Of Pistachios and Large Hats

 

 

“It is like eating pistachios” she said.

The hill looked over the small town, and the sun was at its zenith.

“If you take a handful of pistachios roasted in their shell, you start with the one with the shell wide open. It is easier to get the nut out that way. After a few, you start checking the pistachios hoping to have a different taste. Sometimes you use your thumbnails to open one that is only slightly cracked. That is the surprise element, when you hope that the protected nut will have a more distinct taste.”

Her large-brim hat made the brown of her eyes capricious.

“But you were told not to eat a pistachio whose shell had not opened, yes? Perhaps because it was not ready to open. Or, that it was not mature enough. No matter, there are plenty of opened–shell pistachios in the bag. And, sometimes there also are empty shells from which the nuts have fallen out. Perhaps their inside was too small, or that their shell opened too wide.

But why do you keep on eating? I think it is because you once had the most wonderful taste from a pistachio and you are hoping to relive that taste. Perhaps it was a pistachio from Aleppo, or Isfahan. And it was salted, and the shell was covered with cayenne pepper dust. You were at the seaside, or perhaps under a pine tree in the mountains. You threw the shelled pistachio in your mouth, licked the pepper and moistured your mouth in salt. Then, took it out, opened the shell and tasted the most wonderful pistachio of your life.

And you never had the taste in you since.

See, that is why you cannot eat only one pistachio. Now, it is not the taste alone that you like, but the mere search for that old taste.”

For a short moment we watched pigeons fly over us.

"Yet, you know that you will not relive that taste again, yes? Because, that pistachio was more than what you ate. It was the seaside where you once sat; and it was that pine tree in the mountains that gave you shade."

The large brim of her hat now made her eyes less capricious.

 

February 3, 2023

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2023