Author & Artist Jan Eliot
Reading & Book Signing
Thursday, November 21
7:00 p.m. • Free
UO Bookstore
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
BOOKSTORE
More information online at uobookstore.com
You are cordially invited to participate in designing
the future EMU.
This free-flowing forum with the EMU Master Plan
architects is open to the entire campus community.
Please drop by at your convenience.
O
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
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Woman slips Michael
clues about women
Chapter 8.
At last!
In Chapter 7, on a plane to Hong
Kong, Monty filled Michael with
10,000 years of population statis
tics, and the green-eyed woman
kept reading.
The Emerald is printing “And the
Dew is Our National Treasure” in
serial form, with an installment
every Tuesday in the Pulse Relax
section. Earlier installments can he
found at www. dailyemerald. com.
At the moment I begin to speak,
the woman with green eyes jerks for
ward, sending a wave of glistening,
scented hair cascading around her
shoulder. She makes a small, cute
“snih” of a sneeze. Magnificent! Then
she sneezes again, undoes her seat
belt, stands and walks away.
“People think we just need more
food,” says Monty, more successful in
his pursuit than I am in mine. “And
with more land under cultivation, and
more chemicals, we should have it. But
we overwork the land, depleting the
soil. World food production is declin
ing, Also, we lose 24 to 26 billion tons of
topsoil each year. And we use more en
ergy: In 1900, it took one calorie of en
ergy to produce one calorie of food. To
day it takes 12 to produce one.”
I no longer feel like being civil.
“Why do you waste your time on
something that can’t be stopped?”
“But it can,” he says. “In every cul
ture where women get more educa
tion, birth rates go down.”
The intercom clicks on and the
stewardess announces: “We begin
our descent to Hong Kong... “
Immediately, I stand and look
around. The girl with green eyes is five
rows back. And Fate left an empty seat
beside her! I hurry, take the seat, catch
my breath, and begin “You remind me
of someone.” God, how stupid! She
keeps reading. “I mean, you remind
me of someone I’m looking for, some
one who’s vanished.”
Without turning her head, she asks,
“And do you think I am she?” Her use of
the correct pronoun suits her bearing.
“No.”
She scrutinizes my face quickly,
then turns back to her reading.
Where's
wjr s<m
Kerensa?
“It’sjust,” I stammer, “that she left.”
No response. “Just left. Without real
goodbyes. Where would a young
woman, a young attractive, unmarried
woman, a woman such as yourself, go
if she walked away from everything?”
She closes her book but doesn’t
raise her eyes. I wait. Then she asks,
“Was she your lover?”
“No.” More long seconds. She
looks at me. Her face seems sad. I
take a breath. “I’m willing to hear
anything,” I say.
Her lip quivers, and her shoulders
tense. Then she tosses back her hair
as though to shake off whatever re
strains her. “For thrills, my high
school friends would steal outhouses
and line them up on Main. It was
Iowa fun. But I wanted a bigger life,
and the boy who owned the local
hardware had dreams of expanding,
so we got engaged.
Then the chain stores moved in,
and he took a job at Home Depot. Our
families went from being merchants to
being wage earners over night. All we
had left to keep our dignity was tradi
tion, which meant for me marriage,
children, laundry and old age.” She
blinks back a tear. “It was easier to van
ish than to see them hurt again.”
She turns away and searches in
her purse. Her shoulders shake.
Then she sits up bravely and holds
back her hair. “In many countries, a
young, educated woman is the last
reward of an elder statesman’s tri
umphs. I attend a dozen events each
year, staying for a week or two, de
lighting in the best of people, food,
everything. Then I’m free in every
way except to go back home. ”
Peter Wright is a printer living
in Portland. He received his bachelor's
degrees from UC Berkeley, served
in the U.S. Navy, worked as a stock
broker and taught at Stanford University.
© Peter Wright, 2002. All rights reserved.
Chai
continued from page 3
found at almost any grocery store.
The idea is to mix all these things
up in varying degrees with a small
amount of water, then boil them into a
concentrate. And then of course, add
the tea itself. Most chai is caffeinated,
because it’s usually mixed with certain
types of black tea. Green tea is also
used, but it’s caffeinated, as well.
There is no reason decaffeinated teas
can’t be used, however. Another tea
commonly used with chai these days
is mate—it contains no caffeine.
If you’re going to pursue the home
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ourmet Cafe Food
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Salads & Wraps
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4pm—Midnight
made route, some good advice would
be to use whole ingredients. For exam
ple, use whole nutmeg instead of pow
dered, real vanilla beans instead of
vanilla concentrate, etc. These things
are sometimes harder to find, but the
fun part here is grinding everything
down with a mortar and pestle.
For a final touch, add milk, honey
or sugar. For an even richer result, use
sweetened milk, condensed milk or
half and half.
Or try something entirely different.
All of these suggestions are somewhat
arbitrary, so the experimentation is the
best part.
Contact the Pulse reporter
at aaronshakra@dailyemerald.com.
CUlty
SPAGHETTI
4 garlic bread
*3“
Every Tuesday
PIZZA
PETE’S
2506 Willakenzie 1344-0998
Oasis Plaza
2673 Willamette 484-0996
27th and Willamette