She takes a long draw on her kretek. She knows it's bad for her health, but she is living dangerously this year, and she loves how it feels going down. Five years ago her husband Edgar, who often traveled to the far east on business, chose to end their marriage and take on a new life abroad. Did I say life? I meant wife. Well, both actually. Their friends hear from him sporadically: he has never been happier! Edgar's new wife is a delicate frangipani of a girl, a true Shakti to his Shiva [note to the spelling police: please substitute Shakti and Shiva if you prefer---it's really tricky to transliterate the retroflected S]. In all modesty, if pushed Edgar will own to keeping a sizeable fraction of his new wife's village in his employ as an ongoing act of benevolence. Thus, his retainers include a cook, an amah for his beautiful babies, two maids, a groundskeeper, and a chauffeur. Not to complain, for he would never, but why wasn't Harriet ever this serene when she was raising his other children? She always seemed so...harried, rushing around hither and yon. Sure, he misses the children, but a man can only deny his Martian nature for so long.
Harriet initially came close to immolating herself on the pyre of her dead marriage, but she liked to think that she had moved on with her life. Being Irish, and not Indian, she had finally decided to wake the dead instead. Both of the children were in college now, and Harriet felt liberated as never before to explore her options. She'd had her fill of Mars-men, so she set about in search of a man from Venus. Lamentably, she found that they existed only in the immortal lines of the poet-bard of Limerick, to wit:
"There once was a fellow from Venus,
Who had an immensely long...
...and so on, best not repeated here. Harriet's experience led her to conclude that such a one was only a figment of a fevered poetic imagination.
Harriet took a couple of workshops through the local adult ed. program, and one was called "Willendorf 101: Finding your inner Goddess." You may surmise from this how vulnerable Harriet was at this point, how easily gulled. She went away from the class with the conviction that she was an embodiment of the goddess, and that what she needed was a suitable god-consort. No cineaste she, Harriet had nonetheless once taken in a movie in which Eddie Murphy, playing an African prince, went to New York City to seek a bride in the borough of Queens. What better place for her own search than the Island of the Gods?
__________________
If only Edgar could see me now, she thinks, suppressing a bitter titter. Ketut is making his way across the room from the bar, and she likes what he is bringing to the table, namely a couple of cold Bintangs. He, in turn, likes what she has brought to the table, namely a handbag stuffed with travelers cheques.
.....to be continued, or not......
Harriet initially came close to immolating herself on the pyre of her dead marriage, but she liked to think that she had moved on with her life. Being Irish, and not Indian, she had finally decided to wake the dead instead. Both of the children were in college now, and Harriet felt liberated as never before to explore her options. She'd had her fill of Mars-men, so she set about in search of a man from Venus. Lamentably, she found that they existed only in the immortal lines of the poet-bard of Limerick, to wit:
"There once was a fellow from Venus,
Who had an immensely long...
...and so on, best not repeated here. Harriet's experience led her to conclude that such a one was only a figment of a fevered poetic imagination.
Harriet took a couple of workshops through the local adult ed. program, and one was called "Willendorf 101: Finding your inner Goddess." You may surmise from this how vulnerable Harriet was at this point, how easily gulled. She went away from the class with the conviction that she was an embodiment of the goddess, and that what she needed was a suitable god-consort. No cineaste she, Harriet had nonetheless once taken in a movie in which Eddie Murphy, playing an African prince, went to New York City to seek a bride in the borough of Queens. What better place for her own search than the Island of the Gods?
__________________
If only Edgar could see me now, she thinks, suppressing a bitter titter. Ketut is making his way across the room from the bar, and she likes what he is bringing to the table, namely a couple of cold Bintangs. He, in turn, likes what she has brought to the table, namely a handbag stuffed with travelers cheques.
.....to be continued, or not......
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