A Love Reborn: Finding Romance Twice In One Lifetime

After waiting patiently for a while, the fried fish was done. She removed the wok from the stove and let the wok and oil cool down on the side.

With the second open stove free, she put the pot she had removed earlier back over the fire but with more water.

While the pots were on the stove, she cut more onions, vegetables and chillies while she waited.

As soon as she was done, she checked the fish stew and tasted it. A smile spread across her face upon tasting how well the stew had been cooked.

She removed the wok from the stove and placed it a distance away since she was afraid of the soup drying due to the heat.

With the fish stew done, Calista started cooking the vegetables. Which were quite easy to cook, actually? Just add oil to the wok, let the oil heat up and then add onions and chillies first. Stir-fry until half cooked and then add the tomatoes.

Add a pinch of salt to the mix and cook the tomatoes fully. When that process is done, add the vegetables and mix fully.

That was done to make sure that the soup integrated well with the vegetables. Add another pinch of salt for the vegetables, stir the pot again and leave it to fully cook at low heat.

While the vegetables were cooking, Calista started preparing the pap.

There were two ways of cooking pap she loved using. One was to let the water boil, add mealie-meal (ground crushed maize/corn which will become fine powder and looks more like fine flour but a bit rough to the touch.) and stir the mixture until the mealie-meal integrates with the water making the final product to look more like watery porridge.

The mixture would be left to boil, producing a paste-like product called porridge, something that everyone, even in the backward places like Cropville, knew how to cook.

After letting the porridge boil for a while, instead of adding salt and sugar the way people do when cooking plain porridge, for pap, one would add more mealie meal bit by bit while mixing until it's about the right consistency one wants.

When that process is completed, you close the pot and let the pap simmer for as long as you want but on very low heat.

That was another way of cooking it. And the other one was to let the water boil for real, just like in the first recipe.

But instead of adding a bit of mealie-meal to make the paste or porridge, the cook would just add a lot of mealie-meal at once to make the paste or porridge thicker. For this recipe, the porridge won't be required to boil. Just let it cook fully as if you are simmering it.

Continue to mix it until it reaches the right consistency before serving it.

The second recipe was more of a shortcut and easier to follow than the first one.

So, whenever she cooks pap, Calista prefers to use the first step, especially when she is alone. No one would see her doing it, anyway.

So, by the time she removed the pot of vegetables from the stove, the pap was already simmering and it was just a matter of time before she was ready to eat.

Calista began to clean up the kitchen since most of the dishes had already been prepared.

All dirty dishes were taken outside to the dish drying rack, half her size and fixated to the ground.

With the dishes outside, Calista dealt with the cooking oil next and filled a bottle before stacking the used pots.

Calista took the pots outside to where the plates were before returning to the tree house where she first went to check on her patient.

When she arrived, a smile blossomed on her face as she looked at the man who had managed to change sides when sleeping.

Seeing that, she knew automatically that the other must have awakened at some point. As for whether he was awake now or not, she just needed to check.

And if he was awake, it would save her a lot of time. She loved hitting the iron whilst it was hot instead of procrastinating.

Since she had already made up her mind to get the stranger, she wasn't going to back down, no matter what.

With light steps, she walked over to the bed and sat down in the empty space without sparing the man's feelings about whether he liked what she was doing or not. In the future, they would be doing something more than this, so why be reserved?

Calista tapped the man's shoulder lightly, trying to wake him up as gentle and polite as ever.

"Hey, are you awake?" she asked softly as she pushed his shoulder gently.

The man didn't respond, but that didn't make Calista stand up. Instead, a smile spread across her face as her lips curled upward, her eyes having a mischievous glint in them.

"Alas! Taking advantage of someone when asleep is my specialty. Since he owes me, I might as well just cook the rice. With the deed done, can he even reject me?" Calista slyly said as she pulled the quilt covering the man away.

As soon as the man was uncovered, his body flinched, making Calista chuckle inwardly. From the second she entered the room, she sensed that the man must be awake. However, to be sure, she had to go close and when she touched him, although he was calm, his pulse betrayed him.

Calista wasn't a doctor, but that didn't mean that she was ignorant about the topic. She knew what she had to know, at least those that would save her life at crucial times.

"Dear, if you really don't wake up and continue pretending to sleep in my house. I am afraid that I might have to return all the wounds you have been inflicted with. Or should I send you to the government office?" since he was pretending like a little girl, Calista, who was already salivating and wanting to eat her supper, couldn't help but threaten the man.

"Shameless!"