This is a story about power. A story about a man of power and the crime he commits. It’s also a story about his enablers—his subordinates and their wives. Even the police.
And there’s more: a dear old friend and her daughter, some sex, some alcohol.
Mainly, though, it’s a story about the man’s wife.
If this sounds like a ripped-from-the-headlines story, it’s not. I wrote it years ago and left it in a drawer. Finally, in 2022, I cleaned it up and sent it to some magazines. It was picked up by SORTES Magazine and released on December 16, 2022.
The story is called “Exposed.” And this is how it begins:
Exposed
by Nicki Chen
It’s early morning and Bob and I are eating breakfast on the patio. Anyone peeking over the steel gate at the side of the garden would see us—Bob in his cream shirt and silk tie squeezing lime onto his papaya, and me, lightly covered in raw silk spreading strawberry jam on my toast. My observer would see our Filipina maid in her neat yellow and white uniform walking toward us with a pot of hot coffee. He would notice the potted palmera, the maiden hair fern, the spacious garden at the patio’s edge, smooth and green with brilliant tropical flowers climbing the walls. He would hear Tessie greeting us softly, calling us ma’am and sir. All in all, his impression would be one of gracious living, peace, a measure of success.
I pour milk into my coffee, and Bob cuts his papaya slice—two lengthwise slashes and numerous quick crosscuts. He mentions an appointment he has this morning with the Minister of Finance. “It shouldn’t take long,” he says, “that is, assuming the Minister’s secretary remembers this time to inform him.” He turns his knife on its side and cuts the squares of papaya off the skin. The mist that was resting on the surface of the lagoon at sunrise is gone. A thin slice of the blue Pacific is visible beyond Erakor Peninsula. The air is fresh and warm. A visitor from the United States would be reminded of vacations he’d been on or dreamed of. He would frown at us, suspecting we took the warmth and beauty for granted.
I’ve been doing this for a long time, creating for myself a sympathetic observer. Today though it’s different. Today I’ve moved back a step or two, and I see myself watching the imaginary person who is watching me. It’s a perspective I don’t particularly enjoy. Maybe I’ll get used to it.
***
You can read the rest of the story in the December 22nd issue of SORTES Magazine https://sortes.co/#archiveor you can click on “Stories” at the top of the page.
Oooo. Wonderfully coincidental. Just sliced up a papaya, myself. 😉
Congrats on getting your story published, Nicki!
When we lived in Vanuatu, we had so many papayas that Eugene had to take a load to the office every week to share with his colleagues and the secretaries. It was a new house, and when it was being built, the workers grabbed papayas from one of the many trees they passed on their way to work each day. They ate the papaya for lunch, and left the seeds. I miss not having such a profusion of papayas. They’re so expensive here.
This story sounds oddly familiar and a little too on point for our current times. Congrats on getting your story published.
Thank you, Ally.
A story saved for the right time
Surprisingly so.
Some Americans have a tendency to sneer at the corruption other countries and insist it can never happen here. Of course, the sneerers are probably the ones insisting Trump is innocent…
But good for you for getting your story published!
We have had a long run when corruption was less common and kept under the table. So we could feel good about ourselves. It’s getting embarrassing, though, now.
Like everything, it takes some effort to get a story published. But it’s better than letting it waste away in a documents file.
It does sound like current stories. Things don’t really change, do they?
I didn’t expect it to be so topical when I was writing it. But people and their weaknesses stay the same.
Nicki! How exciting!!! How sad that people are still doing the same thing.
Congrats on your story being published!
Thanks, L. Marie. I’m glad I made the effort to get it published.
That does sound a bit like the current news cycle, Nicki. I guess humans are prone to bad behavior in all corners of the globe, eh?
Thanks for the enticing excerpt.
I guess it’s hard for many people to stand up against power. Thank you for reading.