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Lately Hodari Pavel has been finding himself making any excuse to make the long trek into the village to make a stop at Zeki's General Store. None of these excuses, however, include wanting to see the shopkeeper himself. Instead, they run circles around the beautiful redhead who sells her inventions and flares there. The beautiful redhead who seems to occupy his every waking thought as of late. The beautiful redhead for whom he has a gift hiding away in his pocket.
So today, right as the lunch hour for the mine hits, Hodari finds himself marching up the path into Kilima Village. In his mind, he practices what he will say to her. He’s never been a man of many words, but for her? Well, he would try. At least there were still so many things about Leta that he didn’t know. What was her last name? What does she do for fun? Does she already have a partner? Does… she… already have a partner…? A hot blush burns his cheeks and Hodari clenches his fists as he starts the climb down the hill into the village proper.
The door’s bell rings when Hodari enters Zeki’s General Store. Only Leta and Zeki are inside. A large box sits on the counter and the Grimalkin is rummaging through it. He looks up when Hodari comes in and offers a brisk wave. Across the room is another, smaller counter. On it are flares and strange bundles of metal that Hodari has no idea what they could be. Behind the counter stands Leta. Her eyes twinkle as they connect with his and a big grin blooms. Already he can feel his heart pounding at the sight of her.
“Hey there, pal. Looking for something specific?” Zeki calls out, pulling both hands out of the box and slapping them down on the counter with a smack.
“Uh, yeah… bandages. Got ‘em?”
Zeki scowls at him and then leans down to reach under the counter. In his hand is a package of new bandages and he places these on the counter. Then he types the price into the till and waits. Hodari quickly brings out his wallet and provides the coin demanded. He wants to get this over and done with so that he can finally slip over to talk to Leta. The bandages were the best excuse he could come up with to even be here. What should he say tomorrow?
“What kinda shop do you think I’m running, Hodari, that we don’t have bandages? This is a proper establishment!”
“Yeah. Well. Thanks,” Hodari responds, grabbing the bandages and sticking them in his workbelt’s pouch. “S’all I needed… so…”
“Come over here a sec’ before you go, Pavel!”
Leta has her elbows resting on her counter. She smiles up at him when he comes closer and he finds himself staring into her brown, brown eyes. Brown like the rich soil that yields the many bounties of Kilima Valley. Brown like the chocolate that he indulges himself in once in a Maji’s Moon. Beautiful, rich, stunning brown. He would like to stare into those eyes forever.
“Need somethin’?”
“I wanted to know if you’d like to take lunch with me over at the inn! I’m free for the afternoon since sales are slow today. Thought it would be nice to spend some time with you.”
His heart skips a beat. Have lunch together? She wants to spend time with him? It was as if Maji had dropped a blessing into Hodari Pavel’s hands. For a moment his mouth hangs open limply. Then the words come:
“Sure. Could use a break.”
“Great! I’ll treatcha.”
Together they walk to the Ormuu’s Horn Inn, Hodari fearing his face is a deep violet from blushing and Leta simply smiling. The inside of the inn is busy with a group of tourists bound for Bahari City, the usual traveling merchants and a pair of scientists that Hodari has already given a tour of the mines to. There is even a Grimalkin bard who plays a lute idly by the fire. He wonders for a moment how long the bard will be in the village and if Leta likes to dance. It’s been years since the last time Hodari has danced, but maybe he should bring out his old dancing shoes and give them a polish.
“What do you want to eat?” Leta asks as she pulls a chair out from one of the tables.
“The Chapaa Asada Tacos here are real nice. You don’t have to treat me though.”
“Don’t worry about it! I sold some schematics to some big shot from the city recently, so money ain’t a problem at all. Just have a seat.”
Hodari obeys her order and sits. The table she selected is near the window and Hodari has a good view of the entire dining room. Ashura mans the check in table, speaking so loudly to an ancient looking Majiri that Hodari can hear his voice booming all the way across the room. He turns to watch Leta walk to the food-ordering counter. Every movement has her hips swaying femininely and he swallows a lump in his throat at the sight. He watches her order from Sabine before turning to give him a little wave. Sabine smiles in his direction, surely cognizant of exactly why Hodari is following the town inventor around. Surely his skin is brightly flushed all the way to the tips of his ears by now. Surely everybody in the room is smirking at his predicament.
By the time she returns with the food, Hodari has ran every possible topic of conversation and every potential rejection through his mind. His hands shake as he pulls his plate toward himself. It is only when he takes the first bite of his taco that he feels better.
“This could use something,” Hodari says, setting his food back down. Leta raises an eyebrow, but he doesn’t explain. Instead he goes over to the food counter, grabs a packet of hot sauce and returns to spread it over his taco.
“You’re putting hot sauce on it?”
“Ah… yeah. Why? Is it weird?”
Leta shrugs and says, “No! I guess you just like some kick in your food, huh?”
“Food’s all the excitement I need.”
Sabine’s food always provided that excitement to his life. The hard shell of the taco in his hand was rough to the touch, rippling with the sign of being homemade. Heat and the scent of spice fills his face as he leans in to eat. Crunch. The shell crunches in his mouth and the blessedly juicy morsels of meat sends an explosion of flavour down his spine. Cold bursts of tomato cut through the heat and the smoky taste of pepper dance along his nerves. The hot sauce was certain to leave that pleasant burn that only Sabine’s cooking could conjure. For a moment, it is all enough to make Hodari forget the beautiful woman across from him.
Leta watches him eat for a moment before turning back to her own food. She scarfs down her taco and says, “Well, remind me to make you my special hot hounds sometime. They’re real good.”
He pauses, taco sitting blandly in his hands.
“...Are you suggestin’ we get lunch again?” Hodari’s heart stutters at the thought of Leta wanting to see him again. Wanting to cook for him was a step farther along than he thought they were.
“What? You don’t like me?” Leta’s voice sounds slightly hurt.
“No, I like you! I like you a lot. Just surprised you want to see more of me is all.”
She smiles then and finishes her food. Pushing her plate away from herself, Leta leans back in her seat and looks at him through the corner of her eye. A slight grin wrinkles her lips. She drums her fingers against the table and then leans forward again to say conspiratorially:
“If I can be honest, I’d like to spend the rest of the afternoon with you.”
“Oh yeah? What did you have in mind?”
Standing up, Leta comes around to his side of the table. She places her hands on her hips and waits for him to finish his taco.
“Why don’t we go out to the Bay? It’s a beautiful day.”
Hodari finds himself nodding and agreeing. Returning their plates to a busy Sabine, they exit the inn together and head up past the General Store toward the path that passes the shrine. She talks about her family then and her work. The way her face lights up when she talks about her sister Sofita, who nobody really calls Sofita, has him staring in a way he hopes she doesn’t notice. When she grumbles about Zeki being a bit of a cheapskate, it makes him laugh in a way he hasn’t in years. Part of him swears he can feel the cobwebs getting disturbed deep inside with each laugh.
With the warm summer sun beating down on them and the sound of the chapaas chittering in the field, Hodari feels content. Remarkably happy even. The pain that has been growing in his knees and back over the past year barely registers now. Instead, all of Hodari’s focus is bent on memorizing this day and remembering all the little details of Leta’s life that she offers up to him. Apparently they both came from big families. Leta’s lives together back in Bahari City, inventing and mining and drilling up and down the hills and dales. He wonders idly if any of her kin had worked in his family’s mines. If there was a connection between the two of them he hadn’t seen yet.
“-about you, Hodari?”
“Eh?”
Slightly stumbling at the intrusion to his thoughts, Hodari looks over at Leta where she beams up at him.
“I said: What about you? Don’t know much at all about your family,” Leta tries again, gently elbowing him.
He laughs and runs a hand over the back of his head.
“Well… ‘m not much of a talker. My sister Shani is the one who does most o’ the talkin’.”
You remind me of her… It is with a thin press of the lips that he bites down the thought rather than telling it to her. He has to admit that he doesn’t know Leta quite well enough for comparisons to others. There was the chance she might find it offensive. The thought of offending her… well, it was almost too much to bear.
They make it to the field that leads toward the mines. The large pond bisecting the field twinkles in the sunlight. It’s here that they rest while Leta slowly draws the story of his family out of him like pulling tangled string from a ball of yarn. It turns out she has a cousin of a cousin who had worked for one of his uncles back in the day. That she was familiar with the Pavel name at all fills him with a quiet happiness. At least Leta will know then that he’s a simple, workin’ man and that she can expect honesty from him. He would never want to mislead her.
“You should be able to see where I’m puttin’ in more waste rock rails for the mine over there.”
Hodari points at the section where the mountain meets the strange Human wall.
“Would look better with a cottage there.”
“...Pardon?” He looks over to where she sits at the edge of the pond.
“Well, I just think it would look real nice with a cottage. Where you been stayin’ anyway?”
An awkward question. Hodari looks away from her and folds his hands in his lap. How could he tell her that he was still staying at Ashura’s Inn? That was embarrassing. Wouldn’t it look bad that he hadn’t made himself a little place yet?
“I uh… I been livin’ over at the Inn. If the mine turns out, I’ll build somethin’ more permanent.”
“Huh.”
The silence that falls builds and builds. Reaching into his pocket, Hodari feels the wrapper he’d put around the pin he’d made for Leta. Maybe now was a good time to present it to her? Get her mind off his strange living situation? He thinks about it for a moment more before pulling the pin out of his pocket.
“Got somethin’ to give you,” he says as he starts to unwrap it.
“Oh, yeah?”
The pin is tiny in his hand. It is shaped into the visage of a hardhat much like the ones miners wear back home. Settled into the metal are the tiny shells of the golden beetles that make Bahari Bay their home. Altogether Hodari worries it looks gaudy, but he hadn’t been able to conjure up a design that fit them better. He turns it over in his hands for a moment while Leta waits patiently next to him. At least it wasn’t the shape of a bomb or some other type of incendiary. One of his brothers had tried to present a lover a pin like that, only to get rejected and mocked by the Majiri’s friend group. Surely Leta wasn’t so judgemental. He could only hope that anyway. He gulps, looks at her out of the corner of his eye and then releases his breath. If he didn’t do it now, Hodari realizes he will never be brave enough again.
“Welp… I don’t know if we’re quite far along enough for this, but a man has to follow what is in his heart. That’s what my grandfather always said anyway… to… uh… follow your heart. Point is, I’d like to present this to you, Leta. You don’t have to take it if you don’t want to.”
And he holds it out, gold shining brilliantly in the setting sun. The pin looks perfect in her hand and his mind imagines it on her lapel. Her eyes widen like saucers for a moment before crinkling with mirth. Her cheeks burn bright with a blush that Hodari struggles to interpret. Then the laughter comes. Hearty and unrelenting, Leta laughs and laughs. She wraps her arms around her midsection and partially barrels over with the force of her laughter. The sight of it sets his heart to shattering in so many pieces that Hodari wishes Maji would just strike him dead right now.
Eventually Leta’s laughter dies out and she wipes a tear from her eye. Then she reaches into her pant pocket and draws out a small box. This she opens and holds out to show him the contents. Inside is a pin much like the one he made. Instead of a hardhat, hers is made of tiny wire bent and twisted into the shape of a lantern. Gold dust flecks the parts where glass would go if it were a real one.
“I’m so sorry for laughin’, Hodari, but look! Here I was, all ready to give you my pin when you went and beat me to it! That doesn’t happen every day, now does it?”
“N-no, I s’pose not,” Hodari answers, rubbing the back of his neck.
He takes the pin from her and examines it more closely. It is perfect in every way to him. Quickly, Hodari puts the pin on his lapel and gives Leta a shy smile. Her smile is as bright as the sun compared to his.
“You look real good with it on,” Leta remarks as she puts her own on. “Guess this makes us real serious now, huh?”
“Only if you want to. O’ course.”
Another laugh and a gentle shove to the shoulder. Then she shuffles over and leans her head on the same shoulder. A look of wistful bliss overtakes her face. The sunset paints her face in beautiful orange and pink hues. His heart beats like a Maji Market drum and Hodari swears he’ll never forget this moment as long as he lives.
Then she whispers, “Good… I was fixin’ to build a life with you.”