for want of spice [sophia]

[willem van der holt]

It had been six long weeks of absolute nothing. Six weeks of minimal sleep with all of his energy being saved up to be mustered for an intense day of classes and the rest being spent studying listlessly. But now it was all over—his exams had been finished and now he was granted free time to do as he pleased. The newfound freedom had been spent quite leisurely around the flat in which he was staying. His plants, herb plants, had developed quite nicely and were practically imploring for their little leaves to be plucked to spice some dishes. And Chai had just thing. Unfortunately, his small garden lacked Hyssop, a sweet, aromatic herb that was very traditional in many of his Dutch dishes. Chai was strolling lazily down the aisles of the grocery store, almost dozing at the ungodly hour of seven-thirty AM on a Saturday afternoon. Willem, the endearing Dutch boy, was out to purchase his dried Hyssop so he could spend the day lounging around baking a batch of Stamppot, a traditional Dutch dish, and watching numerous episodes of The Bachelor on Hulu.

It was only with good fortune that he was remaining in the aisles and not bumping into shelves and, luckily, there were few other persons adjacent for the tall, slender boy to possibly endanger. He had his headphones in, just barely audible so he could listen to some background radio as he searched. Some silly, neo-conservative music that made Chai crack a smile every so often at the sheer absurdity of what was being sung. As much as he loved to cook, Chai strongly disliked going to the grocery store. Grocery stores were difficult, trapping places for a foreigner, especially foreigner in America. He was floored the first time he walked in to a supermarket in America and found an entire isle dedicated to cereal. He had never seen so much cereal in his life. And so many products. There were days when he just wanted coffee, but Americans made it so much more than just coffee: there was decaf, regular, French vanilla, Irish creame, dark roast, medium roast, blonde roast, Colombian, Brazilian, and more. He had come to realize that shopping in America was a very serious business. Going down the spices isle, he pulled out his earbuds and shoved them in to the pocket of his jeans, idly letting his peacock blue gaze read over the various bottles of spice.

It had taken him a few minutes to find out exactly what he needed, but when found the jar of the purply, dried leaf spice, a look of pleasure checkered his face. At first, he didn’t want to bother finding the other things he’d know he’d need later in the week because he was feeling lethargic, but, upon deeper thought, decided he needed to push the laziness aside and pick up the small knick-knacks he’d need. Peanut butter, jam, milk, butter… and a few oranges, he certainly couldn’t forget the oranges. It was also decided that, yes, he should also pick up a few packages of tea while he was here. Might as well, save him a trip later in the week. So, stopping by the front checkout to pick up a small hand basket, Chai idly wandered up and down the walkways, dumping things in his basket as he went.

[sophia vivian williams]

Sophia enjoyed cooking very much and the beauty of living in the dorms for older students was the kitchenette. While Sophia couldn't cook the really elaborate stuff that she loved in a dorm, she lived for her “short shopping day”. This was the day for her to the snacks and sandwich stuff for the next week. As it so happened, today was the day and Sophia was excited.

She strolled down to the grocery store with her tacky little shopping list in hand, practically bouncing as she went. When she reached the store she took a moment to calm herself. It wouldn’t do to knock over things in her excitement. As she walked in the front door she grabbed a basket and placing it on her elbow she then did a little dance, just to get the last of the excitement jitters out before she entered the shelves where there were very few people.

First she headed for the coolers to get some sandwich fixins, and then the breakfast area for her pop tarts and the granola bars in the aisle over. She grabbed Honey Smoke Turkey Breast thin slices and bacon bits from the cooler, placing them carefully into the basket on her arm. She then got strawberry pop tarts from the second to bottom shelf on the breakfast isle and peanut butter, chocolate Chewy bars on the next isle.

As Sophia was about to go check out she remembered that there was no more of her vanilla tea around the dorm. She rushed off to the isle with the teas and coffees. When she got there she franticly looked for her tea only to see it on the top shelf. She reached for it but found herself unable to grasp it. She tried to reach it again only to feel her fingers brush the box.

[willem van der holt]

Lavender or peach? Chai stood with his basket pressing against his right hip, standing in front of the small array of tea boxes, all the colours and fonts and smells. The tea selection really was quite broad, much more broad than a non-tea drinker might think. Finally concluding on a peach medley dark tea, as he hadn’t had peach in some tea, he dropped the small, rectangular box in his basket and began to stroll towards checkout. Mentally, he was reeling in an attempt to make sure he has gathered everything that was needed for the day’s preparation to do absolutely nothing but futz around the flat. With some luck, Jack would be away for the day and he could have some seclusion, but even if he was not, well; Chai would still enjoy his day nevertheless. It was also a matter that if Jack were to be home today, than at least he’d have someone to cook for. More than anything, Willem took great pleasure in feeding people, especially university students who, for the large majority, ate nothing but fast food and easy mac. At least, if nothing else, Chai was happy to provide them with a healthy, hearty, vegan-friendly meal every few weeks. And if the mood really inspired him, he’d concoct a non-vegetarian meal for his close friends and have them over for a small luncheon. It was times like those that made him ponder giving up his vegetarianism, but he had never done it yet and sincerely doubted he ever would.

Being six foot one had its disadvantages at times. Sometimes, he would hit his head on low arched doorways, or bump in to hanging light fixtures. But, in times like these, being as tall as he was had its usefulness, too. Seeing the young woman struggling to reach the box of tea at the top shelf, Chai graciously came up alongside of her and, with a certain nimbleness, reached up, picked up the box and turned to hand it to her. “Here, I got it, Sweetie,” he chimed in a sunny tone. Coming from Holland, it was customary for the men to call all women and girls by sweet little nicknames like sweetie, honey, or sweetheart. The practice had following him to English, but the way he said it was charming and he didn’t have the presence or the character to have his little nicknames ever come off as a form of flirting or teasing, no, the way he acted and carried himself was much too innocent for such a thing.

He nodded politely to her before beginning to turn away to resume his trek back to checkout. Afterall, he had stumppot to concoct!

[sophia vivian williams]

Sighing in frustration, Sophia was about to start trying to jump for her tea when someone came up beside her and picked up her box of tea. She turned to him as he held the box out to her. It was unusual for a stranger to come up and help her get things off shelves. It could possibly be nice if this happened more often. Sadly, the best stuff, in her opinion, was often on the top shelf. Even her favorite pop tarts, strawberry, could sometimes end up on top of a set of shelves. She was almost tall enough to reach but most of the time she could barely grab the items she needed. She was usually frustrated with the way her fingers tended to be able to brush that which she wanted to grab. Having a little help was nice and Sophia was not afraid to admit it.

As the box was handed to Sophia she heard the guy speak. Now, most women in the US would take the nickname of Sweetie from a male as some sort of sexist title and flip out at them. Sophia, however, had been raised by a good southern family where pet names were used frequently and on everyone. She herself was bad about referring to people as sweetheart once she knew them with any sort of familiarity at all. Ya know, once she got past the stuttering stage.

The guy started to walk off as she was putting her tea box into her basket. “Wait!” Sophia called after him. “Please?” She rushed forward so as to get to him before he could get too far ahead. She really needed to thank him and , perhaps, if he was nice she could make friends with him. She needed more friends. So far she really only had her room mates. Not that they weren’t great but it was a different sort of thing.

[willem van der holt]

Startled by the sudden calling behind him, Chai had a quick hesitation in his step before he glanced back and turned around. For a moment, he wondered if it was even him she was calling to, but when he saw her scurrying towards him, he could only assume. After all, the clocks had barely reached eight o’clock, he wondered if there were any other souls in the entire market besides them two and the employees, of course. He had one hand hooked through the handles of the basket and the other was resting in his jean’s pocket, idly crunching some loose change that was floating around. A little blush came to his face, a barely discernable touch of pink to the apples of his cheeks. He realized soonly that he hadn’t bothered to ask her if that was all that she needed from the top shelf, which, to his horror, made him realize how rude he could have come off. It wasn’t like him to be so inconsiderate, yet it was a stagnant time of morning where his brain was in the state of mid-morning nap. He was an early riser, yes, but his early rising took him running, a brainless activity, so now, when he was trying to interact with people, his brain was absent.

“I am very sorry sweetie, yes?” he composed himself, “Can I get something else for you?” he asked. Perhaps it was the Dutch in him, but he felt cheeky if he didn’t help everyone that he could. He liked to make friends, almost as much as he liked to cook, and being the kind and jovial soul that he was, friends were easy to come by. Still, it was easy to make friends and hard to keep them. It was his ability to retain his friendships that was most remarkable. Chai seemed to have this way of tending to all of his fellowships; if he had not seen someone in person in a while, he’d make sure to send them a kind text message or a small snippet on the Orange Island Network just to remind them that he hadn’t forgotten about them. That’s just the kind of motherly person he was though. He very much tended to his interconnections like he cared for his plants.

He ran a slender, cold hand through the fallow coloured locks of his hair, pushing some of the wild mess away from his face. His hair was always had a little bit of personality but that morning, seeing as he hadn’t had the time yet to try and tame it, it was particularly curly and particularly wild. It suited him somehow—he looked a little disheveled this morning, his shirt not buttoned having two open buttons, his socks not matching—it was charming in a sort of I’m-not-a-morning-going-out-person sort of way.

[sophia vivian williams]

Hurrying forward after her call, Sophia saw the guy start and turn around. She felt a bit bad that she had startled him but was relieved that he had stopped. When she saw what he looked like she started to blush. Sophia couldn’t believe that she had called after a total stranger, much less one that was so cute. He had long, brown, messy curls. His whole look, from mismatched socks to slightly rumpled, partially unbuttoned shirt just screamed half awake. This reminded Sophia of her little brothers when they were woken up earlier than they thought was fair. Actually her sisters looked a lot like that when they were tired too. It appeared as though the rumpled look was universal for tired people, or at least people who wanted to look tired.

When he spoke again Sophia realized that he had an accent. She didn’t know what type of accent it was, but it seemed to make the guy even more adorable. She could almost imagine him as one of the chibi characters she had loved so much in middle school. “Um... There isn’t anything else I need you to get. I just um... wanted to thank you.” Having a spur of the moment thought, Sophia remembered that she did have access to an oven and she had a mix of cookie recipe that she had hand-made two weeks ago that needed trying out. “I would like to um... Make you some cookies, in thanks. Um… Most people just walk right past me reaching for stuff that I can’t get ahold of.” Sophia shared what she hoped a conspiratorial look. “I... Um… also just really want an excuse to make cookies.”

She shifted from foot to foot as she waited for his answer. She was always so very twitchy when she was nervous. She also had a lot of extra energy from her earlier excitement for snack day and so she was WAY keyed up.

[willem van der holt]

With his free hand, Chai used his palm to rub his eye and stifle a yawn. It looked like he needed a good cuppa tea or a long, hard run to get him going. Although being a Wednesday, he rarely went on runs these days and today was going to be no exception. There was many things around the apartment he wanted to get done that day and a long run would cut in to his precious baking and plant caring time. So, once he would return home, it was decided that he’d settle on the tea option for waking himself up that morning. Pushing his hair back and out of his face, he wore a muzzy, subdued smile that was a rarity for the hyperactive boy. Moments like these, where he was so calm and serene was atypical for anyone to see, since by the time Chai was awake and alert, everyone else was just starting to get out of bed.

Suddenly, as if a light turned off, jubilation spread across his face at the mention of cookies, or rather, baking. Being lactose intolerant, Chai had to bake his own cookies in a very special way with a recipe that contained no butter or milk. Thankfully, in today’s world, things like vegan margarine and yogurt were available, which made his life that much easier. Although it was a hard to get ahold of such items, Chai had found a small, hippy-like vegan store on the far side of the island. “Well,” he chuckled in a suave, tropical voice, “I am very happy to help a lovely lady,” he replied quaintly and angled his head, “And I would love cookies!”

Although he assumed that her cookies wouldn’t be lactose intolerant friendly, he would be able to have a bite or two on them here or there. As long as his lactose intake was minimal, it wouldn’t hurt him. There were many times that he would accidentally eat something with too much lactose and it would make him very ill. So ill, in fact, that on several instances he had to be hospitalized.

“You not need a reason to make cookies,” he explained with a soft chuckle, “Cookies should be reason enough.”

[sophia vivian williams]

Sophia continued to bounce. Her nerves always got the best of her in situations where she was trying to make friends. It was really the only situation where nerves would cause her to move around. For the most part she didn’t often feel like she needed to move when she was nervous. Part of her movement at this time could be attributed to something other than nervous though.

Sophia was so excited even at the thought of baking cookies. Sophia just hopped that the guy wasn’t allergic to anything. That would certainly put a damper on things. When the guy seemed to light up and said that he would enjoy some cookies, Sophia smiled widely and managed to calm herself down enough to stop bouncing. Very few people were ever interested in anything she wanted to do and then when he said that cookies didn’t need an excuse Sophia made an executive decision. This guy would stay. Sophia would do what she could to try and have him as a friend. “Are you allergic to anything? I don’t want my cookies to make you sick.”

This guy seemed very charming. Realizing that she had yet to introduce herself Sophia felt bad. This guy had helped her get things off of the shelf and she hadn’t even asked what his name was. It hadn’t even crossed her mind to ask until now or to even give him her own. “Oh!” she exclaimed, appalled at herself. “My name is Sophia.” Turning hopeful eyes towards the guy she asked “What’s your name?”

[willem van der holt]

“Well, I am vegan,” he explained in a meek tone, “I am—“ he paused a moment to gather the words in his mouth. Sometimes it took him a few minutes to get out with what he wanted to say. Sometimes he would stumble over words or butcher them horribly. “Allergic? Yes, allergic to lactose,” he explained. Although vegetarianism was a pure choice, his lactose intolerance was not and it could truly be a bother at times. Although he did consume things like eggs, he otherwise kept to a very strict vegan diet.

“I make vegan cookies that are nice,” he used all sorts of things—substitute butter, oils, “I like cook many vegan things.” He liked to and he did so frequently. He wondered if Sophia enjoyed the culinary arts as much as he did; who knew, maybe she would be someone that he could share recipes with. He was very Martha Stewart in that way, “my allergy makes life very sad,” he teased at his own expense but shrugged anyways. “I can have little, little milk, so, make any cookie. I eat little,” he made an attempt to explain that he could have a very little bit of lactose and would be able to eat a half or so of a regular cookie, but he felt that what he had just said didn’t make any sense. Oh well, he wouldn’t get every sentence perfect, he supposed.

“Sophia,” he angled his head a little, acknowledging her name, “I am Chai. Like the tea!” Most of the time he didn’t even tell people his real name anymore, since almost in Orange Island knew him strictly as Chai. His real name, Willem, was not particularly to his taste, either. Not that he didn’t like it, persay, but he felt as though Chai was much more suiting to his personality and to his character. “I am very strange,” he couldn’t help but laugh—he was Dutch, and lactose intolerant, and vegetarian, and didn’t speak English very well. Yes, he was very strange indeed.

[sophia vivian williams]

When the guy said that he was vegan AND allergic to milk, Sophia started thinking of ways around that. It was a simply chocolate chip cookie recipe. She could probably just grab some Silk and some fake butter and be set. Well, the eggs might be something he wouldn’t want to eat. “As a vegan, do you eat eggs when they are used in baking?”

When Sophia heard that he liked to cook, she was overjoyed! Here was someone with whom she could discuss baking and other culinary activities. When he tried to tell her that he could have a small amount of milk, she knew it was true but didn’t see any reason for him to get even a little sick. “I was actually thinking of tweaking the recipe. Um… My cousin is lactose-intolerant as well and I need to make some sort of dessert that she can eat.”

Sophia heard the guy say her name and then give her what had to be a nick name. Certainly no one would name their child after a type of tea. However, the name Chai, in its state of constant oddity, seemed to fit with such a rare personality. Between his physical appearance, his accent, and his general adorableness she knew that Chai was something special. “Not too strange, considering the island we live on. Mostly a bit magical, perhaps?”

Realizing that she would need to walk elsewhere to get the new ingredients Sophia thought to herself for a second. “If you would be willing to walk with me,” Sophia said, “I can go and get some Silk and synthetic butter for the cookies.”

[willem van der holt]

“I eat eggs,” he explained, “I am not vegan by choice,” chuckling a little and shrugging it off. Sometimes, on rare occasions, he’d eat a little fish, too. His mum, back home, would always make the most delicious fillet of grilled salmon for holidays that he thoroughly enjoyed. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to visit his home in some time as he moved and studied across the globe. On occasion, he did miss being back in the Netherlands and being normal, for once. Ever since had began travelling in his preteens, he had always been that foreign exchange kid. He had always been different, odd, not belonging and, on occasion, it would just be really nice to be a local and to be able to speak the language deftly without having to think about the difference between “than” and “then.”

“I can help,” he had become masterful and tweaking recipes to make them edible for himself. Most of the time, he had gotten so close that most people couldn’t tell the difference between his vegan-friendly version and the original. With the trend of vegetarianism on the rise, the food products available to them was broadening, much more vast than most people would believe. “Dessert are very easy to make vegan!” he explained—mainly because there were so few ingredients in them. Things started to get a little more difficult in main courses, however, as the meat to soy conversation could get a little bit tricky at times.

“Okay,” adjusting his basket once more on his arm as it was growing heavy sitting in the same spot, “This store has good fake butter,” he bought it all the time here. If he was going to be eating this many sweets, he'd really have to make a careful note to run an extra long jog tomorrow morning. Perhaps he'd even squeeze in a run tonight so he didn't feel guilty about eating as much as he was planning to today. “While we walk the store, I should pick up some avocado,” he mulled aloud, realizing that, if he was to be spending more time shopping, he might as well get some use out of it. If the lovely Sophia was going to making a dessert, he decided he might as well make an entree of some kind and it had been quite some time since he made his favourite avocado and asparagus wraps.

[sophia vivian williams]

Sophia felt relief when Chai said that he ate eggs. Eggs were one of the things that were almost always in the dorm because they were a filling food that could was used in a lot of things, or could be a totally separate food in and of itself. Plus she wasn’t sure how to make cookies without eggs. Maybe she could make omelets for dinner tonight. She wasn’t certain but she thought that her room mates were supposed to be home. Maybe she even had time to make some bread after the cookies.

“Oh! Your help would be very nice. I don’t anyone here to cook with.” She really did miss cooking with her mother and siblings. She missed the laughter and the teasing and the fighting that were a part of the family activity. Even the cleaning up afterward was always fun because everyone helped and played the whole time.

Sophia was unsurprised that the store carried a synthetic butter that passed muster because the small-ish chain grocery stores all seemed too. “What are the avocados for? Are you making guacamole?” Her dad had loved to make guacamole. It was one of his finest pleasures and even though Sophia didn’t eat guacamole she was always fond of the stuff on principle.

Sophia started to walk towards the produce so that Chai could get his avocados.

[willem van der holt]

“Me either,” he replied as he strolled along in an ambling, not to quick sort of pace, “My roommate does not cook.” His roommate, Jack, was one of his closest friends and it was all of their differences that made them so close and compatible. Where Chai did most of the household cooking, Jack did most of the decorating and so forth. They had a little system that just worked for them, but sometimes Chai would wish to have someone to discuss cooking with, but his group of friends seemed to be devastatingly lacking the fine chefs. Not that their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and oven pizza weren’t delicious, but it just wasn’t quite the same, in his opinion. As they found themselves in the produce component, Chai took the time to pick out several avocados and, while he was here, a pineapple for later use. One of his favourite ingredients to cook with was pineapple. It had been one of his mum’s favourite foods and he had seemed to acquire the love for it from her.

“No, it’s not guacamole,” he explained, dropping the avocados in to a bag and into his basket, “it is asparagus and avocado in a tortilla, with cilantro and garlic and lime and onion and plain yogurt and white rice,” he explained. It was a small, delightful little wrap sandwich whose recipe he acquired from a woman he met down at a market in Spain, “it sound very weird, but try it first.” Most of Chai’s foods sounded a little strange, but they always ended up tasting all right. His English fluency seemed to increase ten-fold when he was talking about ingredients and cooking. His culinary vocabulary was much more broad than any typical Americans and he could throw out the name of nearly any spice on the drop of a hat. His grammar improved too because he enjoyed talking about cooking and he just didn’t think about his English as he was much too busy thinking about cooking, instead.

“Okay, after you, my lady,” he said, concluding that he had everything that he needed from the little shopping excursion. He had just purchased much more than he had first originally intended to, but, at the very least, he wouldn’t have to come back to the store later in the week for need of ingredients.

[sophia vivian williams]

“Oh. Who is your roommate?” Sophia was fairly curious. She didn’t really know a whole lot of people around the school but perhaps she might have met Chai’s roommate. “Erm… If you don’t mind me asking about him. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want too.” Feeling a bit silly Sophia decided to try a different line of questioning. “Um… Do you live on campus?”

A lot of the stuff Chai mentioned made Sophia feel nervous. She wasn’t exactly a picky eater but she also wasn’t very adventurous in her food choices. She wasn’t allergic to anything but she tended to have less than wonderful reactions to new foods. Most people enjoyed food much spicier than she could stand, which was most of the problem. She never would even think to try something like the wrap that Chai was talking about. It had a lot of different herbs and spices than she was used to using or even hearing about in one dish. It sounded interesting.

Sophia headed towards the Dairy (or fake dairy) items were housed. She picked up Silk and then turned to the butter type stuff. “Which brand did you say was the best?” Sophia really didn’t want to pick the bad one.

[willem van der holt]

“His name is Jack,” he said but shrugged—there were probably an infinite number of Jacks on the island and probably quite a handful in the university as well. Additionally, because they didn’t live on campus they were even more secluded from the student body as a whole. “We live in a flat just off campus,” he explained. Their flat was a convenient distance from campus: far enough where the party spill over from the dormitories and frats didn’t affect them, but close enough that Chai could jog to his morning classes, if he so pleased.

Perhaps it was the fact that he was Dutch that made him so ready to be a culinary adventurer. The Dutch were a strange folk of sorts and they believed in not wasting a thing. It was that mentality that made Chai such a frugal person. Wasting food was one thing he disliked the most about Americans; they were very wasteful beings, generally speaking, and it disconcerted him to see them waste as much good food as they did. To use all of something he bought, then, did take some creative thinking and some of his recipes, to many people, sounded questionable. Still, he hadn’t killed anyone yet with his bizarre recipes and, to many peoples’ dismay, the foods he concocted were actually quite delicious.

“Silve is good,” he grinned, pointing to the branded Silve. At least, that’s what he had always used and had enjoyed it.