Summary: Astrid realises she doesn’t know her family as well she had thought. Origin fic for my RCD MC for Seth, Astrid Ortega. Minor crossover with The Freshman/The Sophomore/The Junior.
“One more foot inside my kitchen and it’ll be my chanclas for you later.”
Teresa Ortega said these words to her daughter Astrid, in the same tone one would use to offer a guest some tea.
It wasn’t that her mom didn’t allow her kids to help with the cooking. She did. Salome was too young to do much but set the table yet but Astrid (and her big sister Letitia, whenever she was home) often pitched in to help with the meal.
But heaven help anyone who tried to help Mom with her tres leches cake.
This recipe was from Mom’s Ita’s faded little diary, passed down to her by her mother on the condition that she would learn its recipes off by heart. It was her pride and joy, Mom would often say. Her baby before her actual babies came along.
And today it was even more essential Mom get this cake right. Astrid’s abuela was visiting, and ever since Astrid’s mother insisted on naming her Astrid (“She’s already named my first and last – at least leave the middle one to me!”) she could do nothing right.
Perhaps it would’ve been easier to handle if Dad wasn’t Abuela’s only son, if Mom had someone she could jointly ignore Abuela with, if they had cousins they could play with while the adults sorted out their issues. Or perhaps not. Still, it would have been nice to know.
“Easy, mom, I’m not going to touch your precious cake,” Astrid said, grinning, “Lemme demolish it at lunch instead.”
She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t tempted, though. She could get the scent of baked cake wafting in all the way from her bedroom, and her mother was already starting to combine Carnation milk, condensed milk and ¼th of a cup of heavy cream into a thin, but somewhat creamy, mixture.
Mom raised her eyebrows. “Why are you here, then?”
Astrid felt the muscles around her neck tense up, but schooled her face to a look of injured innocence. “What, can’t I just want to talk to my mom once in a while?”
She craned her neck a little further behind Astrid, a tiny frown beginning to form between her brows. “What’s that you’re holding behind your back?”
Ding! The cake was ready now, just in time for soaking. Astrid let out a sigh of relief. She wanted Mom to see this wedding card, yes – it was why she came to the kitchen in the first place – but now was probably not the time for questions. Questions about family or about secrets. Not when she knew how important it was for her mother to get her weekend cakes right.
“Family” was always a big deal around the Ortega table. Dad was the only son, and Mom’s parents passed on long before any of them were ever born. Her father was as annoyed by Abuela’s antics as her mother was, but it never stopped him from having her visit every Sunday because “she’s the only family we have left”.
It was as if he needed her to keep himself rooted, as if without her he would be floating aimlessly, no aim or identity, taking his wife and children down that path with him. Abuela knew this. By God, did she know this.
Or so I thought, Astrid said to herself, gripping the wedding card tightly and creating new creases where the word Ortega was written.
Mom was gritting her teeth now, carefully pouring the three-milk mixture over the cake and muttering to herself. “One more word about dry cake this time and I’ll give her soggy toast, I swear I will.”
Astrid would have stood up last week and said something to Abuela, if only Mom would let her. It was probably a good thing Letitia wasn’t around, she’d fire shots at Abuela for less. She was protective over all of them and often in the heat of the moment she’d forget she’d be landing them all in further trouble.
She was still muttering. “Wants chiffon cake. Screams bloody murder if I use box mix. What, Teresa, looking for shortcuts again?” Mom’s voice was raised in an accurately nasal imitation of Abuela’s voice. It was almost like she’d forgotten Astrid was there. “Then I make it from scratch like she wants. Then it’s Oh Teresa this is so dry oh Teresa it tastes like sawdust. Why else do you think I use box mix, eh? You want it from scratch and you want moist. ¡Manda Huevos!”
The diatribe kept Mom occupied while she finished pouring, so Astrid kept silent. Mom needed this. This wasn’t something she can say in front of Letitia (resulting in another Sunday screaming match) or Dad (what would he do?) or Salome (no way would the kid ever take Salome, language! seriously again). Mom needed someone to have her back, no matter how silently or secretly. And that someone had better be her.
“If only Dominic had stayed…”
Astrid froze. “What did you say?”
Mom looked up, blinked twice, then stiffened. “Nothing. Nothing.”
Silently, Astrid handed over the card she’d been holding, all this time. She found it while searching for her dad’s treasured García Lorca poetry collection, hidden between a page that exalted love and a page that mourned loss.
Mom took it from her, her eyes widening as she read the words.
LINDA SANDOVAL
and
DOMINIC ORTEGA
request the honour of your company at their wedding.
“Dad’s name is David,” Astrid said, “and he doesn’t have siblings. Or cousins.”
Mom answered by busying herself with more activity than ever. Keeping the soaked cake in the fridge. Pouring the remaining milk mixture into two glasses. Washing her hands. Washing the dishes.
“I’ll do that for you,” Astrid took a plate from Mom’s hands, “Just talk to me.” She grabbed a sponge and dish washing soap, cleaning vigorously. “All this time, Dad’s been telling us Abuela’s the only family he has, Mom. Like, he has no one else. Like, we have no sisters or brothers besides the three of us. Was he lying?”
“You’re wrong,” Mom said, her voice suddenly sounding sharper, harder, “Abuela’s the only family he has left. Your father didn’t lie.”
“Just omitted the truth, yeah,” Astrid wished she knew how she felt about this. Right now there was so much she was feeling that she didn’t exactly know where to begin. “There’s no “together with our parents” above their names either. Not like yours’.”
Mom sighed, picked the card up, then held up two glasses of milk-mixture in front of her. “Take one and give the other to your sister. I have a lot of work to do.”
On any other day, Astrid would have grabbed that glass and relished its creaminess, wiping the milk-moustache off her mouth with a flourish. But today no amount of sweetness was going to take away that weird metallic taste in the roof of her mouth.
“I’m not done asking about this,” Astrid said, scowling, “to you or to Dad. If I have aunts and cousins out there, that’s something I wanna know.”
Astrid did try in the weeks to come. But she never saw the wedding card again, and neither Mom or Dad ever responded when she raised the topic again. Still. It felt nice to dream.
Every time Abuela made a snide remark at lunch, she imagined her cousins there. A snarky younger girl who’d make smartass comments. A strong boy her age who’d shut Abuela up with just a glare. A nice aunt who’d take Mom’s mind off all this nonsense. It didn’t help much, but it felt nice.
It felt nice knowing she had company out there. Somewhere.
–
6 years later.
“Donuts, Iowa?” Seth’s eyes were gleaming at the prospect. He was more a bag-of-chips kinda guy most days, but he also liked having massive sugar rushes before a comedy gig.
“As long as the insides of six of those are practically spilling over with fruit jam, I’m game,” she said, standing on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. It felt exhilarating, freeing. She hadn’t felt this normal in a while – normal enough to kiss her boyfriend without worrying about paparazzo jumping out from a bush. There was a guy in a leather jacket she didn’t recognize – three blocks across – looking at her like he wanted to talk, but not in a way that made her feel unsafe.
That was the nice thing about Northbridge. People looked, sure, but they were less likely to make you feel like an exhibit from a zoo.
“Wait here, yeah?” Seth said, planting a kiss on the lips instead, “I’ll be back before you can finish spelling “OHIO” with your arms.”
Astrid laughed. Seth said the most Ohio things sometimes. Neither of them had had this much fun since she was offered a lead role in Tender Nothings, which was why Seth always jumped at a chance to take up gigs in Northbridge, and why he always offered to take Astrid along when she was free.
The guy from before stepped forward a few minutes after Seth entered the donut shop. The summer heat must have been too much for him – his leather jacket was now slung over his shoulders. “Um, hello. Astrid Ortega?”
He stood with his hands in his pockets, mouth pursed into a thin line, a tiny curl slipping carelessly from his hair and resting on his forehead. She caught a peek at the tail end of a bird tattoo (Owl? The tail looked pointy) on his left arm.
“Yeah,” Astrid said, wondering whether it was her or Seth he wanted to talk to, “but I don’t know what your name is.”
“ Zigmund. Zig for short,” he replied, looking behind him from time to time, “My sister Lucy’s a big fan. Asked me to help her get an autograph from you.”
“Is she here?”
“Yeah. But she doesn’t want to come out. She’s shy.”
Ah. So that was the cherry-red blur barely hidden by that building. She learned long ago that no matter how friendly you appeared, your image would precede you and intimidate people anyway. Autographs were great, but somehow she didn’t want to stop at just that.
“Would she come out now if I asked?” she gave him her sunniest smile, “Tell her I won’t bite.”
Zig hesitated, then nodded. Astrid watched him walk to the other building, move his hands expressively as he tried to convince his sister to join him (from that angle he almost looks like Letitia, Astrid thought), and return with a curly-haired, starry-eyed teenage girl.
“H-hey,” she said, then blushed, clearly embarrassed by her nervousness. Silently, she hands over her autograph book. She keeps her eyes studiously away from Astrid’s face. “I, um, I like mystery films, and I really, really liked Tender Nothings.”
A girl after my own heart. “Maybe you’ll like Sunset Boulevard, then,” she said, smiling.
Astrid could have just signed and left it at that, but there was something about these two. Something about the way they stood together, or exchanged glances, or something, that reminded her of home. Which was silly. But it didn’t change the fact that she wanted to leave a good impression on them.
“What would you like to be when you grow up, Lucy?”
Lucy didn’t miss a beat. “Ballet dancer. Like my brother.”
Astrid smiled, particularly at the look the girl gave Zig. Yes, she could see on second glance that even though some people would say he didn’t have the body of a dancer, he held himself with a certain grace, a certain lightness that belied a stronger core. Hit by a sudden rush of inspiration, she quickly scribbled a little note to go with her signature, and asked Lucy to read it.
To Lucy and Zig, future (hopefully!) best ballet dancing duo in America. Be sure to save me a seat when you folks get famous. Love Always, Astrid.
“Wowwww,” Lucy whispered. Zig suppressed his smile, trying not to let how he felt show, and failed. A corner of his mouth lifted upwards, revealing an almost-invisible dimple.
The two left before Seth brought his box of donuts,but they thanked her at least thrice as they walked away.
“Wait till I tell Mom about this,” Astrid overheard Lucy tell her brother as they left, “I told you she’d be really, really nice.”
“You did,” there was a note of indulgence in Zig’s voice.
“Ortegas all around the world. Wherever we’re from, we’re nice.”
Had Seth come out a moment later, Astrid would have probably walked up to them and asked. Perhaps asked them where they were from and their parents’ names.
But Seth was here, with donuts, and there was never a moment she could take her eyes off either.
“Do you know those two?” Seth asked her, passing her a tres leches cake donut that was claimed to be one of their best, “They looked familiar.”
“”No,” Astrid replied, closing her eyes in bliss. Mmmm. The treat was taking her back to Des Moines, back to home, back to her mother’s little kitchen. “But I wouldn’t mind meeting them again.”
—
Translations:
Nuestra familia – “our family” in Spanish.
Chanclas – slippers/flip-flops
Tres leches cake – Typically a very moist chiffon cake soaked in a mixture of evaporated milk, condensed milk and heavy cream. Tres leches literally means “three milks”.
Abuela – one of the terms used for ‘grandmother’ in Spanish.
Ita – Short for Abuelita, also used for grandmothers. Astrid calls her grandmother the former, her mom Teresa calls her grandmother the latter.
Manda Huevos – Can mean a lot of things according to context, but generally used to express a range of emotions, such as annoyance, disappointment, contempt or disbelief. In this context, Teresa means “it’s not fair”.