If you know only a tea spoon of Shishi you probably know of
her feelings for the R&M twins and the important part they
play in her life. Doombir knows at least a table spoon,
which is why she said yes when one day Shishi asked Doombir
to baby-sit with her, and ask her she did, this act of
asking thusly came into its joyous positive completion with
the previously mentioned agreement. The reason for Doombir's
consent was her secret making of a Hollywood cheesy film
that contained anecdotes of Shishi's life. Doombir's film
was actually a reaction (not to say pure plagiarism) to
Shishi's successful documentary, featuring a goddess's
presumable memories of a time spent with a human friend of
hers. Doombir often wondered of the unspoken competition
between her and Shishi which its final purpose was to please
the other but had some side effects of jealousy, guilt and,
to be circular, competitiveness. There was the reason of the
genuine desire to get a glimpse at the wonder, but it was
well covered with Doombir's plotting, planning and
scheming.
Doombir agreed thinking the baby-sitting subjects, R&M, are
a great anecdote for her film - cute, photogenic and
symbolic. Doombir planned to immortalize this event with a
camera that was planned to be hidden in the cowboy hat no
one has ever seen her without for over thirty years.
Doombir's Hollywood movies were never seen, they were
drawer-movies given to loved ones like her roommate the
toad. The toad stopped receiving them some two years after
Doombir set up her production company due to major
professional disagreements. Having no talent, Doombir was
reduced to work as a light bulb checker in a production
line, screwing each bulb and seeing if it is lit.
Shishi was a successful farmer, cat psychologist and salad
chef. She wasn't perfect though, her cauliflower died every
year, on Easter; and her Pegasus never did fly. But she had
a pretty good relationship with the gods and they secretly
knew she was better then them (she did too but was to
tactful for her own good).
The time is the baby-sitting day we started this tale with.
Doombir is in the factory, unaware of her near dismissal a
few days later. Being the sub-goddess of tardiness she was
preoccupied with getting to the meeting on time, though the
chances didn't seem to be on her side. Gods (not that she
was one) are constantly trying to hide their imperfection
though there isn't a soul in the world left still thinking
they are perfect.
Meanwhile, on her farm, while working on growing a vegetable
for the perfect pasta salad, Shishi gets a last minute
cancellation of the well planned and desired operation. Now
she had two tasks, equally complicated. First, to get a hold
of Doombir who tried as hard as she could not to be reached
(...); Secondly, to phrase the disturbing change of plans in
a way that wouldn't cost a dramatic harmful reaction from
Doombir's side, increasing her bad enough temper caused by
her arched enemy the Indian shellfish.
Shishi is now seated on her thinking swing, making notes and
drawing aesthetic and precise diagrams meant to execute the
missions she accepted unwillingly. And just when she thought
she had resolved the reaching problem with a sophisticated
net of vacuum tunnels, an official helicopter landed a
hundred feet from her. A messenger handed her a scroll. By
then, she knew without looking that it is sealed with an
impression that says Doombir Poe, sub-goddess of tardiness
affairs. Doombir always finds new ways of contacting Shishi,
and the last is repeatedly surprised by the final revelation
that it is Doombir behind the exaggerated sights as well as
by the time that usually takes her to realize it is Doombir,
for it is statistically probable it usually is. This time,
for example, she first thought the helicopter has to do with
the propaganda of the close coming god elections. Shishi
never voted in spite of her previously mentioned
relationship with the gods.
Shishi poured herself pineapple juice from a pitcher with a
picture of a chicken on it to her
special-pineapple-juice-glass, and sat to read the scroll.
It said she is excused of the obligation to report the
change of plans to Doombir, Doombir's informers saved Shishi
the sound of 476 light bulbs dropped to the floor by
Doombir's raging negative energy. Doombir felt having a few
dozens of informers was a suitable replacement to the
possibility of loved ones getting in touch with her. Her
communal position acknowledged this as a tax deductible
expanse and she used it, like many other position holders,
in favor of her own whims. The scroll was also an
invitation. Doombir asked Shishi to kindly join her, in two
days time, to a meal at the restaurant near the marine
academy. The marine academy was the place in which our two
heroines met some twenty five years ago when they both
studied marine stuff. They both never used any of the things
they spent exactly a thousand days to learn, but they
weren't the slightest bit sorry for the lost time, for their
friendship was worth at least ten thousand days. Shishi
wrote a quick and witty replay with big round letters and no
capitals and handed it to the delivery person who was
standing the whole time admiring the beautiful garden and
the even more impressive gardener.
One of the things Shishi hated the most was wet umbrellas;
she had no problem with dry ones. Doombir was Shishi's ever
dry umbrella; that was one of the bases to their friendship.
For her thirty's birthday, Doombir gave Shishi a skeleton of
an umbrella. Shishi though it was a good joke and walked
with in on sunny days as a fashion accessory. Such was the
day the two met at Mifogome (this wasn't the place's
official name but they thought it was suitable meaning
''mediocre food, good memories'' with a sound resemblance to
a marine measurement unit called ''microgom''). It was one
of their many privet jokes. They approached each other after
their looks intersected simultaneously, Shishi with her
umbrella and Doombir in her cowboy hat. That must had been a
sight. They both had a big smile of joy and awkwardness on
their faces; they opened their arms, gave each other a
sincere hug, got in the building with combined arms and
climbed the three floors leading to the restaurant.
Inside the waitresses wondered where the two women looked so
familiar from. These were a dying breed of waitresses that
made a career out of serving people half the day and saving
the world the rest of it. All of the super heroines worked
at Mifogome and belonged to the same guild. They were too
old now to save the day, so they stuck to the only other
thing they knew how to do. A middle aged skinny one showed
Shishi and Doombir to a window table with soft pink couches;
the window was big enough so cats can climb in and out using
the large poplar tree outside, but small enough so that
babies wouldn't fall out. The waitress put two menus near
each of them and the routine ceremony began.
Every time the two sat there the same things occurred, this
wasn't a special occasion. They browsed the menus, in spite
of knowing it by heart for a few decades, and after fifteen
minutes of indecision, they both decided to order the only
dish they ever ordered there for the past ten years- banana
fish. It wasn't the greatest banana-fish one can have, but
it sure was the best dish there. Banana-fish are very cheap
since they are so easily caught getting stuck in there
banana caves under water after eating too much bananas and
all. It's a good thing banana-fever isn't contagious. As
always, after ordering, Doombir went to wash her hands and
drew cash out of the ATM. To gain her objective Doombir had
to get to the sixteen's floor where she had to go through a
maze, answer a series of riddles and fight a legendary
creature. After hundreds of times she's been there (only to
wash her hands obsessively, never to use the toilet that
wasn't the most sanitary one you've ever seen), she knew all
of the stockpile of hardships that could be landed on her.
While Shishi waited for Doombir's return, she listened to
the piano player playing the familiar dolphin mating sounds
and she was filled with a pleasant feeling of nostalgia.
The order arrived just when Doombir did. It was as good and
as bad as it ever was. It was mainly characterized with
plainness. After a bit of small talk of the food, Shishi
opened the real conversation saying ''you know, my friend
Charlie and I began working on my memoirs last month''.
Charles was a bear; one of Shishi's most cherished friends
in spite of the loose physical contact they had as a result
of his over-seas-under-cover work. "That's great. How
exciting for you. After thirty-two years of just talking
about it it's about time you started working on your
biography,'' Doombir grinned. Those kind of sarcastic
comments were not uncommon. Shishi was often hurt by
Doombir, but she never said anything, she though it had to
be a projection of childhood stuff and the Indian shellfish
and not pure heartlessness. Doombir often regretted her
remarks, repeating them in her head, beating herself up.
Years later Shishi's life story was a big success like
everything she did (though it sometimes didn't seem so at
first, but eventually, in retrospect, she had a great talent
for making the right choice).
Suddenly Doombir's eyes were covered with a thin teary
screen. Shishi stopped speaking in the middle of her
sentence and after ten seconds of silence Doombir said
''Marco died again''. Marco was a phoenix; he lived in
Doombir's porch when he chose to be indoors. Doombir and
Marco were very close in spite of their communication
problems. He usually died twice a year, and every time he
did his friends were genuinely sad and gave different moving
eulogies every funeral (though it was getting increasingly
harder to find new things to say about him). ''That's
awful'' said Shishi sympathetically, though she began
feeling tired of consoling Doombir for Marco's death and
couldn't help but feel annoyed about being interrupted.
The two met at the funeral the next day. It wasn't a common
type of funeral since Marco was not a common kind of
creature; there was no body, no date of birth or age to be
mentioned (Doombir was constantly trying to figure the
information out, but she kept finding out of an earlier
metamorphosis. She didn't ask Marco since he didn't and
still doesn't like to talk about his childhood), and it
occurs in the middle of the desert (where Marco was
presumably first born). Doombir got into the departure
structure thinking Marco was probably reborn again by now
and she expects to see him within the following month.
Inside she sees Shishi wearing an indigo kimono with her
fair hair in a high elegant due; the toad who in spite of
practically being Marco's flat mate, never developed with
him the special bond Doombir has; and the beaver that after
constructing the first departure structure seventeen years
before, was asked to do so every time Marco died and became
a regular member of the group (and of course got to meet
Marco a few life times). This time (there was always room
for novelty) the beaver used the thirty-two cinnamon nests
Marco left after his death for the past few years to build
an impressive igloo shaped structure, an igloo made of
twigs. Doombir wasn't sure Marco would approve of the use of
his nests but she felt bad resisting the beaver. The beaver
padded the sandy floor with Marco's feathers which he
gathered for the previous two and a half months (not knowing
at first what he'll do with them), and built a pedestal at
the edge made of sand and water and resembled a sand
castle.
Shishi decided to use this event to confess to the beaver of
her feelings for him. Shishi almost never saw the beaver in
non-Marco-related-occasions, and though they got along well
and there was an undeniable chemistry between them, they
never met alone or even spoke on the phone. After a few
routine politeness changes of words she got right to the
point and said ''listen, this is hard for me to say so
please don't interrupt me. I think you are very talented, I
think you're great'', by now she regretted starting the
sentence but continued anyway, ''I like you a lot, and
before you say you like me too, lets save ourselves the
'like you like you' teen age series routine and make it
clear- I'm attracted to you, I want to be with you, I think
of you quite a bit...'' Shishi felt she said enough, she
couldn't figure out the beaver's reaction from his body
language, and began to feel sick. Shishi caught the beaver
off guard, he was overwhelmed; he never thought of Shishi as
an option of someone to love, being a beaver and everything
he felt out of her league. But Shishi was no bigot; the
beaver issue never rose in her mind. The beaver looked at
Shishi, she looked beautiful in her kimono, with her hair up
(though he liked it down better); she sure was castor lass.
The beaver stood there, with a bark in his hand and an
un-swallowed piece of it still in his mouth as of the moment
Shishi started her speech. He was so embarrassed; he had
lost his concentration and began to dreamily study the
bourdeaux embroidery pattern on Shishi's kimono.
Five years later Shishi legally adopted the beaver's
children and they moved under water to be sea farmers; soon,
they grew forty-seven percent of the marine agriculture
products in the world. They still met the others every few
months at Marco's funeral, and the beaver kept designing
Marco's mourning sites until Doombir got too tired to
arrange the funerals. When the beaver wasn't farming or
dealing with Marco-related-stuff, he designed and built
existence contentment and acceptance sites. Shishi never
stopped talking with cats (she opened a free clinic for
struggling immigrant cats). The R&M twins became a dancer
and a bridge engineer respectively. Doombir resigned from
her political position and sold her production company. She
bought Mifogome and got a brilliant chef to improve the
food; she gave the waitresses a respectable retirement grant
and began training the next generation of super heroines.
The toad fell in love with the desert; he took over the
organization of the funeral and replaced the beaver with a
talented sewage mouse. He decided to study every sand grain
hoping the study will recover something of our origins and
justify all of this. Eventually it did. As for the
shellfish- she was still there, never went away, but Doombir
learned to be indifferent to her demands and play her game
of unconsciously fake politeness. Ten years later, Shishi's
Pegasus flew for the first time and became the most
remarkable zoological specimen in the world.