college was another one of those establishments founded during the forgotten history of nilbmah. Many decades had passed since nilbmahians viewed university as anything more than an excuse for more parties, but surprisingly enough, cafford college had maintained it’s rigorous policies by attracting international students and professors, like isa’s parents. And this is why isabel englewood grew up with only three other children.

“It had been about three months after I graduated from cafford when my parents were killed in a freak hovercraft accident.” For the first time isabel looked away from winfry to stare at the tile pattern on the floor. As her eyes began to glisten with held-back tears she continued in a shaky voice, “I didn’t know what to do. For the first time in my life I was utterly alone; I didn’t really haven any true friends in nighline (I never did). But I wasn’t alone enough. Everything reminded me of my parents: the house, the path up to the cherry trees, the gothic arches of the college, the bakery on the corner of willis and arthington, everything.” Isa seemed to have forgotten about winfry entirely; her gaze was fixed on the floor but what she was seeing was obviously elsewhere. “I couldn’t handle it; I was going insane. I was clinically depressed and no amount of medication was helping. After torturing myself I knew I had to leave. I just had too. I think I would have killed myself if I stayed any longer. So I came to nilbmah citadel because where else could I go. And that’s how I got here.”

“Isa, I’m so sorry,” winfry offered with sincere affection. Throughout her monolog, winfry was captive to her tragedy and his mirror neurons were firing faster than a machine gun. Isa looked up into winfry’s eyes and smiled as tear freed itself from the pool in her eyelid. It was an incredible instant of electric union.

“Both my parents died on me too. During my third year of university.” It was winfry’s turn to examine the tiles and open his inner eye because other ones were busy damming tears. “They were one of the few unfortunate people to come down with the fatal strand of the EDF virus during the national epidemic. I was able to leave school and be with them for the last week of their lives… God, what hell that was.” winfry shuddered as the memory blew up again in his brain and shivered down his spinal cord. When he recovered the image, he continued, “They were bloated and bedridden for the whole week. I never left the hospital; it was prison. During the last two days the virus deleted all memory of me. They thought I was a nurse out of uniform which annoyed them. Before they died I told them I loved them. But it just made them feel uncomfortable. Before they died they insisted I leave so they could be alone. They didn’t lo” The dam broke down and winfry covered his face in shame. Not an instant later, isa pulled up her chair and put her arm around winfry’s gently massaged his shoulder.

Her touch sent an electric surge through his veins that stitched up his heart. When he looked up at isa her eyes were a ten centimeters from his. He had to lower his head again before building up the courage to return her gaze. “After the funeral, I returned to Earlenguard and didn’t tell anyone. I never told anyone, till now. I lost my family; I lost everything and if I let myself think about it I would have lost myself, the only thing I had left.”

With isa’s arm still around him and her eyes kissing his, he felt a strange catharsis that he knew she was feeling as well. “Isa, did you really kiss me last week or is my imagination getting the better of me?”