Chapter 5: Building a Reputation

Errol was touched by Luke's comment about thinking of him as a brother. There was something special about the kid, something that Errol couldn't quite put his finger on. After their conversation, he felt some confidence that Luke was finally done with selling himself to lonely, horny men driving the nation's highways. Someday, he'd have to get the story of what drove the boy from home and into the streets at such a tender age.

And now he was interested in a girl at the library! Maybe that's what drove him to ask Errol's opinion about whether or not he was gay. He was obviously confused, as were a lot of kids his age, to varying degrees. He hoped his advice was going to help. Whether the kid turned out to be predominantly gay or straight wasn't the issue. The issue was knowing what he was and learning to live with it. How sad for all those people in the world who had to live their whole lives with that kind of confusion; how may marriages destroyed because partners were chosen for the purpose of at least appearing PC, while sexual compatibility wasn't even a possibility. Marriages built on lies.

As a species, we still have a long way to go to be truly civilized.

As expected, the level of business at the restaurant dropped dramatically after the fair and rodeo ended. That meant that Errol had time to be creative in the kitchen instead of just busy, and he took advantage of that by trying out a few new dishes that weren't on the menu, first on the hotel staff, then on the customers. By far, the most popular new lunch item was the chili recipe he picked up from the owner of the diner back in Polk.

Jack Ramey was an instant fan. He scarfed down one bowl and came into the kitchen looking for seconds. "Son, this is the best damn chili I've ever tasted! What is it, an old family recipe or something?"

Errol shook is head and answered, "I wish I could claim it as my own, but I learned it from a lady back east that I worked with for a while. She got it from her father. What would you think about adding it to the menu?"

"Hell yeah! Serve it up with some warm tortillas and some grated cheddar cheese on the side. And we'll set out shakers of crushed red pepper for those macho he-men who want to abuse their mouths, guts and assholes with even more heat. Shit, this is gonna be one of our most popular dishes, once word gets around town!"

Errol wondered if men tended to think alike when it came to chili, because sides of tortillas, cheese and the crushed red pepper was how he usually served it up. "Glad you liked it, Mr. Ramey. I'll start making a fresh pot every day, starting tomorrow. I guess I can go to the grocery store and buy up all their tortillas until I can get some ordered in from one of our suppliers. We don't have any in stock."

"You bet. You know, you might check with that cute little Mexican waitress, Juanita, 'cause her family might know a source for tortillas. But do whatever you have to do. I'd like to see this on the menu by tomorrow, and if you can't find any tortillas, serve it up with crackers until we do. And by the way, would you knock off that 'Mr. Ramey' shit? The name's Jack."

At first, Errol thought that Jack's automatically tying Juanita to tortillas might be a bit un-PC, but on second thought, it might be worth asking her. Tortillas were a staple in Mexican cuisine, so she might at least know of a local resource.

Juanita was working the evening shift for a while, so she wouldn't be in until two. In the meantime, he asked Lulu, but she didn't have any ideas other than the grocery store. The restaurant hadn't been serving any Mexican or Tex-Mex dishes, so they didn't even have burritos on the menu. He thought that should be corrected, and planned to add beef and bean burritos smothered with green chili to the lunch choices to see how they sold. In fact, he thought maybe they should add a whole Tex-Mex section to the menu.

She came in just as he was getting off duty, and he met up with her in the employee's locker room. "Hey, Juanita, I have a question for you."

"Well I hope I have an answer for you." She aimed her finger gun at him and said, "Shoot, gringo!"

"We're going to be adding that chili to the menu, and it'll be served with warm tortillas and grated cheddar. I'm gonna make beef and bean burritos smothered in green chili, too. For the short run, I'll go down to the grocery store and buy out whatever stock of tortillas are on their shelves, but I'm gonna need to find a local supplier. You know of anybody?"

She laughed, "You're planning to serve our loyal customers that crap that comes in plastic? Shame on you! You may as well serve them cardboard."

Errol shrugged and said, "Yeah, well I don't much like the idea either, but for the time being, that's probably our only choice unless you know somebody who makes them fresh."

As she tied her white apron around her slim waist, she said, "Just so happens I do. Mi Mamacita. She makes the best tortillas you've ever tasted, and she can supply them fresh every morning. And since you brought up the subject, she makes the best darn green chili you ever tasted, too."

"Sounds great! How much for the tortillas, and is she going to be willing to share her green chili recipe?"

"Um, you'll have to ask her about that. If you want to go by the house and talk to her, I'll give her a call and let her know you're coming. Her English isn't so good, but my brother Ramon should be around somewhere. He can fill in any gaps in the conversation."

"Great! Go ahead and call her and tell her I'll come by at, let's say, three-thirty. You'll need to tell me how to get there."

"I'll draw you a map."

Errol was met at the front door by Ramon, who looked to be about fourteen or fifteen. He was a tall, good-looking kid, and he appeared more Indian than his sister. He asked, "Are you Mr. Hansen, the guy my sister called about?"

"That's right. You must be Ramon, and you can call me Errol. Is Mrs. Delgado at home?"

"If you mean my mother, it's Mrs. Perez. Spanish surnames can be kind of tricky because everybody has two of 'em. Come on in."

Errol stepped into the small living room and immediately caught the smell of something wonderful that had to be coming from the kitchen. Mrs. Perez came through the doorway wiping her hands on her apron. She was heavy set, brown-skinned, very pretty in the face, and all smiles. He could see where her children got their good looks.

"Buenos dias, Señor Hansen. I am Maria Perez. Juanita call on teléfono, say you wan buy tortillas, yes? She say I tell you how cook chili verde, tambien."

"That's right, if you're willing. The restaurant is going to start serving a few Mexican dishes, and I'm going to need flour tortillas to serve with chili and to make burritos, and corn tortillas for enchiladas. The grocery store has green chili in a can, but Juanita says yours is much better. Can you help me with that?"

Errol was speaking too quickly for her to pick up everything he said, so she looked at her son who quickly translated his words into Spanish.

She smiled and gestured for him to follow, saying, "Si! You come, taste."

He followed her into the kitchen and saw that she was already making tortillas. There were balls of dough on a floured board, and four rolled-out tortillas on a hot griddle on the stove. There was also a small pot of green chili simmering on the burner. It smelled wonderful.

Maria grabbed the tortillas one at a time with her fingertips and flipped them. She held up a finger, indicating he should wait. It was only a few seconds before she grabbed one of them and tossed it from hand to hand to cool it, then handed it to him. "You taste, say if you like."

Errol folded it over twice and took a bite. It tasted nothing like the tortillas from the grocery store. "Mmm! Señora Perez, this is, uh, muy delicioso!"

"Bueno! Now you taste chili verde." She dipped out a large spoon and held it up for him to taste. He blew on it to cool it down a little, then carefully sucked some through his lips.

"Oh, this is amazing! Could you provide me with a couple of quarts of this every day along with the tortillas? Or I guess I could make it if you were willing to share your recipe. The problem is that I don't know where I could find enough green chili peppers. Then I'd have to roast them."

She exchanged a few sentences with Ramon, who in turn said, "She says the tortillas taste so good because they are fresh and they don't have any preservatives in them. She also says she will make the chili verde because we already have bags of roasted green chilis in the freezer. She wants to know how many tortillas you would like to have delivered to the restaurant every morning. Oh, and she asks if you already have a recipe for the red enchilada sauce, because she can make that for you, too."

Errol couldn't believe his good luck. "Well, as I said, I'll need two different sizes of the flour tortillas. We can start with three dozen each of the large and small, and three dozen corn tortillas. And two quarts of chili verde and a quart of the enchilada sauce. And can it all be delivered by six in the morning? I'm thinking about offering some breakfast burritos to see how they sell."

Ramon translated.

Maria asked, "You know how make?"

"Breakfast burritos? Um, well I've never made them before, but they're just potatoes, onions, eggs and green chilis, aren't they?"

When that was translated, the lady made a sour face and indicated he should have a seat at the table. Through her son, she began to educate him about Mexican cooking. By the time Errol walked out the front door, he'd learned a lot about preparing authentic Mexican dishes, and he knew Mrs. Perez was going to be a valuable resource for the restaurant. And her prices were more than reasonable, considering everything would be delivered fresh daily.

All through the conversation at the table, Errol noticed Ramon staring at him with kind of a half smile on his face. He thought for a moment that he might have a booger hanging out of his nose or something, but he found an opportunity to check and knew that wasn't the case. The kid might be a little peculiar, but he was definitely friendly.

As he stepped off the porch, the boy just blurted out, "My sister likes you a lot."

"Does she? Well I'm glad, because I think she's a very nice young lady, one of our best waitresses."

Ramon grinned and said, "I don't mean like that. I mean she talks about you all of the time. But she'd never admit it because she says you're living with the boss lady."

Errol wondered how they'd gotten into this conversation. "Um, it's not quite like that." He was about to explain further, but thought better of it. If Juanita wanted to know anything about his and Lulu's living arrangements, she should ask him herself. He was pleased that she liked him - a lot, according to her little brother.

When Errol arrived at the restaurant the next morning at five forty-five, Ramon was standing by the door with a large paper bag, two quart Mason jars of chili verde and another of the enchilada sauce in a plastic sack. As he approached, he could smell the freshly made tortillas.

"Good morning, Ramon. Did your mother make all this this morning?"

"Yup. You won't find any fresher than these. Oh," he said, setting the bag down and reaching into his pocket to pull out a crumpled piece of paper, "She sent this too. It's her recipe for enchiladas."

"Great! Well, come on in and I'll get you your money. What's the tab?"

"Um, twenty-eight dollars for the tortillas and twelve dollars for the chili verde and the enchilada sauce, but Mama said we could just send a bill to the restaurant if you want."

"Tell you what, I'll get Lulu to pay you out of petty cash for this order, then we'll work out a weekly payment plan. Would you like to supervise while I give your mother's recipe for the breakfast burritos a trial run this morning?"

"Sure! Do you think I could maybe have some hot chocolate?"

"You can have all you want." Errol held the door for him and said, "Let's get started, amigo."

Maria Perez's recipe for the breakfast burritos was an instant success on the first morning they were offered. Since they weren't official yet, the waitresses told their customers about them as they handed out the menus. Within a week, they were in demand, as was everything else on the Tex-Mex menu. His chili recipe and the green chili smothered burritos were especially big lunchtime hits.

The fact that they were beginning to draw customers away from the other two restaurants in town pleased Jack Ramey to no end, and he took it upon himself to bump Errol's salary by fifty percent, fearing one of them might try to lure him away. He recommended Errol keep the raise quiet because it meant he was making as much as Lulu, the restaurant manager. Errol was pretty sure Lulu wasn't so petty that she'd resent that, but he agreed to keep the raise to himself.