Highway House (ebook)

Argumento de Highway House (ebook)

Highway House is as tasty and well-seasoned as the work of Danielle Steel and Armistead Maupin combined, with a dash of the Book of Job.

Two turtles were fucking away in a cove at Chatham Island, unaware that five black lizards, each between two and four feet long and apparently sleeping, were watching every excitable movement and hearing their groans, moans and roars. Among the observers was Charles Darwin, studying the behavior and taking notes. Darwin had just arrived at Chatham in the Galapagos Islands. His stomach was still swirling from nausea engendered by the long voyage, but he was exhilarated by his observations of these ponderous but strangely graceful creatures who would later be principal actors in creating his scientific revolution?the theory of evolution. The Testudo Vicina of Galapagos sometimes grew to 450 pounds and looked to be small grand pianos walking about protected by their thick armaments and a brilliant instinct for defense. When confronted by a predator, they simply scrunched in their heads, pulled in their appendages and just sat disguised as some igneous boulders until the predator got bored and moved on in search of a more vulnerable target. These two tortoises were insatiable in their ardor for one another. Charles, not wishing to interrupt their pleasure, produced a small bottle of indelible red dye, specially prepared by a London chemist, and a paintbrush. He lightly brushed his initials on their shells. He would hope to discover them again, in a more discreet circumstance, perhaps even to find the female?s nest and eggs for further study. Indeed, he did encounter them once again, recognizing his symbol on their backs. In his book, The Voyage of The Beagle, he wrote, ?I met two large tortoises, each of which must have weighed at least two hundred pounds; one was eating a piece of cactus, and as I approached it stared at me and slowly stalked away; the other gave a deep hiss, and drew in its head. These huge reptiles, surrounded by black lava, the leafless shrubs and large cacti, seemed to my fancy like some antediluvian animals.?? Roughly 600 miles off the western equatorial coast of South America, the Galapagos Archipelago was in the year 1835 surely the ultimate isolation and desolation on the planet, the ideal home for two turtles desiring a modicum of privacy and an environment that would give them the greatest insurance of a long life together. The Testudo Vicina achieve full size early in life. The amorous young couple, happened upon by Charles Darwin, had already grown to the size and weight they would maintain for nearly a century and a half. It would be that long before their demise, which would not occur in a natural way. The two turtles were eventually to be abducted and transported some 10,000 miles from their ?Enchanted Island.?? There, the female would be executed and the flavors of her flesh which, like a great vintage wine, had natured for nearly a century and a half, would simmer in a giant caldron and produce a soup of historic importance. Her immense shell would be planed flat and affixed, upside down, to the back of her mate and become the tureen to hold the steaming potage. ?It will be a culinary presentation without precedent,? thought Otto Strauss. ?The male turtle will make his entrance into the dining room and slowly circle the table as some reptilian pallbearer, carrying the remains of his ancient lover. A waiter in braided epaulettes, carrying a long silver ladle, dips into the steaming tortoise bowl and serves each guest. It will be a spectacle for the eye, a paradise for the palate, a ?gastronomical poem.??? Still visible, but barely, on the turtles? backs, were the initials C.D. One can only wonder if these ancient reptiles, captured from the ?center of creation? and monogrammed by Charles Darwin himself, would not by some spiritual or evolutionary process, get their sweet revenge on the chic diners about to assemble at Highway House.0