3.25 Welcome

“Good morning, Luca.”

“Hey, Dad. Happy birthday!”

“Thanks, son.”

“I’m making you breakfast.”

“Oh! Well, that’s a surprise. Should I grab a bottle of medicine just in case?”

“Ha ha,” I said, flatly. “Go have a seat, Mr. Comedian.”

Dad chuckled on his way to the table. I let him have the jokes because it was his birthday—his last. My cooking skill wasn’t that high, so I couldn’t do much for him. But I made what I could as special as possible.

“Here you go,” I said, placing a plate in front of him.

“Wow. This looks really good! I’m glad your mother taught you to cook.”

“Yeah… She was veeeeery adamant about it too. Used to wake me up early to make breakfast with her.”

“Heh, I know the feeling. My mother did the same thing, except she was teaching me how to bake bread.”

“You bake?”

“A little bit. Honestly, the only time I ever thought about baking was at the beginning of relationships. I called it my “special bread” because I only made it for my girlfriends.”

“Huh… That’s kinda dope.”

Did I have any skills that would make my girl feel special? Everyone always seemed to be surprised and impressed by the fact I could cook. Maybe I could work at getting better and make her something really fancy, especially since I didn’t plan to have many girlfriends.

Dad took off from work, so we had the whole day to ourselves. I suggested starting with a light jog together. Knowing he wanted to get fit on his own, I didn’t want to impose my routine on him. But I couldn’t help but get excited about being able to make sure he didn’t slack off.

He kept up with me pretty well, but a few times I slowed down and let him think he overtook me. I didn’t feel right about leaving him in the dust on his birthday, heh. He probably knew I did it on purpose, but he still seemed to be proud of himself.

Whether the neighborhood was bigger than my previous ones or I didn’t know where I was going yet, it felt like we had been running for a long time. I didn’t mind, of course, but I was concerned about Dad. Sure enough, he eventually got tired and went back home. Maybe it was a good thing because I needed to figure out the neighborhood and what routes I could take.

San Sequoia was beautiful, just like Yasmine said. I still couldn’t believe I’d been saying her name wrong the whole time. I ran past a historical marker next to what used to be a ginormous tree. Only the stump remained, and they called it Ol’ Stumpy. I didn’t want to stop and read the marker, but I wondered how tall the tree used to be. I couldn’t imagine seeing anything that large.

I got turned around a few times and finally ended up back on our street. Good thing Dad had already gone back home. When I came up to our house, I saw we had company. The Michaelson’s live in a neighborhood not too far from us. They recently adopted a baby girl and also had a school-aged son. The other two women were in-laws. The younger one was very quick to confess she had been married before, but her husband died in a fire…that she caused! Having recently witnessed a fire myself, and almost losing a friend, I felt for her. Bonus points for being very easy on my eyes.

“I don’t cook anymore, ha ha,” she said.

What a weird response. Didn’t make her any less beautiful though. Apparently, she and the dead guy had a daughter, so the mother-in-law—Eleanor—moved in to help.

Ms. I Don’t Cook’s name was Xochitl (pronounced so-cheel), and she definitely told me how to spell it and to call her Chi Chi. I learned quickly how talkative she was and that she was a gossiper because she had all kinds of information about other neighbors not present. I still thought she was fine as hell.

Unfortunately, she ignored me the whole time and seemed to be enamored with my dad. Eww. Not that I think my dad is disgusting, but I was just trying to imagine myself with a crush on one of Mama’s friends. That’s not for me.

The Michaelson’s didn’t speak much, due to Chi Chi dominating the conversation, but I still got good vibes from them. Eleanor stayed outside almost the whole time, so I didn’t get to meet her, really. Maybe she and Dad could be friends…