Handball High

Handball High Chapter 2

The sun sneaked into Abner's room from around the edges and gaps of the blinds. He opened his eyes and laid in bed wondering why he was up so early when he was on summer vacation. He wasn't happy to be awake but at least his mother was not yelling at him to get up and get ready for school. Instead she woke him by rapidly moving about the kitchen preparing breakfast and lunches for her and her husband before leaving for work. As he laid there contemplating leaving his room and staying in bed, he tried to guess what his mother was making by the sounds he heard and the smells that made their way out of the kitchen, through the hallway and under his closed door.

He heard fumbling of pans, clashing plates and utensils being dug out of a drawer. He heard a sizzling sound and imagined either bacon or chorizo popping up grease onto his mother's apron. He listened as the pan was hit and scraped by something, perhaps his mother's wooden spoon. The repetitiveness of the scraping told him it was not strips of bacon sitting unmolested to cook but rather chorizo being moved about the pan making sure it was thoroughly cooked and it was the scrambling of the eggs as they were added to the pan. The smell eventually reached Abner in his room confirming he would be having chorizo for breakfast.

Abner walked out of his room and made his way to the kitchen where he saw his mother hustling through her weekday morning routine. She had already gotten ready for work, her long black hair combed straight down to her lower back ending right where her apron strings were wrapped around her. Her make up nicely done accentuating her pretty eyes and drawing attention to her cheeks and her smile. She was dressed nice for work but her chorizo stained apron threw off her look a bit.

"No tortillas de harina today?" teased Abner with a silly smirk on his face.

"Good morning to you too mijo" said his mother. "You know I can't make those during the week. I don't have time. There are corn tortillas in the fridge, why don't you grab them and go wake your father", she ordered as she waved the wooden spoon at Abner.

After grabbing the tortillas for his mother Abner left the small kitchen and walked the 15 steps or so to his parent's bedroom. "Papi, llevantate. Ya esta breakfast, its go time" Abner said in a chipper and playful voice.

His father glared at him without saying anything as Abner retreated back to the kitchen. His father wasn't a morning person and he typically didn't say a word for the first 10 minutes of his day. Actually, he wouldn't say much at all in the mornings except to give Abner some sort of chore and ask his wife when she would be getting off of work and what was for dinner.

Abner and his mother had finished eating and she was packing lunches when Abner's father came into the kitchen to grab his coffee and his taco. He was dressed in a blue short sleeved button up with his company name across the front pocket. He had dark blue Levi's jeans and black steel toe boots. He was not required to wear any sort of uniform but this was pretty much what he wore to work all the time.

His father sat there having his coffee and eating his breakfast as he watched his wife clean up. He enjoyed watching her do anything and would often sit and watch her with a happy look on his face. This morning the look was different. What began as a calm and reflective glare at his lovely wife became a look of contempt directed at Abner and then he finally spoke. "Abner, ok carbon", he began. "Why am I sitting here watching your mother clean up when she needs to be at work. I don't want to see that again while you are home."

He then turned his attention back to his wife and smiled as he said, "Go to work, we'll clean this up."

She gave them both a kiss goodbye and as she walked out the door Abner's father asked what was for dinner and what time she'd be home. She just smiled at him not giving an answer because she knew it was just something he liked to ask and didn't really expect a response.

"We'll clean up?" asked Abner.

"Simon que si. And we'll do a good job at it too. We'll be cleaning up the bathroom and picking up the living room tambien" replied his father as he grabbed his lunch and headed out the door.

Abner wasn't too excited about this but he wasn't too bothered by his chores since he knew his parents were both working hard through out the day. He had to do his part and it wouldn't take long to clean up.

With the radio turned up Abner began to clean and think about his parents. He thought of his father driving forklift all day at his job and wondered if he enjoyed his work. He would also think about someone pissing him off at work and how his father would react to that. His father never complained about his job or his coworkers but Abner just didn't know how he felt about it. He never discussed it.

He knew how his mother felt about her job. She had a clerical position at the welfare office responsible for making copies, filing, appointments, and checking clients in. She liked her job and always said it wasn't difficult. The worst part was seeing family or friends going into their appointments because they usually asked her about their food stamps or their cash assistance and that made her feel awkward. Even though her clerical position did not qualify her to answer questions or give advice all their neighbors and friends called her the social worker. She hated that the most.

It took Abner 3 hours to clean up the house. 1 hour of actual cleaning and 2 hours split between watching tv and pop locking in the bathroom mirror. It was now close to mid-day and about that time to get ready and find someone to go to the park with him.