An informally formal dinner
1788 Words
Natia awakened to the sound of a continuous knock on the door. She slowly raised her head. ‘Oh, s**t!’ It was nearly dark in the room. The sun has set a long time ago. Natia looked at her phone. Eight o’clock!! Really! She scrambled out of bed and went to open the door.
It was Sofia. “It’s dinner time.” She said, and gave Maria a once over. “Are you coming like that?”
“Uh..no. No.” Natia knew she must be looking terrible. “How much time do I have?” She asked.
“Ten- fifteen minutes max.” Sofia replied after pondering for a moment. “Mama hates waiting.” She added.
“Okay. I will take a quick shower and run there. Where are we going?” Natia moved to her backpack and began to get her things for the shower.
“The dining room on the sixth deck.”
“What?!” Natia took another look at Sofia. She was wearing a green, off-shoulder, knee-length dress and looking so...fashionably formal? She knew Sofia was studying fashion designing in Paris. But, still....It’s a family dinner after all.
“Is somebody else coming for dinner?”
“Somebody else?” Sofia asked her, confused.
“Do I have to wear something formal?”
Now Sofia had a little smirk on her face.
“Were you planning to come in your night dress?”
“No. But,..”
Sofia just shrugged and turned to leave. “I will see you at dinner.”
Natia was a little confused but she didn’t have time to ponder over it. So she just grabbed a pair of jeans and shirt and ran to the bathroom.
Natia reached the dining room ten minutes later.
“I was beginning to wonder if you got lost on the way here.” Vera was seated at the head of the table. Valentin on her right and Sofia next to him.
“Sorry. I overslept.”
A derisive snort came from the side. Aleksandr was standing near one of the windows looking into the sea.
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” He asked.
“ Of course, you were sleeping. You just had a long journey.” Kindly said Valentin.
Natia noticed it then. Everyone was dressed up a little formally. Aleksandr and Valentin were wearing dress pants and shirts. Vera was elegantly dressed in a dark blue evening gown. ‘ Ah! She was really underdressed.’ she thought. ‘And where was papa?’
“Your father is in a business meeting. He told us to start the dinner. He will join us shortly. It’s just family after all”, Vera told her. She had a disapproving look on her face. Whether it was towards her father for not coming to dinner on time or towards her dress or both, she couldn’t tell. And she had a sour expression on her face when she said ‘family.’
“Okay,” said Natia, and she moved to the table.
Someone pulled a chair out for her. It was Aleksandr. She looked at him surprised. ‘Really?!’ He raised an eyebrow at her which clearly meant ‘Are you going to sit or not?’ So she sat down quickly. And he sat down next to her, to the immediate left of Vera.
It really looked like a formal dinner. Many forks and knives and spoons are placed on the sides of a big plate. Natia sighed. She never went to a formal dinner. And had no idea which cutleries to use when.
First came the soup. It was a cold soup. There were many raw veggies in it- cucumbers, radishes, scallions etc.; and many other things such as boiled potatoes, eggs and.... beef?. Anyway, it was nice. She just used the spoon with a rounded bowl which seemed more appropriate for the soup. And it seemed to be the right one.
Next was the fish- some kind of bony fish, fried. Natia was never a fish-eating expert. She liked fish though- the boneless ones. She could never eat bony fishes neatly like grandpa. And she wasn’t like grandma or mom who were unbothered by the bones. Still, she could eat a bony fish half decently, though with chop sticks.
How was she supposed to eat it with a knife and a fork? Agh! She stared at the array of forks and knives. Which ones was she supposed to use? Wasn’t there some easy way to know that? Like 'from outside to in', something like that? Or was it 'from inside to out'?
Can she ask someone which cutlery she should use, or better, ask for a pair of chopsticks? Vera, Valentin and Aleksandr were in some conversation in Russian. She looked in front of her. Which one was Sofia using? But, feeling her gaze on her, Sofia turned to look at her and narrowed her eyes. It must be rude to watch someone eating. Natia returned her gaze to her plate. 'Ah! well, how bad can it be?' She grabbed the knife and fork closest to the plate and began eating.
Was she supposed to cut the bones too? She doesn’t know. She tried to remove the bones as much as possible with the fork. The first few bites were okay until something caught in her throat. Natia coughed, tears forming in her eyes. She reached for a glass of water.
“That’s my..” Aleksandr started to say something. But, Natia didn’t wait for him to finish. What if it was his water? Can’t he see she badly needs it? She drank the water in one go. But the liquid burned her throat and all the way to her stomach. She was coughing more rigorously now. Tears fell continuously from her eyes. She clutched her throat with one hand and chest with the other. She felt like she couldn’t breathe.
“.. vodka” she heard Aleksandr finishing. Of course you fool. It was a shot glass. Not a water glass. She was just focusing on the colorless liquid in it, in her hurry. It was a wonder she didn’t spat out everything, across her on Sofia.
Someone thumped her on the back. Must be Aleksandr. He was the one who sat next to her. “Give her some water,” said somebody. Valentin? She couldn’t focus. Someone put a glass to her lips. She managed to take some sips.
“She must have caught the fish bones in her throat.”
“And the vodka too. I don’t think she ever had one.”
The water eased the burning in her throat and chest, but only a little. However, she could focus now.
Sofia had a worried expression on her face. But it vanished as soon as she caught Natia looking at her. Instead she tsk-tsked, shaking her head. Aleksandr was annoyed, while Valentin looked a little concerned. Vera had a highly disapproving face, like Natia had done all this deliberately.
“Eat some bread. It will help with the fish bones. And will soak up vodka too.” Valentin said.
Natia took a piece of the dark rye bread and began to eat it. She remembered grandpa saying something like that too, for the fish bones caught in the throat.' Eat bread or cooked rice'. And it worked. She no longer felt the thing stuck in her throat. Only the sourness due to the burn of vodka remained.
She reached for more water. Someone swatted her hands away.
“These are for me.” Aleksandr looked frustrated. “Yours are on your right side.”
“Oh! okay.” She reached for the water glass on her right. ‘Oh! That’s how she got the vodka shot glass. Because she took it from her left. She doesn’t have a shot glass on her right side.’ she thought.
“Are you alright? It must be your first time drinking alcohol, right? Asked Valentin.
“I have had wine before. But, never something as strong as this.” She replied.
“You should eat more. It will help,” he said.
“Really?! How old are you then?” It was Sofia.
“I am seventeen.”
“Seventeen?!!”
“I thought you were sixteen!” Valentin and Aleksandr said almost at the same time.
She looked at them surprised. Aleksandr looked a little confused, while Valentin.... A lot of emotions flashed at the moment on his face. And some of it frightened her. However, he schooled his expressions quickly.
Natia wondered what the deal was. Why would they seem almost sure that she was sixteen? There must be some confusion. Also, she only turned seventeen this month.
“Yeah..I had my seventeenth birthday this month.”
Aleksandr just shrugged it off in his ‘whatever-I-don’t-care’ way. Valentin seemed to be pondering on something. But, everybody resumed eating.
Natia looked at her fish again. ‘Agh! What a bother.’ She put her fork and knife to the side and began to remove the bones with her hands.
“What are you doing?” Aleksandr asked her. He had his disapproving face.
“Eating.” She simply said.
“Use your fork and knife.”
“I can’t take out the bones with it.”
“That’s because you have taken the wrong fork and knife. Take the outer most ones.”
‘Ah! So it was from“outside to inward”. Not “inside to out”. She thought.
She took the said knife and fork. Aleksandr began to show her how it was done. He had cut-off the head of his fish. Then he began to cut the body of the fish along the spine to the tail; turned the upper part over and, with the help of his fork, pried the bones and separated them from the meat.
It looked very easy when he did that. But, Natia was sure she wouldn’t be able to do it with that ease.
“Leave her be.” Said Valentin. He seemed to have come to his former self.
“Rybu, ptitsu i devitsu berut golymi rukami”, he added with a wink.
Aleksandr shook his head, not satisfied, while Natia looked at Valentin confused.
“It means ‘fish, birds and girls are taken with bare hands’.” He told her. "That's what the folk wisdom says."
“Oh” She said. She felt like he said it, just to make her feel better. Eating fish and meat with bare hands doesn’t seem like something the society here approves of. Especially in the high class families like the Orlovs and Alekseevs.
- Writer
