By the time Bisky made it back to her apartment, the sun had only a few minutes before it set. This was her absolute favorite time of day. She set aside the groceries she was carrying, pulled the blinds up and opened her window to let the calming breeze of the Cargo District come in. She had grown accustomed to the dull roar of the ships being built and all the other activity on the port, which took place fewer than ten short blocks away. The distant hum was familiar and kept her company. She depended on it last week, for sure. It was a tiny studio apartment, only about 500 square feet, so opening the window always let in a lot of light and a lot of breeze. Living alone sucked sometimes, but she was lucky to have found this spot. The neighborhood wasn’t the worst, either.
Bisky reset her attention to the groceries. She had picked up some fruits and vegetables and a small octopus for dinner. The dish, known as taskiak in Old Mephitidaean, wasn’t complete without a special, sourdough bread called sporzo, but she had already procured some a few days ago, when she rid her house entirely of Petrus’s baking.
Bisky enjoyed being able to cook and occasionally look to the side to glance outside her window. It was already rather dark by the time she got to start cooking, a fair indicator that autumn had already properly settled in. Summers were the best, because the sun would never set. She wasn’t like most skunks when it came to that. Skunks had a reputation for staying up late and simply preferring nighttime overall.
She picked up the big knife off of the wall and diced the octopus into small cubes. The octupus would be lightly sautéed with plenty of lemon juice and bay leaves, then the vegetables would be added and finally, diced sporzo tossed in. Bisky personally found that a splash of sunflower sauce thinned with water also worked rather nicely on top of it all.
Bisky was in the process of adding the sauce when her portable phone rang. She turned the phone over to discover that Rose was calling. Bisky’s eyebrows furrowed as she picked it up.
“Hi, hello Rose.”
“Hello Hibiscus. How are you feeling? Is now a good time?”
Not really. “Yeah, lemme put you on speakerphone. I feel alright. I’m cooking dinner.”
“Oh, what are you making?”
“Making myself some taskiak,” Bisky said proudly, as she put the phone down and picked up the chopsticks.
Rose could hear Bisky’s smile through the phone. “Good for you! A traditional Mephitidaean treat. Where did you get the octopus?”
“There’s a fishmonger just around the corner where I live,” Bisky said. Cut to the chase, lady, whaddya want?
“Good, good. I wanted to talk to you about your father’s business.”
Knew it. “Yup, we can do that. Oh, I wanted to thank you again about the whole last month of rent thing… that was very generous, Rose. Seriously.”
“It was the least I could do. Now, I don’t want to take too much of your time. I just wanted to talk to you about your father’s assets, which are technically all yours now…”
Bisky already knew that to be case, but that ship didn’t start to sink in until that moment. She sat down and began to eat her meal.
“The truth is, Hibiscus, I’m not sure if the bakery can remain as successful as it was previously…”
“I think customers came for the food Rose, not just the company of my dad,” Bisky retorted. “You don’t trust that the other guys in there will do as good of a job?!”
“No, no, Hibiscus, that’s not what I meant. It’s your business now. You’re in charge of the bakery.”
The ship sank to the bottom of the ocean. A chopstickful of taskiak fell out of Bisky’s mouth and back onto the plate with a plop.
“And, well, I figured that you wouldn’t have the time, nor maybe even the inclination, to run a business full time, since that’d interfere with your studies…”
Bisky was struggling to keep her balance on a tightrope over precipice of tears, but Rose kept talking. “Is that correct? It’s not within your means. Not on a day-to-day basis.”
Bisky swallowed, but there was no taskiak going down her thoat. “That’s correct.” After a brief moment of silence that felt like it lasted her father’s entire life, Bisky ventured: “You’re not.. you’re not going to force the bakery out of the building, are you?”
Rose was audibly confused for a beat. “Oh, goodness gracious, no! I thought we already decided that Acanthus would pick up the slack day-to-day, even though on paper you’re the beneficiary of all of your father’s assets.”
Bisky’s world came back into focus. Her sigh of relief was more like gasping for air after having been trapped underwater.
Rose continued. “I’m filling out a bunch of forms, and I need to make sure I’m submitting the right info. I’ll make it clear to the City of Port Sokuit that the business is Acanthus’s but all of Petrus’s things and his real estate are yours. He didn’t own any land other than the house on Seashell Lane, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right. We, uh, consolidated a lot of stuff when my mom died,” Bisky confirmed.
“Okay. Personally, I think this will be a good arrangement. The bakery will still be in the Damiat family, while you still get to focus on your studies. What do you think?”
Bisky wasn’t thinking all that much. Not on purpose. “Yeah, that’s fine. Thanks for confirming with me…”
“Just trying to do the right thing, Hibiscus. You know that it’s important for me, too, that the bakery be successful.”
“Right, yeah.”
“Well, like I said, I didn’t want to take too much of your time. Enjoy your taskiak! Take care.”
Bisky had completely forgotten about her dinner.
“Bye, Rose.”
Bisky hung up the phone. She stared at her food with ambivalence. She knew it made absolutely no sense, but she felt like there was no point in eating immediately after a near-death experience.