Love in Chipilo-Drabbles Scomiche

12: Enough

The two families went to eat breakfast at the market.

Scott wanted to think that all markets were the same but he discovered that markets in Mexico have some particularities.

Like piñatas hanging from the ceiling, dry peppers being sold with different spices, and fresh peppers just right aside from the vegetables.

"Why do Mexicans need this kind of pepper?" Scott asked taking a dry pepper.

"The fresh ones are to eat in bites or sauces, the dry ones are for serious cooking, things like mole or different kinds of broths."

Then Mitch's father took one big yellow pepper.

"Look, Mitch. Bell peppers. We must fill them." And Mitch smiled at him.

"I thought you wanted chiles rellenos."

"I want both, these ones today. And rellenos tomorrow. Buy them, we are going to pick the seats."

"Got it." Mitch rolled his eyes and looked at the seller. "¿Me da tres bolsas para chiles, pot favor?" The man nodded and gave him three plastic bags and then Mitch put a lot of bell peppers of different colors in one, big greens in another, and green medium-sized in another.

"What are you going to do with that?" Scott asked and Mitch took the yellow ones.

"These ones I'm gonna fill them with meat, fried broccoli, potato, carrot and cheese and this two. The poblano and the jalapeño are going to be capeados."

"What capeados mean?"

"I don't know if there is a word for that in English but basically is burn them, make them sweat in a bag, pell them, fill them with cheese, cover them with beaten egg and then fry it and they will be served with a spiced tomato sauce."

"Ok, enough, now I'm hungry now." Mitch smiled at him and gave the bags to the man to be weighed. "But tell me. You were raised by an Italian man and a Scottish-Irish woman who used to live in New York, and you were born in Texas. How do you end up living here and eating those things?"

"Well, as you just saw, my family is very Catholic. VERY Catholic."

"Yeah, I got that."

"My father was a priest..." Scott's eyes were so open that it made Mitch laugh.

"Are you kidding me?" Asked the blond offended but Mitch denied it still laughing.

"My dad was in charge of a church in New York. My mom was the daughter of immigrants and lived in New York, she was the kind of girl who was really shy and who went way too often to the church, she wanted to become a nun... Then they met, they fell in love and she got pregnant... Obviously, the whole thing was a scandal and my father had to leave the church even when he could just do the same as every other priest... You know, ask the Vatican for a change and keep his family a secret. But he didn't want that, so they moved to Texas, had my sister Jessa and when I turned five and Jessa seven we moved here because my mother got a job as an English teacher in Puebla and dad started teaching Italian in Chipilo, at the end of the year they decided to move here because it's calmer, Puebla it's too big. My sister and I love Chipilo too but Jessa lives in Puebla city now that she is married."

"Ohh and why do you still live with your parents?"

"Why I shouldn't?"

"Because... You look like you are in your twenties. You have a not-very-Catholic job. You are economically auto-sufficient..."

Then Mitch looked at him strangely and then he seemed to understand something.

"Ohh that thing. Well, in Mexico people also move out of their house to go to college too but only if your college is far from home, like in another state, if it's as close as it was in my case, 40 minutes, we stay with our parents. Also, if it's in another state or city people come back home on weekends or maybe one weekend every two weeks and their moms cook for them, so students get back to college with homemade frozen food. A lot of Mexicans live with their parents until the day they get married."

Scott frowned.

"That is very irresponsible."

"Maybe but... That's how we show love. Let's go, we have to go with them."