Chapter 3: Peak Pancake

A couple of days later, I realized I was about to endure another restless and uncomfortable night with little sleep. Knowing I wouldn’t be able to keep still, I begged Ellie to leave me and spend the night on the extra bed in Sparkle’s room, the one she used when her child was much smaller.

Once again, I distracted myself with reliving events from my past, as if they were old movies playing on a laptop screen.

Coach Jackson opened his front door for me at exactly seven o’clock.

“Hello, Daniel, C’mon in. Lena is waiting for you in the kitchen, it’s on your right.”

He followed behind me, absently paging through a few envelopes he picked up that had been pushed through the mail slot in his front door. Passing through the archway into the kitchen, I stopped short, totally stunned. He didn’t notice, and collided with my back. We both staggered a bit.

“Oof! What’s wrong?”

“This, this is your wife?” I whispered.

“Yes, Lena Jackson, meet Daniel Lyon.”

“She’s beautiful! Uh, sorry, Mrs. Jackson, I’m pleased to meet you. Coach, can I sit down for a minute?”

“Sure, take that chair. And don’t apologize for saying my wife is beautiful, because she is.”

After sitting, I held the kitchen table’s edge, trying to steady myself.

“Are you alright, Daniel? You look like you’ve seen a ghost?”

Lena’s smile had faded into a look of concern. I suppose it must have seemed like I was wobbly from malnutrition or something, but that wasn’t the problem. She was standing by the stove wearing an apron, with the promised pancakes already underway.

Lena staggered me, she was almost a twin of my late mother. The same curvy body and lovely face, around the same height and weight, and so on. The biggest difference was, compared to Lena, my mother and I had a darker complexion and hair color.

Eyebrows, lips, nose, and most of all, her smile—all of it shook me to the core. I’m sure my eyes were glistening and my hands were trembling. And then Lena made it all worse by sitting next to me and putting her hand on my shoulder, almost exactly like Mama used to...

“Lou, take care of the stove, please. Daniel, please tell me, what’s wrong. Why are you looking at me this way?”

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t, I can’t; maybe I should go?”

I started to push myself upright. Then she flashed an angry look. Fuck me! Just like Mama would have! The same expression which she would use.

“You sit in that chair and tell me what the hell is going on!”

“I’m sorry...”

“Stop apologizing! Spit it out!”

“You look just exactly like my mother, Lena, I...”

“OK, and this is a problem because?”

Coach answered her, because I couldn’t say it.

“Lena, his mother is ... she’s passed. He’s almost completely on his own. There’s just a stepfather who neglects him.”

I couldn’t look at her anymore, it hurt too much. Instead, I stared at my scruffy shoes, trying not to sniffle.

“I’m so sorry, Daniel. Please tell me her name.”

“Lisa Valdez,” I whispered. “Her parents were from Guatemala.”

Looking up, briefly, I watched my hosts exchange looks.

“We could be distantly related, Daniel, I had a Guatemalan grandmother. Would you mind if I was your third cousin or something?”

I looked into her face again, and she destroyed me with another one of her smiles. I could only shake my head.

“Alright, Daniel, I want you to go into the bathroom over there and wash your face and hands. Come back out when you’re ready and we will get back to the original plan. Lena is going to make pancakes with you so you can practice the technique. We need to move fast, so you and I can eat and then still get to school on time. OK?”

“Yes, coach.”

I didn’t exactly escape to the bathroom quickly, because Lena stood with me and hugged me tightly. When she released me, she swatted my ass and said, “Hurry up!”

She probably noticed the sniffles I couldn’t quite suppress as I left the kitchen.

Forty minutes later, I had an unusual full feeling in my belly. I’d stuffed myself with four large pancakes laden with butter and syrup. Somehow, Lena created something spectacular out of what usually amounts to ordinary breakfast food. Plus, I left the Jackson house with a full package of extra pancakes to reheat for my dinner and breakfast.

I tried to tell them how grateful I was, but they hushed me. Lena explained a new plan for us going forward.

“I’m taking a couple hours off tomorrow. I’ll pick you up after school and we’ll go to the supermarket and then to your house. No, don’t interrupt. From what you’ve told me, your kitchen doesn’t have what you need to cook properly. We’re going to fix that.”

“But, why?”

“Cousin, you’re my good deed of the week. And, once I’ve fattened you up, I’m going to ... well, never mind.”

She winked at me! What the fuck?

“Oh, I’m teasing you, Daniel. Calm down. I just want you to know, I’m aware of your eyes on my body—my tits and my ass. No, don’t apologize! I enjoy appealing to a handsome young man like yourself.”

She left the kitchen, leaving me with her husband and feeling uncertain. It didn’t stop me from carefully watching Lena’s ass on her way out.

“I love watching my wife’s butt, too. C’mon, Daniel, we don’t want to be late.”

My face was probably tomato red, but the coach just lightly punched my upper arm, laughing.

That night was very different for me. Along with enjoying a fully belly after a big pancake from this morning’s batch, I had another strong feeling higher up in my body, in my chest. Something long missing in my life.

A feeling of having family.

Waking the next morning, I had to smile at myself. In my arms, I was hugging a pillow. I dressed, made the coffee, scarfed down another pancake, and left the house before Curtis roused. I just wanted to stay away from his miserable self.

Before the school day ended, I stopped by Coach Jackson’s office.

“Coach, I’m still not quite believing things. You and your wife are really OK with all this? Still? I wanted to check with you, just to be sure.”

He just rolled his eyes at me.

“Trust me. When Lena decides to do something, I don’t question it. She’s a force of nature. You ever heard this? ‘Happy wife, happy life.’ Today, you’re her project, and your job is to smile, thank her, and follow her directions. Simple. Now scram, I’ve got a bunch of flabby and lazy sophomores to mistreat, oops, I mean, motivate.”

I left him in the gym, just standing there looking thoughtful. Walking down the hallway, I realized that along with Ms. Fernandes, I would miss Coach Jackson the most after I finished with high school.

I was standing with Lena in what I still thought of as my Mama’s kitchen. I crumbled a little when we arrived after school and the shopping trip and she surveyed the dilapidated counters and cabinets. In the years since she died I tried to keep the counters and floors reasonable, but my overall inadequate effort was obvious to her.