#aboxofreasons

[gypsyjamtani]

6

The next morning was a Saturday morning. Not knowing what to do that day, I laid in bed till noon. I thought about these past two days; my encounter with the hobo, who by the way, I did not know his name yet. The conversations we had, the box of candies he had.

Yes, the candies, I remembered the taste of the cantaloupe, the taste of the fresh strawberries, it made me smile. The smile, started on face radiated to my whole body and soul. I felt excited. I remembered the colors of those candies in the box, and wondered what other tasted like.

I shall try the brown one today, I heard myself thinking. It must be of a chocolate taste. My smile grew wider as I thought of the chocolate taste, and my excitement grew as curiosity filled me. I wonder if my guess was true.

He was already sitting on the bench when I reached there. I could hear a soft snore; he must have dozed off waiting for me, I thought. Not wanting to wake him up, I sat as quietly as possible next to him. 

I hadn't waited for more than 5 minutes when he opened his eyes. He did some stretching; twisted his body in a very odd way, yawning as he did so. As soon as he realized he wasn't alone, he looked at me and laughed his crispy laugh that has now been recorded to my brain.

"Did you wait long, bella?" He asked, addressing me as ‘bella’, which means beautiful girl in Italian.

I shook my head in response.

"It's such a beautiful day out here today, so comforting. The sun is pleasant and I can't help but let myself swim into the world of dreams." He said.

I commented nothing.

"What did you do today?" He asked me, looking into my eyes with curiosity. 

"Any adventures?" He asked again before I could even answer the first one. 

"Nah, just lay in bed. Didn't know what to do."

"What a waste..." he shook his head. "So many adventures to conquer, so many people to meet, so many stories to tell; and you just lay in bed?" His tone wasn't judgmental; it was more like sad and trying to understand why I chose to stay in bed that day.

"I didn't know what to do that I haven't done before. The routine is starting to get boring." I paused. "I'm not used to routines, my life has always been jumping from one place to another. One adventure to another, I have never stopped for this long before." I said.

"So sticking to a routine is something new to you?"

"I guess so... Yeah..."

"It's an experience then, isn't it?"

"Hmmm...." I didn't know what to say, how is sticking to a routine an experience?

"Every new thing you do that you have never done before would be considered an experience, agree?" He asked, trying to explain.

I thought for a while then I nodded. Let's see where is he going with this, I thought.

"And every new experience is an adventure of life." He concluded. "So there, an adventure right there all along, you just didn't bother to notice it."

I looked at him as if he was a mad man, but my brain was processing what he said and funny that it made sense. I smiled at him. The smile grew wider when he smiled back, and without knowing we both busted into fits of laughter.

When the laughter ceased, he took out his box of candies. At the sight of the wooden box, I could feel my heart thumping in my ears. 'Brown one! The brown one!!!' I hear my brain whispered, reminding me of what I had thought about earlier.

My hands started to trembled. The excitement kicked in; this time it was curiosity that filled my veins. I wanted to know, to make sure if my guess was right: brown equals to chocolate.

He laughed as he saw how excited I was. I felt a little bit embarrassed.

"I wanted to know if I could guess the taste from the color." I explained in hope he would understand.

He didn't stop laughing but he nodded and opened the wooden case.

I looked at the colors; so many of them and looked for the brown one. There were two of them, light brown and a darker one. I chose the lighter one.

As the candy touched my tongue I expected a sweet bitter taste of milk chocolate, but instead it was mocha, Coffee with chocolate. My eyes widened and I turned and looked at the hobo with surprise.

He chuckled, "Not as u expected huh?" 

I shook my head. 

"You know, they say don't judge a book by its cover, don't judge the taste by its color." he said and I raised my eyebrow.

"Every time you make a judgment about something, you create a picture and unreliable fact in your brain, and that image stays. So when it turned out to be not as you expected, you can’t enjoy it as you should. Instead you are filled with disappointment." He paused. "Well sometimes with good surprises. But still, it would be hard for you to accept it as it is because you already have an image of it which is hard to change or erase."

"What most people forget is that the world keeps on turning and nothing stays the same. So don't train your brain to create a picture of something or to judge or to think two steps ahead. Nothing is ever as what you think it is.

"Just relax, enjoy the flow and all you will experience is the excitement you seek."

I frowned. 

"Bella, the world is a wonderland only if you want it to be that way. Stop trying to analyze everything. Stop trying so hard to figure things out. Sometimes you are not meant to know what you don't know." he continued.

His words were wise, I knew, but I just had to challenge what he said.

"If you do not at least try to know what's waiting for you, how are you going to be prepared?" I asked.

"It's like going for an exam; you don't know what questions are going to be given, so you study everything. You prepare for the worse and you are ready for anything. Just like that, you should always be prepared for anything that comes. Surprises are always around the corner."

"I was kicked out of school in my freshmen year, I can’t recall having an examination, let alone remember how I felt or what I did f or it." I said coldly.

"Do you surf?" He asked. 

"Yea..."

"Well, it’s just like surfing, or playing in the sea, you never know when the tides are gonna hit you. You never know if the next wave is the one you wanna catch to surf or not. And so you are always prepared. You don't let your guard down, you never know when the huge tide is gonna hit you. That my dear is an analogy of life."

I didn't say anything to that. We sat silently to his words; I let it the taste of mocha seeps through my taste buds while his words were trying to make sense in my brain. He didn't say nothing neither, he just stared ahead; as if giving me my time to process.

After a while we started talking again. Although, none of any philosophical importance. I asked him his name; at last, it was David. When I asked him where he was from, he said he traveled so much, even when he was still a baby (Traveling hippie parents), that he didn't remember his origin. He was proud to be a man of all origins. Not to my surprise he could talk in almost all of the languages I could think of. 

He asked me where I came from and about my family. He smiled widened when I started talking about Ramon. He said I was more alive than he ever saw me when I was bragging about my brother. He knew from the way I spoke about Ramon that he was the important person in my life.

#aboxofreasons #short story #short novel #gypsyjamtani