Quantum Leap - Vol. 1 The Leap That Starts It All

C009 Harvest

Trickles of honey-sweetened coffee ran down my throat and filled me with warmth. It was slightly bitterish as the coffee beans were roasted on its own and had some grits floating on it which Ani explained was the crushed corn kernels that had been roasted together.

"Oh My God...! It feels great to be alive again...!!" I thought to myself while smiling deeply within as I blew slightly on the coffee before I brought to my lips and slowly sipped on it.

I could love without eating for several hours but would not go without coffee or cigarettes. Now, about cigarettes, I don't think they had any but it seemed the primitive rolling tobacco with corn silk and dried husk does bring some comfort to those who love to puff their lungs away.

I wondered what century and year I was in and this coffee was one of the best I had ever tasted. This might be the earliest coffee grounds that the natives had prepared in the whole century, man...!

*Slurp slurp*

The warm slices of fried tapioca were crispy at the edges and chewy in the middle. It was a  sure-fire way as a great companion with black coffee any time of the day.

I poured myself another cup after I had drained the first one.

"Abang, don't drink too much black coffee it else you will keep going to urine. This is diuretic, you know."

"It makes you pee a lot and might disturb your sleep once again tonight. I know because I can hear you crawling out and running back as if you had seen a ghost...! "

The shadowy figure of the wolf had been brought up again when Ani mentioned that she noticed me creeping out of the house last night.

But I tried to dismiss it after the simple yet fulfilling breakfast, not to mention the second cup of coffee that i had just now.

I wave goodbye to Ani as I head towards the door and staircase when I was suddenly stopped by her.

"Abang, don't forget late Father's keris," she said while taking the keris out from where she had lodged it near the interior of the house's entrance and nonchalantly passed it to her.

I smiled and thanked her and slipped the 'keris' at the small of my back. Just before I stepped down the steps of the house, Ani grabbed my right hand and she placed it over her forehead.

I later learnt that it was a type of blessing done for the elders by the young when the former leave the house to perform their task it when they had returned home from outside.

It was like a form of custom that was native in some parts of the world and I remembered the children of the Philippines used to bless their parents the moment the former had reached home et cetera.

I headed towards the path that I came yesterday and walked out of the settlement. As the settlement was only made up of 12 households, it was kind of a tight community. The ladies exchanged pleasantries with me as they greeted me.

Somehow I felt that both Ani and I held some kind of position inside the settlement and the Chief, well, he had kept himself hidden from the eyes of the public.

I walked along the pond on my right-hand side until I reached the small trail that leads through the dense coconut plantation that I had emerged from the other day before.

After walking along the small trail I reached the small clearing amidst the pine trees and saw the white sandy beach and the deep blue sea yonder.

The waters looked inviting enough for me to dive in and frolic against the subtle waves.

About 50 feet or more out in the ocean, my eyes picked up three shallow paddleboats and 3 heads that were bobbing about in the water.

I whistled at them and the brothers waved back...

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The three brothers who were at sea about 50 feet or so away waved their arms as they cling to their paddle boats for buoyancy and to acknowledge that I was there when I whistled at them.

I kicked off my open toe leather sandals and took off my top and the sarong that I had slung over one side of my shoulders as well as the 12 inches keris at the makeshift A framed shelter.

Now I knew that this shabby little shelter was constructed none other than me and I hoped that I had more skills to construct a sturdier one like the meeting area that they were sitting on last night.

I went near the shoreline and found that it was rather pristine and had no other floatsom or driftwood around the edge where the waves were breaking at the shore.

It seemed that the area was free from pollution, which also indicated they there were only small sailing boats like catamaran sized ones.

There was no feeling of any ickiness like an oil slick when my feet touched the white sandy beach where the waves were silently breaking.

"Maybe it's high tide right now." I thought to myself as I went knee-deep inside the water. The three brothers looked at me from a distance and were talking animatedly. I could not make out what they were saying but one thing for sure, they were definitely talking about me.

I decided that I should wait for their return to shore and walked back to the makeshift A-frame shelter to study the area well.

The area was quite clean and a small fire was smouldering quite near the shelter where the previously made fire was there once. Most probably it was made to ward off the mosquitoes and other gnats from the forested area behind me.

I put on my open-toed leather sandals and I went around the pine areas a bit. There, I picked some dry wood about the size of my thumb and placed some near the shelter while the remaining ones were dumped into the smouldering fire.

As the twigs and needles of the pine trees were quite dry, it quickly caught fire and billowed whitish-grey smoke inland. The smoke would be enough to indicate that there were people along the beach and at the same time to chase those nasty mosquitoes away.

After the first dumping of dry materials onto the smouldering fire, I went out again and gathered some more wood and placed them at the side, occasionally throwing a few pieces into the fire preventing it from being extinguished.

I sat down under the makeshift A-frame shelter and looked around the vicinity and can't help wondering how the sales of the green mussels also known as 'treasures' by the fishermen were going to take place.

For miles around as far as I can see, I do not see any merchant's boat entering the region. Most probably they would come inland with an animal-drawn wagon or something, I presume.

As it was difficult to tell the time, I took a piece of wood and stuck it in the sand in an upright manner.

If I had guessed right, the time when I reached the shore hadn't gone past midday yet and there would be a fixed shadow in the middle of the wood to indicate that the sun was directly overhead which means its midday by then.

At this moment, the shadow from the stick was pointing towards the sea and that indicates it's still in the first part of the morning.

It was quite a primitive way to indicate time but at least I could estimate the time of day. It was one way to while the time away instead of doing nothing and watch the three men diving and then coming up for ait before they hailed in their harvest.

After an hour or so, I notice one of the brother, Eun paddling back to the shore heading towards my direction and was calling out to me to approach him.

I stood up and walked towards the shoreline as he landed his craft deftly near me. He climbed off his paddleboat and dumped a small wicker basket on the shore. I noticed that there were another 5 more such larger wicker baskets in his craft.

"Aaahhhh..... This one's for us. Let's roast them at the fire now. I can't wait to savour our share."

Eun pointed to the wicker basket that he had brought ashore. Inside the basket were the largest shelled mussels I had ever seen!

There were no barnacles much on the shells and there was an absence of seaweed they normally cling on those mussels when they were left for some time in the sea.

These were really handpicked by them and no wonder they were referring these as treasures...!

There were about the length of the palm and some were greenish in colour while some had mixed dark brown colours to it. The shell looked clean and seemed to be glistening in the sun.

Eun gingerly picked the wicker basket up after he had pulled the paddle boat higher to shore to prevent it from slipping back into the sea and the whole harvest would be gone if left unattended...!

He walked alongside with me and headed to the smouldering fire. Eun then squatted right next to it while using a stick to spread the embers apart. The warmth emitting from the smouldering fires was rather welcoming to Eun as he was simply dropping wet and topless.

Eun then took some more sticks of firewood and lay them diagonally on the embers before placing a few shells on it. The sticks of firewood acted like a natural grill and this would help to keep the ashes from entering the shells when they were slowly roasting on the fires.

A little while later, the other two brothers, Cheng and Ding also arrived on the shore after guiding their craft and landed at the shore. They had about 5 large wicker baskets each in their paddle boats as they pulled them up to shore before walking leisurely towards us.

"Bo...! Have you had your lunch already? Haha... Today the harvest is very good. We could harvest these for the coming few months if the weather is good and the seas are not too stormy " Ding spoke up when he reached the shore with Cheng.

"Nope, just coffee and some fried tapioca. It's just breakfast and could I get some of those to bring back to let Ani prepare it for dinner later on?"

"She had asked me to bring back some for her and I told her that I would ask them from you guys first."

I replied as I explained the request by Ani. The guys nodded their heads approvingly since I was their supervisor of some sort. At least a few pieces of these would not hurt to bring back, don't you think so?

"Same here. Its almost lunchtime though. We rest a bit after this and wait for the merchants to come and collect the shells from us later. You can choose some to bring back home, Bo. No worries at all."

Cheng suggested to me while I made a sound in my throat as a sign of acknowledgement as Cheng squatted next to Eun and began poking through the embers with a stick and prepares the raw mussels and placed them on the sticks for grilling.

The sizzling of the mussels showed that the morsels inside were halfway done and when the shells opened up slightly and exposing its juicy and sumptuous fleshy meat inside, Ding used his keris and hastily picked up a few pieces and placed it on some firewood that he had arranged earlier.

There's no such need for the formalities of a plate it whatever since we make do with whatever resources we could get around there. Once we had finished eating, the shells would be buried underneath the sand or thrown back into the sea.

The aroma of the freshly baked mussels was almost identical to the clams or other shellfish that was baked over volcanic rock in my time.

The only thing missing was the condiments such as chilli sauce and fresh lime juice, and baking and eating these while being near the sea would truly heighten one's appetite.

If there's beer around, I am sure it would be a more joyous occasion.

I picked one up from the platform of firewood and opened the shell wide before scraping it off using the keris that I had brought along. The springy flesh inside with its dripping juices was picked carefully before I popped the meat inside my mouth.

"Oooo...this is super delicious. It would be great with some chilli, ginger and garlic...!" I thought inwardly at the simple joys of a fisherman's life.

I can't help blowing the piece of morsel using my breath while the exquisite taste exploded within my mouth, salivating it and somehow managed cool it down further.

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Dear friends, if you spot any errors, please leave your comments in the paragraphs or the chapter section. Thank you for the POWERSTONES and God Bless.