Oliver Benjamin
was born.
In 1713 the Dutch presented an extraordinary present to Louis
XIV of France, a living coffee tree brought over from Java. In
accordance with their wishes, the Sun King assured the Dutch that he
would keep the lucrative tree in his private collection; the Dutch had
a virtual European monopoly on coffee production at the time and
didn’t wish to invite competition. Nevertheless, word got out, and a
Promethean figure named DeClieu managed to steal a sapling from
Louis’ garden. Quickly, he sailed with it to Martinique, all the while
protecting it against attacks by pirates, water shortages and sabotage,
until finally planting it in the promising soil of the new world.
The Dutch had lost their monopoly and it wasn’t long before the
French, with their closer and more extensive colonies became the
largest producer of the world’s coffee. Descendants of these plants
were subsequently used to grow coffee in Brazil and elsewhere, until
finally, they were brought to Kenya, a few hundred miles from its
original Ethiopian origin. At this point, Coffea arabicahad traveled
full-circle around the world. The geographic symmetry could not be
more elegant: Java and Martinique were near-perfect antipodes and
Ethiopia was equidistant between the two. With man’s help, coffee
had spread its long black arms around the world like a lover’s
embrace.
Tex laughed and pointed out the breezy window. Roy turned and
caught a fleeting glimpse of what appeared to be a man attempting
coitus with a cow.
“Why doesn’t he just…?” Roy said, jokingly, sliding his fist along
an invisible shaft.
“Can not,” Tex explained, “It is illegal.” Dense clove-scented
smoke curled out of his agape and laughing mouth like a dragon’s
tongue. His Marlboro box, Roy discovered, had been refilled with the
local cigarettes.
They were barreling down the road when Roy noticed a pretty
Javanese woman hitching alone. He instructed Tex to stop and
offered her a lift. Roy wanted to practice his Indonesian. Said to be
the easiest language in the world, it had indeed only taken him a few
weeks to grasp its basics.
As they chatted together in the car she confessed to him that she
had been suffering a long curse, having given birth to four stillborn
boys. She told him that she was going to a place they could fix such
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