《PRECARIOUS》 CHAPTER ONE The double doors swung open and in came five guys, obnoxiously singing a birthday song. Anyone could easily tell who it was for, the one in the middle, with a flushed face and a weary but amused smile. He was trying to act like he was humoring them, but Bet could tell he was pleased. Two of them had come in earlier and ordered a cake. She hadn¡¯t taken the order but she recognized them. ¡®We¡¯re not too sorry you were born! This is what monks get!¡¯ read the top of the cake. She didn¡¯t really understand it. It was clearly an inside joke. She scooped up the cake and handed it over to the waiter. A little while later, they called for the waiter but he had already left because his shift was over, so she went to see what they wanted. They asked for something to drink. She replied that this was a bakery and that they didn¡¯t have drinks but offered to get them some soda from across the street. They said they wanted something stronger. She went across the street and got them four cans of beer and a can of sparkling water because the birthday boy doesn¡¯t drink apparently. She asked if they wanted anything from the menu and the birthday boy said he wanted a slice of hibist to go. He smiled at Bet as he said it. She was still thinking of that smile as she packed his order. They stayed only a few ten minutes. Considering how long other customers stay usually, that is a long time. But they were animated and laughed loudly, which brightened the place. Bet was sad to see them leave. She was the only one left in the shop aside from her dad back in the kitchen. She cleaned the tables as the vacuum cleaner cleaned the floors and closed the front door before she went to the back where her dad was closing up. It wasn¡¯t a particularly small kitchen but there was so much equipment in it that it barely felt like it was any bigger than the front of the shop. ¡°Noisy bunch those collage kids.¡± remarked her father. ¡°Yeah but they were fun to watch.¡± She answered, ¡°And they are your most loyal customers.¡± she added. ¡°They¡¯re still too loud.¡± He stated with disdain as they climbed the stairs up to their apartment. ¡°Who¡¯s loud?¡± asked Bet¡¯s mom as they reached the top of the stairs and stepped into the living room. She was sitting curled up on the couch wrapped in a blanket. There were two other blankets folded next to her waiting for her husband and daughter. ¡°The kids from university.¡± Bet answered, ¡°Is the movie up yet?¡± she asked taking the peach blanket and sitting cross-legged on the rug in front of the couch. ¡°I don¡¯t know I haven¡¯t opened it yet. I was reading while I waited for you.¡± Her mother answered putting down her tablet on the side table. Bet opened the television and sat back with the remote in hand. Her dad was asleep halfway through the movie and her mom soon after. She watched the rest alone and that didn¡¯t help in keeping birthday boy out of her mind. The next morning she was logging in the previous day¡¯s balance at her usual spot at the left end of the counter when he came in. He sat at the bar suspiciously close to her. She waited for him to look in her direction before she said hello. ¡°Hi, good morning.¡± he replied sheepishly. ¡°Morning.¡± She said, ¡°Can I help you?¡± as if she hadn¡¯t been thinking of him the whole of last evening. ¡°Do you have some chocolate bread?¡± Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°We might, I¡¯ll go check.¡± Bet said and hopped off of her stool to the kitchen. She came back with tray full of them to put in the front shelves. She slid a plate towards him right before she remembered that she didn¡¯t ask him how he wanted it. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, did you want that to go?¡± she asked. ¡°It¡¯s fine, I can eat here.¡± He answered good naturedly and looked down at the bun. She remembered with a silent gasp that she didn¡¯t give him a fork or napkin. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I don¡¯t usually serve so I forget these things.¡± she apologized as she put them on his plate rather haphazardly. He chuckled and said it was fine. She asked if he wanted something to drink and he asked if she was going to run across the street again. She told him they have hot beverages here in the mornings and he ordered a latte. He came in the next day as well, and then the next. The fourth time he came in she asked him if he wanted the usual. He said ¡°No, something different. You pick.¡± She warned him he may not like her choice but he persisted. He tentatively asked what her name was and she told him and realized just then that she doesn¡¯t yet know his name. ¡°Yours wasn¡¯t written on your birthday cake.¡± She told him as she slid a plate of green pancakes in his direction. ¡°It¡¯s Alex.¡± He said. She repeated the word in her head. ¡°Do you go to university here?¡± he asked. ¡°No, I am not doing university.¡± She replied. ¡°Why not?¡± ¡°Waste of my time.¡± She answered, ¡°I don¡¯t need it.¡± ¡°Do you think I¡¯m wasting my time?¡± he asked. ¡°Not if you don¡¯t.¡± she said, ¡°It is just that I know what I want to do and they won¡¯t teach me anything that I need to learn to do it.¡± ¡°What do you want to do?¡± ¡°This!¡± she said gesturing around her, ¡°It belongs to my family and I want to take it over some day.¡± ¡°You like baking?¡± ¡°What?! NO! I couldn¡¯t bake anything halfway decent to save my life.¡± She said, ¡°It¡¯s the managing I like.¡± He chuckled. ¡°What are you learning?¡± she asked. ¡°Engineering!¡± he answered, ¡°Also the family business.¡± He added. ¡°Really? What does your family do?¡± she asked, excited that she found they had something in common. ¡°Construction- buildings I mean.¡± ¡°Do you like it?¡± ¡°Yeah I guess.¡± He said, and then added, ¡°To be honest I don¡¯t really know what I like. This was just there and I took it. It is going okay so far.¡± ¡°What if you someday find what you like and it is nothing like what you are doing?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s hope I¡¯ll be too busy to notice.¡± He replied, taking a bite of the pancake, ¡°What if you realize it was a mistake to skip university?¡± ¡°That won¡¯t happen.¡± She said definitively, ¡°I have been at this for almost two years now and even when it is hard, there is nothing else I¡¯d rather do.¡± ¡°Wow! Look at you adulting already! I feel left behind.¡± ¡°Says the guy living away from his parents.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t know that.¡± he retorted. ¡°Oh yeah? Why else do you come in here for breakfast every morning? If your house was in town you would go there.¡± ¡°I might have other reasons.¡± he said pointedly, poking the second pancake and brandishing it in the air before taking a bite, ¡°This really good by the way.¡± he added with a mouthful, ¡°Why is it green?¡± ¡°Avocado.¡± She answered. He was visibly flabbergasted. ¡°You mean to tell me there is avocado in this?¡± ¡°Yeah! We have a farm.¡± she said, pleased that he was impressed. ¡°You have a FARM of AVOCADOS?¡± he asked his face gone slack with shock. ¡°Not me exactly but my family does.¡± She answered, ¡°My mother is a plant geneticist and she was able to find the original variant from around a hundred years ago and engineered a copy. Its patented and everything.¡± ¡°Why doesn¡¯t she license it then? She can make a lot of money and we can all have avocados!¡± ¡°She has. But the other farms that took the specimen tried to make it more productive and faster. Mom¡¯s variant takes three to four years to develop and their investors said it was too long. They wanted it to be faster. It also doesn¡¯t produce as large of a quantity as they would need to be profitable I guess so they mostly abandoned it. ¡°There is also the issue of soil.¡± She added, ¡°Most of the soil in the country is conditioned to produce with a certain kind of fertilizer only and it destroys the avocado trees.¡± ¡°My great grandfather used to tell me they used to buy them from the market when he was little.¡± said Alex, ¡°he said around June and July there would be so much produce that it was in heaps all over the booths. He always found it strange that we think it¡®s special. He blamed the government for the loss.¡± ¡°It¡¯s funny how well intended decisions can lead to such disastrous results.¡± She said. ¡°Good thing your mom is here to save us.¡± He said. ¡°We can only be saved if we learn to ask from nature what it can give us.¡± CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER TWO Bet and Dave were never really actual neighbours in the strictest sense of the word. But His parents do own the farm next to theirs in Bonga. The whole family always went there in the summer and it was always Bet¡¯s favorite time of the year. Her brothers would finally get along and keep the screaming matches to just two times a day, maybe even less. They would invite her to play sometimes too, which meant that she would be the goalie or some other sort of non-active part holder. But it was an immense improvement to the city where they wouldn¡¯t even let her out of the house because it apparently wasn¡¯t safe. This was until her brothers were old enough to go to university and boarding school. Then she was left to her own devices. Her parents were rarely home because unlike her they were here to work. Bet was never good at being alone, what with growing up with a house full of loud bickering and all the attention as the youngest sibling. She was walking on the grass in the garden one boring day, when she got to the end of the lawn. Her brothers would scream at her for going too far if they saw her there, but they were not there and she was no longer little. She was now seven years old and she can do whatever she wants. So she stomped on with indignation and stopped only when she caught a glimpse of the neighbor kid. He sometimes played with them when her brothers were here and spoke with her as little as he could. He never liked her if she was not of specific use to him in the game. He always made her feel like a nuisance. It looked like he was her only option for a companion now. He noticed her and started coming in her direction. He came up to the fence and said ¡°Bet! I didn¡¯t know you were in town.¡± He said it with an enthusiasm that made her think that he would finally consider her his friend and she replied, ¡°We got here last week.¡± with a smile. ¡°So where are your brothers?¡± he asked next and her little heart fell with disappointment. Of course he wanted to play with her brothers, who by the way were too old even for him now. But that reinforced their appeal because he looked up to them as a result. ¡°They didn¡¯t come this year.¡± She answered a bit more timidly this time, to which his face fell. ¡°Why not?!¡± he asked, horrified at the prospect of spending a whole summer with no one but her for company- she assumed. ¡°Mark is in university so he has to volunteer over the summer and Matt transferred to a boarding school in the city where Mark lives, so they decided to volunteer together over the summer.¡± she eloquently explained, like a memorized script. ¡°So they aren¡¯t coming at all?¡± Dave exclaimed. ¡°Not anymore.¡± Bet replied, downcast with her lower lip jutting out from the helplessness of the situation that she has not yet come to terms with. Dave didn¡¯t spare her a glance back when he left. He didn¡¯t even say goodbye, just turned around in what Bet assumed was frustration and walked right off, leaving Bet standing alone in what might as well have been the middle of nowhere. He would come back the next day and they would eventually play together, but only the games that he wanted them to play. He always said her ideas for a game were childish and that he was now a grownup and can¡¯t play those games anymore. Even though he was only two and a half years older than her, it was enough for her to believe he was right, so she agreed to whatever he said and followed him around whenever he decided she was welcome. When the other boys in the neighborhood came to play, she was forgotten and since no one wanted a girl in their team, no one invited her to play. Some days she would just sit and watch little drones, faraway airplanes and the occasional hovers pass by, and some days she watched the game. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. One such day, she was sitting in the edge of the field watching the boys play in teams of two each when they decided that they want a referee. She was the obvious choice apparently so they finally let her play- or so she thought. Inevitably crisis happened when somebody kicked the ball outside the field and no one would agree on who did it. They asked her to decide. She was very eager to prove herself so she delivered the truth that she saw. Dave and the other kid-whose name she couldn¡¯t pronounce so she pointed at him- were shoving each other to get the ball and both of them kicked it out of the field in the process. No one was impressed. Dave got so angry that he kicked her. No one said anything in her defense or did anything to protect her. He kicked her. And just walked way. Bet burst into tears before she ran back to the house to tell someone of this injustice. Her parents were not home so she told anyone she could find. She told the gardener, the cook the errand boy who had come to deliver packages, all to no avail. All they did was try to console her and tell her to not play with boys too old for her. This did not help in easing her anger. When her parents heard from her, with elaborate detail, the events of the day, they were livid. The next day, they went to his house- the neighbors¡¯- and informed his parents. The parents were not surprised by his conduct and said to Bet that they will punish him for it. She was happy with that and they left. Over the next weeks, Dave would find himself compelled to apologize and persuade her to play with him again when the other boys weren¡¯t there to play with him anymore. She had already been looking over to the field they played at longingly through her bedroom window and wishing that she could join them again so that didn¡¯t take much persuading. She would also come to realize that a ten year old doesn¡¯t really mean it when they say I¡¯m sorry because he would bully her again. After she leaves crying and angry he would apologize again and beg her to not tell his parents. This gave her a sense of power over him, albeit for a tiny moment, and she forgave him every time. And when she decides she would never speak to him again, he would turn into the sweetest boy and make her think he would be like that if she talked to him again, which of course was never the case. She realized one day, when she was particularly angry with him for taking her toy and breaking it to see what¡¯s inside and then failing to put it back together, that none of this would have happened if her brothers were here. She stared down at the broken mess that was left of her toy hover and cried with renewed anguish over how much she missed and needed her brothers. She was sitting alone in the corner of the garden nestled in the bushes crying her heart out when the gardener heard her sobs and came to investigate. Mary, the gardener, sat next to bet on the ground and asked her what was wrong. After hearing the sobbing and tear-filled response that she could barely make out, she held Bet until her crying subsided and asked her what she wanted. Bet asked if she could call her brothers. When she heard Mark¡¯s voice, she broke into another fit of crying, which was closely followed by the same gibberish of an explanation through her heaving sobs that she had just reported to Mary. They came to the farm the very next day, not to stay but to see that she was fine. She was so happy to see them that she forgot everything about Dave. She would later learn that they had found him and scared him enough that he would never come near her again. But by that point the summer was almost over so it didn¡¯t matter.