Fix Me, Fix You: A Jesse Pinkman Story

Chapter Thirty

I apologize for the long amount of time between chapters, but I appreciate any readers who have stuck around! I would greatly appreciate any feedback! Enjoy! &*

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Jesse narrowed his eyes at the creatures falling out of the big pot and landing in heaps on the long table in front of him. The aroma of the freshly boiled crawfish rose into the air with the swirls of steam, and he had to admit that they smelled incredible. He had eaten seafood before but never like this, and he had certainly never been to a "crawfish boil" before. Hell, he always thought they were just tiny lobsters. But that didn't seem to be the case.

The whole Quinn family sat outside in the backyard around a long foldout table that was lined with newspapers and piled high with crawfish, clearly very used to this type of dinner.

"What are you doing to him?" Jesse asked with a grotesque face as he watched Lia pick up a little red crustacean and begin to pull him apart, limb-by-limb.

"I'm peeling him, silly!" She laughed as she annihilated the shell.

Coop let out a hearty laugh as he watched Jesse's react to his granddaughter's natural southern ability to peel and eat crawfish.

"Yum! I love crawfish season!" Lia exclaimed as she ate the meat from the tail.

"It's a season?" Jesse asked as he watched Linda set a few rolls of paper towels around the table.

Jolie laughed as she placed pitchers of ice water around the table as well. "Crawfish are 'in season' this time of the year."

"You're about to experience your first real Louisiana traditions, son," Coop announced as he began to 'peel' his own crawfish.

"I thought I had experienced a real Louisiana tradition with the hurricane," Jesse replied, taking everything in.

"That wasn't quite as fun as Carnival season will be," Linda explained.

"There's a Carnival season too?" Jesse asked.

"Best time to be in Louisiana," Coop added. "Mardi Gras, crawfish, and perfect weather."

Jesse had heard of Mardi Gras and knew what it was about, but it was hard to imagine Coop catching beads with a bunch of topless women.

As if she read his mind, Jolie injected. "And not the type of Mardi Gras that the tourists come for."

"Oh, heavens no," Linda added. "The family-friendly type of Mardi Gras."

Relieved, Jesse nodded.

"Grab one," Jolie said. "I'll show you how to peel it."

He picked one up carefully with just his index finger and thumb, holding it out like it was diseased. Hell, for all he knew, it was diseased.

"Pinch the tail like this," she demonstrated.

He imitated her exact movements.

"And pull it apart from the body at an angle, giving it a little twist to pull it clean off," she continued.

He did as she did, but his outcome didn't look quite as graceful as hers. She tossed the 'body' off to the side but kept the shelled tail, and he followed suit.

"Now pop the first few sections of the shell off of the tail," she explained, still showing him exactly what to do.

He struggled at first but eventually got it.

"Then pinch the meat with one hand and the end of the tail with the other and pull," she said as she easily removed the rest of the shell from the meat.