The Parenthood Drabbles

Pass the Peas

In the style of Esperanza Valdez

The sound of clinking cutlery was the only thing sparing the dinner table from being completely uncomfortable. Esperanza barely touched her food, she felt sick even though it was evening.

"This is fantastic, Mom." Rosa said.

"Thank you dearest," Mom said. "I'm very glad we're all here, that Esperanza and abuelo are feeling better and well enough to join us."

Abuelo grinned crookedly from his seat next to her. There was a bug passing around the workshop. Though Sammy was too old and battered up to work there anymore he spent all of his time supervising and hanging out in the workshop, ergo why he'd had the flu all week.

Esperanza was glad that he was better too. Thanksgiving wouldn't have felt right if it wasn't at Abuelo's house.

"Did you have the flu too, Esperanza? I told you that workshop is a nasty place for you to be," Mom said waving her fork at her.

"She's right Anza," Aunt Isabella said.

"Nonsense, leave her alone." Abuelo said, rising to defend Anza like he always did.

Her family was conservative, too pious and too traditional. There were a variety of reasons why- notably the mothers being that way. Out of the three generations before her that had lived in America -let it be New Orleans or Houston-, Esperanza was the first woman ever to go to university.

"Anza here is more efficient than all of us combined," Uncle Emilio said.

"She's allowed to do what she likes," Uncle David who rarely talked because he only spoke English brought up. Her cousin Sebastian fluffed her hair and she elbowed him to tell him to back off, which made Samuel, Diego and Dylan laugh. The aforementioned six men all worked at the family workshop, and they were Esperanza's favourite people- particularly for conversations like this.

"That doesn't mean anything, I agree with Isabella and Fernanda." Aunt Agustina said.

Esperanza so wasn't in the mood for this.

"To avoid a conversation I've had a million times with all of you about my career; no, I didn't catch the flu that's going around the workshop." Esperanza said pulling the subject away. She didn't even work there half of the time anyways. She was either too busy working at the restaurant, whose owner she still owed university money to, or looking for another job. She loved Sammy's workshop, nobody should think otherwise, but it'd feel really good to have gotten the mechanical engineering degree for a reason- for a bigger job, a bigger innovation, and something a little more important than fixing cars.

"It's that restaurant you work at," Abuela -Sammy's snappy ex-wife that was an ex for a hell of a good reason- said. "Their food is poisoned. It isn't natural."

"It's not that," Esperanza said but she was getting grumpy and irritated and even a bit scared. They were pushing more and more and even if the women in her family were about as stupid as a bag of bricks when their intelligence was collective and they thought they were living in the dark ages, but they weren't blunt. They'd figure it out sooner or later and when that happened...

Thankfully one of her cousins, she didn't see which, had her back and so the conversation shifted to something else. The second it did Esperanza wondered if she should have said something. It was Thanksgiving, everyone was eating turkey which made her family lazy and relaxed, Mom wouldn't smack the life out of her in front of people, tomorrow was a bank holiday so everyone who took it onto themselves to be pissed would have time to blow off some steam...

She let it go for a while and just played with the food in her plate that wasn't appetizing.

"Esperanza, you should try the peas." Aunt Fernanda said. "I found a new recipe."