The next day, Calista woke up in a good mood as she recalled the dream she had.
'Nasty!' she chided herself as she removed the pillow from the bed revealing sparkling coins which brightened her morning further.
"Um. Goddess of wealth, my favorite goddess. You always rock, you know! Mwaa!" she exaggeratedly praised as her swift hands picked three shiny gold coins.
Goddess of wealth: …..
"I think I might as well get married every day!" she joked as she weighed the gold coins in her palm, her eyes squinting with great joy at the thought of waking up to riches.
"Even when I married John, you weren't as generous as you are this time!" she couldn't help but compare as her brows furrowed, recalling how on the morning of the wedding, she was given three silver coins and on the morning after the consummation, she was given just five silver coins.
Was the difference so huge that the first husband got her silver while the second gift her gold?
Was there any sort of scale measuring the quality of husbands she wasn't aware of?
Unfortunately for her, if she was in heaven's realm right now, she would be shocked to learn that it was literally the case.
Who made her marry an older man who was no longer with vigor and vitality? And to make it worse, a married one with kids older than her?
When comparing husbands, despite Orson's dubious background, he was still a better candidate than John by far.
Unfortunately, she was too lazy to think that far.
"With so much money, I guess I don't have to worry about getting that wasteland. The funds and been raised, and that remains is to get it in my name."
Calista stashed her money in the drawer before she went to wash up quickly, changed into another clean black dress, and went downstairs.
When she appeared, Orson was already awake and after greeting each other, with Calista's lecherous gaze roaming all over Orson, another beautiful day started.
The wedding was going to officially start in the late afternoon, so there was still a lot of time to spare.
The altar was completed and, looking at it, Calista felt teary. She couldn't help but recall her first marriage. Although she was a second wife, the Green family, despite their dislike for her, still built an altar for her.
There wasn't anything too fancy but being with John that day as they were blessed to become one filled any void she had.
In order to not attract too much hate, she had a low-key wedding which didn't expose her true self at all and until now she regretted it. If she had done a grand wedding, would her life be that bad after John passed on?
Unfortunately, this time too, she didn't want a grand wedding with a lot of people. Just a grand wedding with the few people who mattered. As long as she gets that marriage certificate, who cares about anything?
That morning, except for Rita and Ba Susan, who didn't come for personal reasons, the others were busy helping Calista with the preparations.
Orson was on the side watching, learning and helping as Tim and Frank dealt with the pig's head, which was going to be used to prepare a special type of dish called seswaa.
Seswaa dish is a special dish which is cooked in an easy and not-so-easy way, depending on how the cook sees it.
It is a slow-cooked shredded meat dish cooked in a cauldron or three-legged pot, which is perfect for fire stoves.
To make the dish, the cook would require beef, and the one without bones would be the best. Onion, salt and some spices would also be required to add some flavor to the dish.
When cooking seswaa, the cook would first cut the chunk of beef into pieces and add the onion, salt, and spices. Add it to the three-legged pot with some water and put it on fire but not an overzealous kind of fire since the meat needs to be cooked slowly for hours.
After four to five hours, the meat would be cooked off, but that wouldn't be the end of it. When all the liquid or soup from the beef is cooked off, the cook should use a wooden spoon to pound or mash up the beef until the beef can fall apart easily.
It would look shredded once it's pounded nicely and accordingly.
Depending on how the people like it, the meat might also be added some spices and condiments for more flavor.
Seswaa can be served with pap or thick cornmeal porridge depending on what you call it, alongside vegetables to complete a meal.
Apart from the beef, the men were responsible for making pork seswaa from the pig's head as well.
As for the ladies, the first half of the day, they were busy cooking endlessly, enticing the men who were outside to swallow their saliva as they wanted to eat whatever they were cooking inside.
Calista wasn't stingy at all and to celebrate her wedding, she prepared some skewers, adding the marinated various kinds of meat she prepared beforehand and vegetables.
She also roasted some of the marinated meat and braaied the rest.
Feeling too generous, she prepared several stew dishes and showed Susan and her mother how a woman could play with her ingredients.
Without any time to make complicated bread, she cooked papata, known as flatbread, which doesn't require any yeast of raising to bake.
She also cooed samosas, a stuffed pastry which was very delicious and addictive as well. As long as it was cooked well, it was difficult to let go.
She didn't forget to add some steamed dumplings, which were not only light but tender when eaten.
But that wasn't all in regard to what they were cooking.
Calista added a pot of white rice and salad, a dish that the ladies had never seen before.
Unfortunately, they didn't see how Calista made the strange tangy-tasting ingredient she added to the cabbage which made the uncooked cabbage taste that great.
However, they were still grateful as they would be able to savor this slowly without fighting with others this dish when it was eating time.
They were now looking forward to it.