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For once, Pepa woke up to the sound of birdsong outside of her window. The first thing she did as she opened her eyes was to mimic the sound of the bird out of habit before she sat up. She let out a yawn as she slowly stretched her limbs and looked at the clock on her bedroom wall. It was still early, the sun having just risen, and Félix was still snoring loudly, fast asleep by her side.
Ever since they had gotten married three months prior and Félix no longer had to sneak out before sunrise whenever he spent the night, he would usually sleep for a couple more hours. He was still the early bird of the two though, Pepa absolutely hated early mornings and almost never woke up before breakfast was right around the corner.
That meant that she sometimes still woke up to an empty bed, but most days she did wake up to Félix by her side, simply relaxing as he read a book or simply looking at her with gentle eyes, waiting for her to wake up. So, it was a nice change of pace to wake up, seeing the small smile on her husband’s face as he was still caught in the middle of his slumber.
She stretched her arms once more and shivered at the unpleasant sound of her joints popping as she began to untie her braid. She actually felt pretty good for it being this early, barely tired at all, and she knew she would just have a problem falling back asleep, tossing and turning. She might as well start her day and be grateful she woke up on her own accord instead of by her mother knocking on her bedroom door.
Pepa smoothly undid her braid and grabbed her hairbrush, quickly working her way through the knots and tangles between her curls. Usually it was Félix who took care of her hair, but she didn’t have the heart to wake him when he looked so adorable as he slept. He probably needed the sleep too, after a full day of tasking chores, followed by her probably having been a little too rough for the man to handle. He really deserved some rest.
She hummed to herself as she rebraided her hair, enjoying the feeling of her hair against her fingers. As she did, she decided that Félix needed a reward for simply being the best husband she could have ever asked for. Whenever she thought of him she could already feel the rainbows forming above her head. She quickly got a genius idea, she was pretty sure it was their three month wedding anniversary on the dot and she wanted to surprise him with something special.
And what was more special than a big hearty meal filled with love and appreciation? She wasn’t the best chef in the family by a long shot, that spot was obviously taken by Julieta, with Félix taking second place, but it couldn’t be that hard, could it? Making some arepas con queso and pressing some juice was something anyone could do.
Yes, her mind was made up. She was going to be a good wife and treat her husband with a breakfast made by her.
Pepa carefully jumped off their bed and gently placed the blanket over Félix’s frame before she kissed his forehead. Then she quickly got dressed and snuck out of their room and down to the kitchen. The Casita was filled with the sound of silence, meaning she was the first one of the family to be awake, a very rare occurrence. Julieta was usually an early bird, in the kitchen making breakfast by sunrise, but now the kitchen was empty, leaving Pepa more space to work with.
She took a deep breath of confidence as she gathered the ingredients, hot water, cornmeal, cheese and salt. It couldn’t be that hard.
As it turned out, it was harder than she had thought…
There was a dark cloud of annoyance forming over Pepa’s head as frustration spread across her body. Everything was simply wrong and no matter what she tried to do, she always managed to somehow make it worse. She swore someone was out for her and tried to make her life miserable, because this started to feel ridiculous.
At first she didn’t even manage to make a proper dough. She did exactly as it said on Julieta’s recipe, mixing the right amount of ingredients, but no matter how much she tried she never got a firm dough. All she got was an extremely wet mess that still refused to stick together properly, crumbling together in her hands. The consistency felt horrible in Pepa’s hand, the texture hitting all of her wrong spots and almost caused her to scream as she ended up adding more cornmeal, just to add more cheese and water to balance it out, and nothing worked .
She cursed at herself the moment she felt a bolt of lightning strike her out of pure frustration, and she almost threw the bowl into the ground. Julieta and Félix always made cooking look so easy, and yet there she was unable to even make a batch of simple, stupid arepas. The smell of her own burnt hair made her want to tear at her side, but thankfully she found one of Julieta’s leftover buñuelos and quickly popped it in her mouth. She immediately felt much more refreshed, no limbs aching.
Pepa continued to work with the dough while she turned on the stove. She tried to form an arepa in her hand, stuffing it with cheese and cursed as it once more broke apart in her hands as she saw some of the liquid from it drip onto the floor. She put the first arepa onto the stove, and then the second and a third. As she worked on the fourth one she took a step backwards as she tried to hum to herself as a distraction. She hadn’t noticed how the arepas had kept dripping liquid and cheese onto the floor, and before she knew it, the woman fell forward.
In an effort to try to catch herself, her arm ran over the kitchen counter, knocking the bowl with the dough over, spilling it all over the floor. And now only the bowl, of course she also knocked over some vials of spices and several pans as well. The sound of metal hitting the tiles echoes throughout the house like an unpracticed symphony of five years old trying to play together without any proper training, and it would be a miracle if someone was still sleeping. The sound made her ears ache and out of instinct Pepa placed her palms against them to protect from the sound, only to pull them back in disgust. Her hands were still sticky and wet from the dough, and now her face and hair was covered in it too. She didn’t need a mirror to know she looked like a mess.
Pepa let out a series of curses that would have made her mother wash her mouth out with soap while saying some prayers of forgiveness. Thunder was roaring everywhere, not just over her head, but on the outside as well. The morning birdsong had stopped as the blue sky had quickly turned gray in just a few seconds.
“Clear skies, clear skies,” she mutters to herself, trying to keep her anger under control. She was doing this for Félix after all, and Félix deserved a nice surprise. She just wished she would be capable of doing something without messing it up.
Pepa cursed once more as she got up from the floor, ready to tend to the arepas. So far they looked good. Instead she turned around to the mess of that was the floor, filled with dough and spices and all the pots and pans and she let out a loud groan, not knowing where to start.
If Julieta came down to see the state of her kitchen, Pepa would consider fleeing the country for her own safety. She wouldn’t blame her though, the kitchen looked straight up abused by her hands. This was why Julieta always tried to keep Bruno and Pepa away from the kitchen, and she was starting to see where her sister was coming from. She was a disaster , she was pretty sure even Agustín was more trusted to be left alone in the kitchen than she was, and that was extremely telling.
All she had wanted to do was to do something nice to Féilx, and in the end she had just created a big mess.
Pepa was so focused in her own thoughts that she didn’t hear the sound of footsteps echoing through the house.
“Mi vida, what are you doing?”
Félix’s voice startled her. Pepa jumped up into the air in surprise as she turned around, seeing her husband standing there with a confused and tired look on his face. She sees how he scans the room and notices the huge mess. “I heard some noise coming from downstairs and you weren’t in bed with me. Is everything okay?”
The woman shakes her head as she lets out a sigh.
“No. I woke up early and realized it’s been three months since we got married, and you’ve really worked yourself to the bone the last few days and I wanted to do something nice for you. So I wanted to make you some breakfast as a nice surprise but everything just turned out wrong. The more I tried to fix it, the worse it got. I’m tired, sticky from all the dough and my ears hurt. I am terrible at cooking and never want to set foot in a kitchen ever again, and I managed to ruin your surprise by dropping some pans. I can’t do anything right.”
A few seconds of silence passes before Félix gives her an embrace and kisses her forehead.
“It’s okay Pepa, I’m here for you. I’ll help you clean everything up and then I will make us something to eat.”
“But I was supposed to do something for you.”
“And you did, mi vida. It’s the thought that counts, and I’m so touched you went all this way to try to make breakfast for me. It was really sweet and I love you.”
“So you’re not mad everything is a big mess?”
Félix laughs as he shakes his head.
“Not at all, my love. It’s really sweet that you tried, and it was exciting. Waking up to the sound of metal hitting the floor and you missing. Every day with you is a thrill and you never know how it’s going to go. I love it!”
He kisses her again and Pepa feels how the cloud over her head is slowly disappearing, being replaced by warmth and happiness of living in domestic bliss. Right now, cleaning the kitchen together with her husband sounded like a fantastic idea, because they would be spending some time alone. Then Félix, the one of them that could actually cook would make something that was actually edible, and it would be a great start to their day.
She was just about to flap her hands as she stiffened, feeling a worrying scent in the air. Smoke, and something burnt. Something warm .
Félix seemed to notice as well, because both of them turned around at exactly the same time, only to see the stove on fire, the badly made arepas burnt to a crisp. It looked more like charcoal than something edible.
Pepa immediately froze, not knowing what to do as the panic set in. There was fire .
Félix seemed to know what to do though, because a second later Pepa felt herself being lifted up into the air and… why was he shaking her this was really annoying and was making her nauseous, she wanted to scream at him to sto… a rainfall caused by anger emerged from a tiny cloud, drenching the whole kitchen in water.
Oh .
That was actually… a good call. As embarrassed that she wanted to admit it, Félix was smart.
The fire was put out in an instant and a relief flooded her whole body as there was one less problem to worry about. Félix gently put her down on the ground and Pepa took a few breaths in order to try to stop the rain. Not that it mattered anymore, they were soaked already.
The absurdity of the situation quickly settled in, and the couple began to laugh in each other's arms. It was a nice moment, a break from everything, but of course it got cut short. In the middle of their moment, Pepa heard something she absolutely did not want to hear, footsteps.
Pepa and Félix immediately turned around only to see Julieta and Agustín frozen in the doorway, a clear shock on their faces. Julieta looked exhausted with bags under her eyes, and her whole body tense. She was wearing one of Agustín’s shirts as a sleeping attire, way too big for her, making her look tiny, but somehow that only made Pepa fear for her life even more as she saw the confused anger in Julieta’s eyes. She was out for blood, and Pepa knew it.
She saw how Agustín was already grasping for her arm to hold her back, trying to prevent them from hurting anyone.
“What. Did. You. Do, To. My. Kitchen?”
At that moment, Pepa swore she saw God. She looked over at Félix and saw the pure fear growing on his face. He whispers to her.
“Run.”