Redemption Song by Tanya Anne Crosby

Author:Tanya Anne Crosby [Crosby, Tanya Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fiction Studio Books
Published: 2017-10-13T20:14:55+00:00

Ten

I don’t think of all the misery,

but of all the beauty that remains.

– Anne Frank

The kitchen smelled of seafood, spices, and warm, fresh bread. The frenetic sound of a flamenco guitar filtered in through the open window from the stereo on the terraza below.

Snacking on cheese and jamón and sipping wine as they cooked, Caía and Marta giggled like schoolgirls as the real child stood, perched upon a kitchen chair, supervising the cooking like a duenna. Laura’s conspicuousness in the kitchen was not only tolerated but welcome, and every now and again, Marta handed the five-year-old a glass to sip from, pulling it back when Laura drank too deeply. It should be old news by now, but the sight of Laura’s hands wrapped about the sides of a wine glass never ceased to surprise Caía. If they should happen to go out for a drink, or take in a flamenco show, Laura always tagged along. Together they’d become a gleesome threesome. It felt so good to laugh. Wiping her eyes and lifting a stray glass of wine, Caía asked, “Is this mine?”

“Phht,” Marta replied, waving a hand in dismissal. “What does it matter? Soon we will be drinking from the bottle anyway.” They were finishing number two, and ready for number three.

“So true,” Caía said and proceeded to chug the last sip, then she wandered over to look into the pot that sat boiling on the stove. “So, what are these again?”

“Cañaíllas,” Laura shouted.

The aroma was perhaps that of seafood, but the contents looked more like deformed escargot. “Are they sea snails?”

“No,” said Marta. “More like conchas.”

“Yummy, yummy for my tummy,” Laura exclaimed. Using the phrase her uncle had taught her last night, she rubbed her belly with exaggerated circular motions. Really, Laura’s grasp of the English language was far better than Caía would have supposed. With her too-big apron slightly askew, she held a wooden spoon in her right hand. “Can I spin them now, Mamá?” She danced, or more like wiggled. “Can I? Can I?”

“Can you stir them,” Caía corrected her, but reluctantly, because in fact, she would be “spinning” them as well. The distinction scarcely held any merit, though she was bound to play the part of a dutiful English tutor, regardless that on any given day she felt more like a student. Even Laura had taught her so much about living in the moment.

Marta ignored her daughter’s question as she sprinkled salt into the pot with a furrowed brow. “This is all you need, a bit of salt and maybe pepper. And, yes, you can make it spicy as well, but then my Laura will not like it too much.”

“Yes! I do like too much,” Laura corrected her mother, smacking her belly with the wooden spoon. “I do like it too much in my belly because they are yummy in my tummy!”

The child’s excitement was inexhaustible.

“Yes,” Marta said, turning to seize her daughter’s spoon from her hand. She rapped Laura gently upon the head with it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.