Fresh, Bittersweet by Simba Sowmya
There is freshness in the air and she can smell it right away, as she squints through her lace curtains at the bright autumn morning. She’s seeing the sun after a long time, maybe she has been waking up too early, working too much. The smell of fresh roses and lilies filled her room and she loved the fresh, spicy fragrance. She stepped onto her fuzzy slippers and walked out.
As she entered her kitchen, she looked out at the neighbors packing their picnic baskets and smiled. I wish I had that kind of luck, she pushed her thoughts away from her biological clock which was ticking away and not a man in sight to give her the joy of family, love and children. She looked around for her bathrobe, it was sunny and chilly; she wrapped herself and walked into her backyard. She saw the trees almost bare and wondered if she should learn some gardening, she might just be ready for spring. Her mother had taken up gardening after she had retired and had a beautiful rose garden, which was her pride. “It’s pretty sad, mom is not really proud of me. Well, who can blame her?”
She heard a bang on her door and realized that the new paper guy was pretty enthusiastic about his job; she picked up the paper and walked into the dining room. She dropped the paper onto her dining table which was adorned by a beautiful fall basket of daisies. She looked at them and loved the beautiful yellow and orange shades of the flowers, it was almost like the flower basket had captured the essence of life, the early morning shades, yellow and bright; the evening shades of orange. Our life is just a series of mornings and evenings, she sighed. Things had been going on too fast for her, she needed to take a break, she needed to sit down and appreciate her blessings, just like what she was doing today. It just felt wonderful, inexplicably serene.
She opened her kitchen closet and opened her fresh pack of coffee, which she had picked up from the local farmer’s market. They had roasted the beans right in front of her and packed it for her, she could almost smell the bitter freshness of the beans. Wow! There was no closer heaven for sure, she surmised. She snipped at the top and just stood there feeling the aroma of mountain fresh coffee all around her. She transcended into a different world and time. She missed her dad most of all, with all his exuberance and knowledge about coffee. “Daddy, take me back home.” She grinded her coffee and brewed some fresh coffee. She counted each drop that fell into the coffee-pot and after 30 she lost count. It’s like your birthdays, after 30, you just stop counting.
She pulled out the newspaper and laid it out on the table. There was a big headline about the market crash, people losing millions and torrid stories of Mega, Inc employees who lost all their savings as the company had tumbled down to disgrace. She stared at it for a while and opened the lifestyle section of it. She saw a beautiful Tiffany charm and wondered how many of these she had eyed for how long. It had been a maze, her life, her money, her rise to power within her firm. She had almost lost herself, almost but not quite. She sipped her hot coffee with a hint of blueberry cobbler creamer and just twirled her tongue to capture that aroma and taste. She loved it, every sip.
As she finished her second cup of coffee, the phone rang. She looked at the time and smiled as she picked up; she heard her mother’s heavy breathing on the other side. She could almost see her mother waking up all alone, so far away and doing all her daily rituals before getting to the news-paper. She had expected to hear from her, first thing in the morning. Her mom jumped directly to the point, “Oh my God, Nita, I am so sorry! I called the minute I got to know. Oh my God, what are we going to do? How are you going to get by? I am here for you baby, I am here.”
“Ma, relax, relax, all’s fine. I haven’t told you something.”
“Oh Nita, it’s ok, I don’t care. What are you going to do about this Mega, Inc.? What about all your savings? I am so scared”
Nita smiled at her mom, she was always the one to get so melodramatic, the drama queen as her dad teased ever so often. “Mom, will you relax now… I no longer work for Mega, Inc. I had it with them.”
Her mom quietly listened as Nita told her about her bitter fight with the Board of Directors yesterday, which had led her to do the unimaginable. She had finally lost it! So many years of faithful service and she had thrown it all on their faces, and had walked away. “Oh, what about your employee stock options, Oh baby, how will you sell them now? They are worth nothing now”
“Mom, my rage and anger, the one you always detested in me… made me sell all my stock options before I walked through their doors. I don’t think anyone had anticipated the fall, neither did I. I just wanted to wash off everything to do with that firm and I sold everything I had!”
As her mom tried to understand, her eyes opened up. Nita smiled and said quietly, “Yeah, I am a millionaire now. Isn’t that awesome?” After her conversation with mom, she sat down, thinking about all the craziness which had led her to act so hastily, ooh how wonderful…her heart went out to all her friends. All the frantic calls last evening when everything came tumbling down, hearts breaking, her phone had not stopped for a second. She could feel their pain, the loss everything… but they still had their jobs which she didn’t.
She opened her mailbox and saw a new email from a close friend who had set up a meeting with a publisher downtown who was interested in Nita’s work. She grinned; she would make a fresh start, as fresh as her morning had been.
Simba is a recent MBA graduate from Duke. She finds herself dabbling with words and life. Business woman, engineer, author, volunteer, counselor, friend, lover, student - all these and more, packed into every single day.
More of her ramblings on www.simbarulez.com
