 |
PatchWork |
|
|
PatchWork |
Last Updated 09/06/05
Email: joy@our-town.com
By
Joyce Whitis
I dumped the canned salmon into a mixing bowl, followed it with half a cup chopped onion before I remembered. I’d need an egg for this and I’d used the last one I had for pancakes that morning. Several years ago I would have gone out to the hen house and looked around for a just laid egg but the coyotes finished off the last of the chickens long ago. We bought our eggs at the store these days. It had been a very long time since I had “borrowed” an egg or anything else from a neighbor, but since we were all ready for salmon croquettes for supper and I couldn’t re-can the fish, I called up Theresa. She doesn’t understand much English and I speak poor Spanish so when she answered the phone, I asked for her son. When he came to the phone I asked him if I could borrow an egg.
“Just one egg?” he asked. “What can you do with just one egg?”
“Well, I am making salmon croquettes and I need just one.” I told him. He finished the conversation by telling me that they had lots of eggs at his house so I drove up the road to get one. Theresa was standing on the front porch wearing her usual wide grin and several of their friends were hanging around a new pickup, laughing and talking. When I rolled down the car window, Gonzolo handed me a green cartoon with a dozen and a half eggs in it.
“No, no”, I told him. I only need 1 egg, just one. Tomorrow I’ll go to the store and get groceries. Tell Theresa that I only want one egg.”
He turned to his mother who was still smiling and she brushed him away with a flip of her hand. “My mother doesn’t understand why anybody would want just one egg,” the boy told me. “She wants you to have this cartoon. We have three cartoons. You take this one. My mother wants you to have it.”
I smiled at my friend, shouted “muy gracias” and accepted the cartoon of eggs from her son. Back at the house I added 2 eggs instead of 1 to my fish dish, finished the mixing of ingredients and fried up the croquettes. They were delicious.
I thought about the generosity of my friend and what she and her family had attempted, endured and conquered in their lifetimes. Theresa and Israel Sanchez were born and raised somewhere in Mexico, they once told me, it was just a small village and I have forgotten it since. Soon after they were married they wanted to come to Texas and both tried but were always caught and sent back. Finally Israel was able to cross the Rio Grande, hide out in the pastures and fields making his way north across Texas. He worked whenever he could get a job and at last got to Erath County where he got a job on a dairy.
Israel sent his money home and Theresa and the three boys began to try to get to Texas. They had friends across the border who frequently visited them in Mexico. As is true with most Catholic families, and the religion in Mexico is mostly Catholic, there are many children. The Sanchez’ friends had many children and after a visit, as they went back home, they would take one of the Sanchez boys with them. The border guards would never noticed one more Mexican child in a large family. When all the children were safely in Texas, Theresa tried to make it. She swam the river three times but each time was caught and sent back. On the fourth time she made it and stayed.
The family was reunited in Erath County where they have lived and worked ever since. The boys all graduated high school and are able to obtain good jobs. They are all American citizens and very productive individuals. Israel has worked for several dairies during the past 30 years and today he leases a small dairy which is operated by himself and two of his boys. They never talk about their hardships and the months at a time when they were separated. They are productive citizens, they live comfortably and they can afford to give away 18 eggs with a wave of the hand.
Why in the world would anyone want just one egg when there are so many others to be had?