The Parenthood Drabbles

Debts

In the style of Esperanza Valdez

A few hours after Esperanza had put baby Jonas in his crib and sat down at the kitchen table to catch up on her homework, Ana Garcia got home.

As she packed up her things, Esperanza chatted on about the night. The baby had been good, he was adorable, he hadn't been sick since she'd left, he was sound asleep, he had eaten a little pot of mashed carrots and he'd drank his milk, and lots of water to help with the bug he had... She was standing at the door, talking to Ms. Garcia who seemed exhausted by her long shift at the grocery store- where she'd worked for twenty years since she'd graduated from high school. Long and empty hours when it came to the money needed to raise a baby after your fiancé ran out with a young blonde white woman during the second trimester.

"He was fine, don't worry Miss Garcia," Esperanza promised, a hand on her bag, nodding.

"Thank you Esperanza, you're a life saver. Which reminds me- pay- I have a twenty somewhere...?" She said looking around her apartment eyebrows furrowed.

"Oh, no money," Esperanza said shaking her hands.

"Yes, of course, don't be ridiculous, here." Miss Garcia said, finding a bill in her pocket and trying to hand it.

"Oh- sorry, can't," Esperanza said putting her hands in the air. "I don't have any pockets, can't take any money, sorry."

"Esperanza..." Miss Garcia sighed.

Hands up, still smiling, Esperanza backed away from Garcia's door quickly so she couldn't catch up.

*

Eight years later

Esperanza closed the door and leaned against it ASAP, lest her legs give out from under her. Holly smokes, her body hated her right now. For the non-parents reading the story; giving birth was a majorly traumatic experience that your body couldn't heal from in two weeks of unpaid mat leave. She was sore all over, exhausted because Leo had cried until dawn the night before...

Ana closed Leo's bedroom door behind her and smiled as she closed the door.

"Hello Anza, nice day at work?" She asked.

The movement of her eyebrows should've been enough to say it all entirely.

"I hope you had a better time here, and he wasn't being difficult." Esperanza said.

"No, no, no. He was fine, Anza. He has the best giggle and the funniest faces. He didn't eat anything, but I made sure he got lots of fluids."

"Thank you so much Ana, I thought I was going to have to take him to work," she said shaking her head. She grabbed for her wallet. "And I stopped by the bank..."

"No money," Ana said shaking her head and grabbing her purse.

"You've been with him since five o'clock," Esperanza protested.

"It's a shame," Ana said with a small smile. "But the problem is that I don't have any pockets."

Esperanza dropped her hands and smiled back at Ana in the kind of relief that couldn't be put into words.