Oliver Benjamin
unperturbed.
She wanted to apologize for trespassing, for battering the black
one with her unwieldy body, and most of all—she didn’t know why—
for seeing them naked. Her mouth was dry and empty. The only
murmur she could manage was the first hiss of a kettle before it
screams.
The black man stood up, laughing, fixed his towel and offered his
hand. “I’m Roy Makonnen. Welcome to Undergrounds. You’re our
first customer.” Leona shook his hand weakly. “I bet you’re
wondering why we’re naked.”
“No,” she managed to say, “I think nudity is natural, and also,
that, that what people do in the privacy of their own homes….Um,
well, I shouldn’t be here.”
“Actually, we were going to perform kungkum,” Roy said.
She flushed, “Like I said, I think that what people do in the
privacy…”
Roy laughed again. “No. No, nothing like that. kungkum is a
Javanese religious tradition. You meditate while up to your neck in
warm water. It’s like making tea, only you’re the teabag.” He pointed
to a large tiled fountain on one side of the garden. “It feels great,” he
said.
She looked over at the basin for a moment. “Like going back to
the womb?” she presumed.
“Yes. You do come out feeling kind of reborn. The Javanese do it
on important occasions. Today we’re opening our coffeehouse, which
for us is pretty important.”
“You’re from Java…?” she asked. She was trying to picture what
people in Java might look like. This only served to complicate their
ethnicities further.
“We met in Java,” he clarified. “This is Yak, my partner.”
“Oh,” she nodded, shaking the tall man’s hand. He had also
donned a towel, smiling but saying nothing. “You two make a lovely
couple,” she chirped, “Really, I’ve seen you walking on the street and
I thought you looked very nice together…”
“No, no. Yak is my business partner,” he laughed.
Leona then felt as if she would faint. In fact, she did faint a little.
The sun had been beating down upon her, and she had embarrassed
herself too much in too short a period. Roy caught her and helped her
onto a chair, then ran off to fetch some iced coffee. Yak stroked her
face with cool water and hummed a ditty, bringing her back. When
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