Honeysuckle | M.A

Chapter 3: Pasta Puttanesca

November 5th, 1972

2 days. There were 2 days left until her birthday. Jaroldine had looked everywhere for the book, in all the nooks and crannies of her bed and bookshelf in the living room, she even looked in Nancy's room and asked her mother, though she did not precisely tell her what book it was. She wanted that book to be a sort of secret, something for herself, something she found and could keep, just for her. It was nowhere to be found, it was like it dissapeared.

Her parents had said nothing about her birthday, though her mom had tried to talk to her about it twice the day after the dinner, she always ended up making some excuse for why she couldn't talk about it right then, and her mother stopped trying.

Her father was being extra nice this week and Jaroldine couldn't help but feel bad. Of Course she understood that her parents wanted the best for her but she also understood that she did not want this, and they could not force her.

Nancy had healed completely and wasn't feeling sick anymore, and when Jaroldine looked at her, she knew she would not let Nancy go through this. She would not let her sister grow up in a village where she had to be forced to get married when she hit a certain age. She didn't know yet what she was going to do but she knew she wasn't going to get married on her birthday this Friday.

She was going to make pasta puttanesca for dinner today, so she was going to go around the farmers market located within the farm itself to get the ingredients.

She was wearing a long muddy green skirt and a brown long ruffled shirt with flat shoes, which tapped loudly on the cobble stoned path along with the sound of the coins clanging in the greasy pouch she was holding in her left hand.

Lanes of vegetables, fruit, wheat, lavenders, honeysuckles, chromosomes and other bunches of flowers, cattles, cows, sheep, chickens and other animals that were in their own little habitat on one side of the farm surrounded this part of the villiage. From afar you could see the honey area, where the bees now worked with the flowers to create some more honey. As soon as you walk in you are greeted by the farmers market, where mini stands lined your right and left, each selling fresh vegetables and fruits and herbs and even raw meat and chicken, there were all sorts of ingredients.

She looked around, returning greetings with a smile to those who greeted her, she found the olive stand easily. Wooden cartons were filled with all types of olives, green, filled, black, kalamata, gaeta, and amfissa. She went for the kalamatas, they were large, dark brown olives with a smooth, meaty texture, named after the city of Kalamata in Greece. A scale sat next to them, with a pile of small plastic bags.

After getting the olives, she headed to the tomato stand where she got the juiciest red tomatoes that she could find, next, she got anchovies and finally, she went to the herb stand and got an array of herbs including capers and red pepper flakes. She had the rest of the ingredients at home.

She headed back home and got to work. She started by making the dough for the spaghetti, after a while of careful massaging of the dough and adding more ingredients when necessary, she rolled it into one long piece and put the start of it in their spaghetti maker.

She grabbed the rusty handle that was on the side and spun it carefully, from the other end, thin spaghetti piled out onto the big plate she had set in on the other side of the spaghetti maker until she had a large pile of fresh soft uncooked pasta ready for when she was going to make dinner. For now, she joined her family in the living room with a book.

She picked out the book on flowers that she had been reading before she found Little Woman and sat on the sofa opposite her father who was reading a thick book on architecture, while Nancy braided her mothers hair.