Chapter 6 Aunt Cee’s CollagesAunt Cee’s room is just like her, full of surprises.Sandy is curled up in a huge Ottoman-style divan, while Rhea’s eyes are glued on a rotating crystal ball, droning on about her past life.However, what I am most fascinated by is my aunt’s collection of books. She has a collection of tales from lands far away, with unpronounceable names and stories about topics we had never heard about. Also, and hear this—a dozen books on how to be a coffee connoisseur!Aunt Cee loves coffee. She has tried the hot Kopi Tiams of Jakarta and fragrant brews from plantation-grown coffee beans of Assam to the kahwas of the Middle East. She told us once that she had dipped her khubz (Arabic bread) in pure mountain honey and drunk steaming coffee from an enameled cup with a beestung farmer in a honey farm in Kalba.“What a healthy man he was, and all due to the half dozen or so bee stings he got every day,’’ she recounted with a laugh.Aunt Cee has also won our hearts with her penchant for anything chocolatey… from Parisian bon bons and Turkish pistachio halwas to gooey cupcakes, silver-lined sweets, and a tray of delectables are always present on her carved mahogany desk. Then, there are pictures of these goodies pasted everywhere in her collages, along with the travel tales.She often brings such goodies home, and you can be sure we gobble them up before you can say the word chocoholic.Huge collages decorate Aunt Cee’s room, from corner to another. There are Moroccan lamps and carpet wall hangings, smiling Buddhas and dancing deities… seeming like you are strolling in an Egyptian bazaar.But we are on a mission. “Aunt Cee,” we begin as soon as she saunters into her den.“Hey guys, hope you’re having a great time.” She smiles and looks pleased to see us.She waves a few pairs of handsome harem pants at us.“Come here! Look at what I bought for all three of you. Aren’t these just the cutest Ali Baba pants? Check these out, straight from a souk in Cairo.”“Thank you, Aunt Cee, they are cool. But we do need something else from you,’’ I begin.“Yes, remember we spoke to you about the exhibition of your collages?” Sandy and Rhea step in to tell my aunt of our plan to save the tsunami-hit village of Lipu Lipu.Aunt Cee is silent for a moment, looking visibly shaken.“Oh, my kind dearies,” she says finally. “Of course. Of course, you can take any of my collages. They are all yours.”