Side Dish

“Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,
And ye that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him

Guy allowed the smells and sights and sounds to swirl around him like cigarette smoke, taking it all in. He didn’t say much just watched the mother, father, daughter and uncle talk and laugh about their day, what the world was coming to, their fears, everything.

On that warm, slightly blustery, early evening Harry quietly looked around at the motley crew gathered around the two giant, mismatched tables. There were twinkling bubbles floating about like giant fireflies, charmed to light up the party goers. Huge platters of pickled tomatoes with bacon, potatoes with pea pesto, giant roasted turkey legs and many other dishes covered the space between him and his friends.

This afternoon a very familial, warm feeling creeping through out Tita’s whole being while she was stirring the colorful limas. Welling up inside of her was the bright yellow-green exuberance of a new life growing within.

Tita had an undeniable urge to escape. To escape from the ancestral ranch which she had always called home, from the confines of her own fevered mind, but most of all, from the tyrannical clutches of her embittered Mama. She longed leave this place with Pedro and never return; or perhaps if she had not been cursed by being born a niña.