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To say that things were awkward was an understatement. It was no one’s fault but his own, though. Ever since Leo invited him over, Guang Hong had promised himself to do his best to brush up on his Spanish. However, he had not gotten past saying a few random words and asking where the bathroom was. He had blamed it on his busy schedule. Still, it was only at that moment that he wished he had opened a space to study. Maybe if he had cut down the time he mindlessly scrolled through social media, or if he had asked Leo to help him, things would have gone better.
“¿Quién eres?”[1] The woman yelled while shaking her shoe threateningly.
Leo had told him all about his grandma, Nana Lidia, a sweet old woman who loved cooking and insisted that everyone have a second serving, who knew what to give you to feel better if you were sick, and who gave amazing hugs.
The woman standing in front of him was nothing like the woman he had pictured when Leo described her. On the contrary, this woman looked far too scary and tough for her age. Guang Hong was sure that he was a dead man if he got anywhere within her reach, that if she didn’t decide to throw her shoe at him —«Her eyesight might be bad, but her aim is as true as ever.» Leo had said once during a video call.
Guang Hong had tried to explain himself when she first saw him, saying that he was Leo’s friend —he wasn’t sure if Leo had told his family about their relationship—but that only made the woman rant in fast Spanish, throwing the words “no” and “amigo”[2] a handful of times. He had tried to explain himself again, more slowly this time, but she still didn’t understand him and waved her shoe more menacingly. Surely this was it. Leo would return from the store and find him with a bump on his forehead.
He did what he thought was the most sensible thing to do given the situation: leave the house. Hopefully, she wouldn’t call the police and get him arrested.
So much for wanting to make a good first impression with his boyfriend’s grandmother.
He took out his phone and called Leo. Surely he could convince his grandma to let him back inside. He really needed a nap. The jetlag and sleepless night due to his excitement were finally creeping up on him. The call went straight to voicemail. Leo’s phone was probably dead. Great. Guang Hong sighed and sat down cross-legged next to the door. Maybe he could nap for a bit while Leo came back.
Someone shook him awake after who knows how long. It was a girl around his age with long chocolate brown hair and a face both so similar and yet so different than the one he liked to admire whenever he could. It was Noemi, Leo’s sister.
“You’re Leo’s boyfriend, right? Guang Hong?” She offered him her hand.
He nodded and accepted her help to stand up.
“Don’t tell me the dumbass left you locked outside?” She laughed in amusement.
“Ah, no, Leo went to the store. I think he forgot to tell your grandma I was coming over.”
The teen burst out laughing.
“Please don’t tell me she scared you out with her slipper.”
“I don’t remember if it was a slipper or not.” Guang Hong answered honestly, causing the teen to laugh harder.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m not gonna let Leo live this down.” She wiped a few tears away. “You both must’ve been so scared. I’ll talk to her, don’t worry. Let’s go inside. I’m Noemi, by the way, but you can call me Mimi. All my family does.”
Mimi let Guang Hong inside the house once again. Nana Lidia was too busy cleaning the kitchen to notice their entrance. Mimi dragged him there and started talking to her grandma in Spanish, motioning to him from time to time. Nana Lidia answered with some foreign words Guang Hong had heard before running outside, a light scowl on her face. Guang Hong hadn’t felt so lost since that one time he was trying to find the hotel’s elevator during his first competition abroad. He just hoped that they could get over it soon and start anew.
“Did you tell her you were Leo’s friend?” Mimi asked him suddenly.
“Y-yes, why?” Guang Hong stuttered.
“Ah. That explains everything.” She snapped her fingers. “You should’ve told her you were his boyfriend. Nana knows all of Leo’s friends, and she didn’t recognize you when you told her you were one of them. Also, she wasn’t raising her shoe at you. She was swatting away a fly.”
“I’m so sorry.” Guang Hong turned to look at Leo’s grandma. He was sure his blush of embarrassment reached all the way to the tip of his ears.
Nana Lidia waved her hands in dismissal and cupped Guang Hong’s face, patting his cheeks a bit before letting him go.
“¿Tienes hambre?”[3] The old woman asked.
Thankfully ‘hambre’ was one of the words Guang Hong knew, so he nodded. He was indeed hungry, he had eaten on the plane, but the small portion could only do so much.
Nana Lidia took him to the kitchen and motioned him to sit on the table right in front of a plastic bowl covered with an off-white cloth napkin embroidered with an assortment of colorful flowers. She handed Guang Hong one ball of dough and a small PVC pipe. She looked expectantly at him, then at the dough, then back at him. When he failed to do something, anything, she took a ball of dough and flattened it against the table with her hand. Then she grabbed the pipe she had given Guang Hong and started using it as a rolling pin, flattening the dough even more and shaping it into a circle. She picked the dough up and showed it to Guang Hong before putting some dough in his hand.
Leo’s grandma turned on the stove and placed a flat square pan on top. Guang Hong watched in fascination —and slight horror— how the old woman checked the pan’s temperature with her bare hand before placing the dough. They were making flour tortillas, and Guang Hong would finally get to taste the real thing! Because according to Leo, homemade tortillas were a thousand times better than store-bought ones. With newfound energy, he began flattening his dough and doing his best to make it into a circle. It ended up looking… like a shape… yeah… Hopefully, the next one would look more like a circle.
It didn’t. And neither did the following five.
Nana Lidia didn’t comment about it, though. She just took them with a smile before cooking them. Nana Lidia pinched one of his cheeks after one of Guang Hong’s valiant efforts resulted in an egg-shaped tortilla and went back to the stove.
Guang Hong was mesmerized by the tortillas cooking. Most of them were puffing up. He worried for a second that he might have done something wrong and that the tortillas would explode, but they didn’t. Instead, they turned back into their flat shape after a while. Nana Lidia nodded in approval when they puffed up.
“Ya te puedes casar.” She said with a hearty laugh.
Guang Hong stopped rolling the last ball of dough. Was she laughing at him? Were his tortillas that bad? Was he making a fool of himself? He had thought that wouldn’t have been possible given what had happened earlier, but maybe he was wrong. Wait. Maybe she was saying something nice. The laugh hadn’t sounded mocking at all. Agh, he really needed to learn some Spanish. Why had his parents let him drop the classes back in elementary school? Skating, right. Still, surely they could have pushed him a bit more. That’s it. He would enroll in a cram course as soon as he returned home.
“You can get married now.” Said Mimi as she entered the kitchen and took out a butter container and a yogurt one.
“W-what?” Guang Hong stuttered, completely flustered and taken aback by the sudden comment.
“That’s what Nana said. An old wives’ tale about your tortillas puffing up.” Mimi said with a mischievous smile. “Not that anyone really cares much about it, much less Leo, but still.”
“U-um. And, what is the yogurt for?” He asked in hopes of changing the topic.
Mimi raised an eyebrow, then laughed. “It’s not yogurt. They’re frijoles de la olla. Beans cooked in a pot with water and salt.” She took off the lid to show him the contents.
Nana Lidia took the container from them and poured them into an empty saucepan. She took out the salt shaker and placed it on the table. Mimi smiled and grabbed a tortilla, spread some butter, added some salt, and rolled it before taking a bite. Guang Hong looked curiously at her. Mimi felt his gaze and tore off the opposite side of the taco from where she had bitten it and offered it to him. Guang Hong hadn’t known what to expect, but it was way better than whatever his mind could have ever come up with. Who knew that such a simple combination could taste so good?
Nana Lidia said something, and Mimi laughed. Then, the teen made herself another butter taco and messed Guang Hong’s hair before retreating to her room.
“¿Uno o dos?”[4] Nana Lilia asked while pointing to the saucepan with one hand, raising one and then two fingers with the other.
“Uno.”[5] Guang Hong said and cheered internally for still remembering the numbers in Spanish.
Nana Lidia squinted at him before taking out a plate and putting two tortillas on top. She made the tacos and placed the plate in front of Guang Hong before sitting directly across from him.
“You, very thin. Eat.” She said sternly.
Guang Hong nodded and took a bite from his taco. Only when he was halfway through the second one did Nana Lidia start eating.
It was a mostly silent affair but not an uncomfortable one. There was a sense of understanding now, even if they didn’t make much conversation. They would share a smile or nod from time to time. It reminded Guang Hong of when he would have dinner with his grandma after skating when he was little. She had been a very stern woman, but she never failed to make him feel loved —mostly by making his favorite dishes.
Nana Lidia stood up abruptly and left the kitchen without saying a word. Guang Hong frowned but finished eating. She came back with a worn-out photo album in hand and placed it in front of him. Guang Hong opened it carefully and was met with baby Leo sleeping in a crib. Guang Hong looked at Nana Lidia with a wide smile before going through the whole album. She would make small comments here and there, all of them with the most tender and soft tone Guang Hong had ever heard. He didn’t need a translator to know Nana Lidia was gushing about the pictures of Leo growing up. To be fair, he was doing the same.
There were times in which one would say something, and the other could not understand —not even with the impressive acting and mimicking they were doing. It frustrated Guang Hong to be unable to tell Nana Lidia how cute baby Leo looked in a cow onesie. It frustrated him more when Nana Lilia would say something about a photo, probably the story behind it. Still, he could not make heads or tails of them for the life of his.
The photo that had them both equally enraptured was the one where Leo’s face was smeared with the icing of a half-smushed cake, and he was sporting an open-mouthed smile.
“Birthday one.” Nana Lidia ran her finger along the photo before taking it out and handing it to Guang Hong. “Para tí.”[6]
“Gracias.”[7] He beamed and cooed at the picture when looking at it again.
Guang Hong yawned then. The jet lag and the day’s excitement finally got to him.
“Come, come.” Nana Lidia said.
She took Guang-Hong’s hand and led him to Leo’s room.
“Puedes dormir ahí.”[8] she put both hands together, similar to a praying gesture, and placed them next to her cheek while closing her eyes briefly. Then, she pointed to Leo’s bed.
Guang Hong thanked her again and sat on Leo’s bed. He let himself fall back onto the bed and took his phone out. He was awfully tired, but he didn’t let himself fall asleep until he had downloaded a handful of language-learning apps. He was going to master Spanish in no time.