Chapter 8. Chili Flavored Candy

8

I woke up quite early the next morning, it always happen to me after a heavy night of drinking, I would wake up early and can’t go back to sleep. I wore my bikini and went to the beach to have a dip. It was my cure for hang over’s, swimming in the beach or the pool. After half an hour of battling the waves, I lay down on the soft sand and fell asleep. When I woke up, the sun was high and I was burning like a cooked lobster. I checked my watch, it was twelve noon; still time before I gotta meet David.

I went for a quick lunch; tuna sandwich and a bottle of coca cola, and then walked my way slowly to the park.

When I reached, he was already there, smoking a joint with a big smile on his face. I sat next to him and he offered me to take a drag from his joint. It was good weed… it had been quite a while since I had a joint and the high made me feel relaxed and calmed.

“Nice eh?” He asked, I nodded lazily.

“How was your swim?” he asked nodding at my wet hair and the towel in my bag.

“It was good, the waves were good today…”

“You didn’t surf today?”

“Nah…” I answered lazily. He looked at me waiting for a reason and I realized that, “I felt like swimming...” I said simply.

He laughed and shook his head. “I should have known… most of the times everything has the simplest reasons behind it…” he said and took a good look at me and continued, “Never you forget that, Emma…”

I just listened… this was one of his wisdom talk that I like hearing, it felt like he was reminding me of the things that I have forgotten.

He took out the box of candy and once again the excitement of trying a new taste filled in me again. There was this red colored candy, it was bright red, reminded me of a nail polish color I once had. As the candy reached my tongue, I felt burning in my tongue. I spat out the candy and looked at him with a questioning face. I was thinking ‘What the F???’

“Its red chili…” he said explaining.

“Candies are suppose to be sweet, not chili.” I said rather annoyed.

He laughed and laughed. “Didn’t we just discuss about not judging a candy by its color, yesterday?” he asked in between laughter.

I raised my eyebrows at him, still annoyed I replied, “Well, I wasn’t expecting any flavor, but I certainly wouldn’t think of chili. And it’s common sense, candies are sweet, they are suppose to be sweet and chili is hot, and it’s a spice, it can’t be a flavor for a candy. There isn’t one candy factory in this whole world that would consider having a chili flavored candy!”

“Well isn’t that a well based assumption? But it is still an assumption my dear. Candies can taste like whatever the makers want them to taste, just like how the universe can let us be how it wants us to be…” he, as always, explained the meaning behind the taste of the candy I chose. It was as if he was making me choose those candies on purpose and had his speech ready for every time I took one candy.

“And assumptions bella, it can help you prepare for the worse but can be very dangerous if you stick to it without finding out the truth. Just because you were given facts and thought of things in a certain way since you were born, doesn’t mean things can’t go differently.

“For instance, you have always believed that candies would taste sweet and chili would not be a choice of flavor because all this time all the candies you had ever had were sweet and candies were treats to kids who behave well… so you assume that every candy in this world would taste sweet. But the world is huge, the universe is infinite… things are uncertain.

“Copernicus went to quest for an alternate truth behind the earth’s existence and discover that the earth was round instead of a flat plateau, then Galileo Galilei went an extra mile and discover truth behind the universe and revealed that the earth isn’t the center of the universe, the sun is, even though he was raised with a believe that the earth was flat and was the center of the universe. Galileo discover different aspects of the planets we have in our solar system and that there were more to the universe than just our solar system. And although nobody supported him and he was being treated like a criminal, he wasn’t afraid of knowing more and expands his knowledge rather than just being satisfied of what was taught. He didn’t let assumptions came in the way…” David took a long breath after finishing his story about Galileo.

“Bella, the secrets the universe holds is more magnifying than you can imagine, so never stop searching, never stop learning and never think you have reached the top…” he added with a smile. “The moment you think you have reached the top, the only way to go is down…”

“Here, take another candy… I don’t want you going back home being mad at me for not letting you have a good taste in your mouth.” He shoved the box of candies to me. I laughed and picked a dark purple colored one. It tasted of grapes.

David asked me if I kept in touch with my mother and brother and I said I did… I called them every Christmas and new years and easters and other holidays that I remembered. He then asked how long have I been away and not met them face to face, and he was surprised when I told him that ever since I left home at the age of 17, I haven’t met them once. Well I met Ramon once during my travels, we were in Barcelona at the same time, he was there for a conference and mailed me to meet him. But I only got to meet him just few hours before he left, so that didn’t really count.

David asked if I ever thought of going home to meet them, I just shrugged. I didn’t know if they still needed me, was what I thought, but I didn’t say it out loud. Then David just commented simply that they must have missed me terribly. I did not say anything to that. He left the conversation there and kept quiet. I didn’t know what else to say so I stayed quiet too. He took out another joint and light it, took a puff and passed it to me. I smiled, shook my head a little and took a long drag.