The Mistress of Spices

Haroun is not at home, and his neighbor, Hameeda, comes out to sit on Haroun’s stoop with Tilo while she waits. Hameeda tells Tilo about how her husband recently left her for another woman, leaving her to care for their daughter alone. When Hameeda mentions Haroun, Tilo senses that there is a budding romance between them, and she fervently hopes it will work out.

Haroun arrives very late, stumbling and bleeding from his head. Hameeda calls another neighbor—a man named Rahman who was a doctor in Pakistan before coming to America. He stitches up the gash on Haroun’s head and confirms that his skull is not broken. He says it looks like Haroun was attacked with an iron rod.

Watching over Haroun as he sleeps, Tilo regrets her timid obedience to the rules, which prevented her from finding him sooner. She vows to help him now, regardless of the cost. She returns to the shop early in the morning to find a lump of alum on the floor. The spice purifies, but it can also be deadly. When she holds it in her hand, she sees a vision of the firebird. This is the message the Old Mother warned her about on the island. She has violated the rules of her role, and Shampati’s fire is coming for her. She has three nights remaining.

Angry at what has happened to Haroun, Tilo breaks open a container of red chilies, releasing their anger into the city. The chilies grant her a brief vision in which she can converse with the Old One. The Old One tells Tilo that when she was a Mistress, she too was recalled, forced to enter Shampati’s fire a second time. She was reborn on the island to serve as mother to the next generation of Mistresses. She promises to intercede on Tilo’s behalf to secure the same fate for her.

Geeta arrives with her father and grandfather. Her grandfather is in great pain from the spice mixture Tilo gave him. Geeta’s father tells Tilo that he wanted to bring the grandfather to the hospital, but the grandfather insisted on coming to the spice store instead. Tilo tells Geeta’s father that the remedy is in her storeroom and that he and Geeta will have to get it. She then locks them inside until they reconcile.

After Geeta and her family leave, Raven comes in and shares more of his story with Tilo. After his great-grandfather’s death, he drifted aimlessly for a while before deciding to go to business school. He believed that money would allow him to remake himself to become anything he pleased. He made millions in the stock market, and he lost touch with his mother. When he tried to send her a check for $100,000, seeing it as a kind of revenge, it came back marked undeliverable. He never saw her again.  After taking psilocybin mushrooms, he looked in the mirror and saw his face with dead eyes, and he realized he was living an empty life. He’d taken an overdose of the mushrooms, and he ended up in the hospital, close to death. In the hospital, he had a powerful dream about a raven and an earthly paradise, which he believes is connected to Tilo and a place of true happiness and self-discovery. Lately, he says, he’s been having the dream again. Raven asks Tilo to join him in seeking this paradise, indicating his belief that she is key to finding this place and his true self.

Three bougainvillea girls arrive, looking for ingredients and advice on what to make for a workplace potluck. They flirt with Raven, and Tilo feels a sense of envy and irritation toward their youth and beauty. She believes Raven is attracted to them, and when they leave and he asks her again about seeking the earthly paradise, she is unsure how to answer. She decides that she will use the power of the spices to make herself young and beautiful for her last meeting with Raven, before leaving him and Oakland forever.

Tilo decides to use the powerful spice, makaradwaj, to transform herself into a being of unparalleled beauty, a request that is both a personal desire and a final act of defiance against the strict rules she’s been bound by. She consumes the spice recklessly, experiencing intense pain and a physical transformation.

As she adjusts to the changes, Tilo reflects on her journey and the lives she has touched. She appears many years younger now, and when customers come in, she identifies herself as Tilo’s niece, saying that Tilo has had to close her shop because of an unexpected health emergency. Geeta’s grandfather comes in and, believing that he is speaking to Tilo’s niece, expresses gratitude for Tilo’s help and tells her that Geeta and her parents are getting along now, and Geeta’s father has even asked her to invite Juan over for dinner so he can meet him. Everyone talks about how much Tilo has meant to the community.

A mail carrier comes in and hands her a letter, saying that it took a long time to deliver it because the address did not include a zip code. The letter is from Lalita. In it, Lalita tells Tilo that she found the courage to leave her abusive husband. She is now living in a shelter for battered women. Though she is afraid of what the future may hold, she is determined to make a better life for herself.

Jagjit also appears. Tilo uses her remaining resources to give him a chance at a better life, providing him with money and encouraging him to pursue martial arts training at Kwesi’s dojo.