How to Clean a Fish by Esmeralda Cabral

Author:Esmeralda Cabral [Cabral, Esmeralda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The University of Alberta Press
Published: 2023-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Our Guests

I stood in the shower and let the hot water run over me. I mentally walked through my day—go to the market, buy fish, come home, clean the house, do the laundry, hang up the laundry, drive to the airport, pick up guests, come home, walk to the beach with guests, come home, start dinner. Phew. Eric often worked from home and Georgia interspersed doing her online schoolwork with walking Maggie and going into town with me to buy groceries. She helped me clean up but preparing for guests was largely my job—and this kind of mental preparation in the shower happened often.

In the months leading up to our departure for Lisbon, I had invited numerous people to visit us in Portugal. If I ran into someone on the street, even someone I hadn’t seen in months, I’d tell them we were moving to Portugal for a while and then add, “You should come visit.” At one point I remember Eric telling me to be careful, that if everyone I invited showed up, we wouldn’t have any time on our own.

“It’s part of my strategy,” I assured him. “If you invite ten people, one will come.”

“Just be sure to leave some time for us to be there on our own, and maybe do some travelling,” he said.

Sure enough, once spring arrived, we had a steady stream of visitors. There were six sets of overnight guests over an eight-week period. In addition, several friends from Vancouver came to Lisbon for conferences and although they didn’t stay with us, we met for dinner at restaurants or enjoyed nights of fado at various clubs.

Our visitors included family members, friends, a new colleague of mine that I didn’t know very well, and her husband, whom I had never met. There were friends of my late sister Maria who had become my friends, and our neighbours from Vancouver. This intense period of hosting took its toll on the introverts in my family and, if I am honest with myself, it impacted me too. For a few weeks, I ran on autopilot—cooking, cleaning, doing laundry—and thought of little else. But there was something about all of us being able to sit down and converse with our friends, in English, that was easy and comfortable. I felt more relaxed when I wasn’t in translation mode, and I didn’t have to worry about making sure that Eric and Georgia felt included in conversations. In English, at least, they could look after themselves.

Despite all the work involved, I enjoy hosting people in my home and cooking for them. It brings me so much pleasure. Cooking breakfast is especially gratifying. I am not a big breakfast eater, but I like slow, meandering mornings, when I can chat with friends over coffee and fresh bread, pick at fruit, or devour pancakes or waffles. The extrovert in me loves to socialize and the Portuguese in me likes to do that over food. I can stay at a table for hours after

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