Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan Page B

poison, ground glass, urine, or anything else Ravenna’s resentment and Gabriel’s suspicion could think up), they would remain as husband and wife. During this exercise, neither one spoke or looked at the other. In sixteen years they never modified or questioned their habit, so inured to its rhythm that they no longer knew who held the upper hand on a given morning.
    Gabriel took his seat, spreading the napkin on his lap in one lordly gesture. Ravenna brought the first dish from the kitchen, a broiled snow fish sprinkled with nutmeg. Gabriel raised a quizzical brow, missing his customary ham-and-paprika omelet, but the flat line of her lips silenced him. No sooner had he raised his fork thanRavenna swept up the dish and dumped both plate and content into a large trash can she had set up for that purpose.
    “One year of lies and illusions,” she said calmly without looking at him.
    Before Gabriel could object, Ravenna vanished into the kitchen. A few seconds later she reappeared with a steaming bowl of lentil and octopus soup. Gabriel was about to dip into the creamy surface of the soup when Ravenna snatched the bowl and hurled it into the trash.
    “Two years of sheer and utter waste,” she said.
    Gabriel sat still, uncertain which was troubling him more—the fact that his wife was speaking to him, or that she was discarding good food and expensive china without the slightest pang. A succession of rock cod in lemon-and-pepper sauce, veal garnished with peaches and palm sugar, and cubed chicken simmered in coconut milk soon joined the mass burial in the wastebasket. When Ravenna reached the ninth dish, Gabriel leaned back against the chair. For the first time in years, he stared openly at his wife.
    “Is there a point to this inanity?”
    “Nine years of misery, futility, and devastation,” retorted Ravenna, letting each word sprout its own blade as she relegated the roast lamb to rubbish. Then, serene as a dove, she sailed impassively toward the kitchen.
    Gabriel waited until the next dish met its doom before roaring, “I’m asking you, is there a reason behind this madness?”
    “Ten years of deceit, treachery, and disappointments,” returned Ravenna icily. “What other reason do you need?”
    Gabriel slammed his fist against the table, causing the silverware to leap in trepidation. “What do you want, woman?”
    Ravenna did not shrink, but fixed him a look that drove nails into his eyes. “She wants her freedom, and you will give it to her even if it’s the last thing you do.” And then without wasting another breath, she swept majestically into the kitchen.
    When she reappeared, Gabriel struck again. “I won’t let her marry that good-for-nothing boy. His whole family reeks of commonness and mediocrity.”
    Ravenna slapped a tureen of boiling lobster broth onto the table, prompting Gabriel to retreat lest it overturn. Her eyes blazing with intensity, she told him, “Eleven years of pain and disenchantment. Eleven years of shame and despair and absolute humiliation. She’s a grown woman who knows what she wants, capable of bearing children, responsible enough to merit freedom. Do you think you have the right to decide her life for her?”
    “I most certainly do!” shouted Gabriel, but Ravenna ignored him. She baptized the trash can with the broth and solemnly withdrew into the kitchen.
    For the next six courses, Gabriel fumed while Ravenna remained indifferent. When she placed the eighteenth dish before him, the customary ham-and-paprika omelet, he immediately understood that it was the last. Eighteen dishes, one for each year they had been married.
    “Eighteen years of grief and regret,” said Ravenna. “You owe me that and much more.”
    “I will not deliver her into the hands of these people!”
    Ravenna waved her finger with a withering ease. “She won’t end up worse than I am. Nobody can be damned as low as you have damned me.”
    Gabriel recoiled as if she had exploded a hole in his