How They Eat in Heaven
- Now we skip ahead all the way to March. Taylor describes a day when she, Lou Ann, Mattie, and the kids go out on a picnic with a young couple Mattie brings along.
- The young couple's names are Estevan and Esperanza.
- Estevan's and Esperanza's looks remind Taylor of Cherokee people. Mattie has told her that they are Guatemalan, and that "more than half the people in Guatemala were Indians" (7.19).
- Taylor explains that "[t]here had been something of a scene" between Esperanza and Turtle that morning (7.22). When Esperanza first caught sight of Turtle, she stumbled, "just as if she'd been hit with twenty-eight pounds of air" (7.22). We wonder what that's referencing.
- Later, Estevan tells Taylor that Turtle looks a lot "like a child they'd known in Guatemala" (7.24). Spooky.
- As the group is driving home, Taylor is forced to brake suddenly. She hears a bump and a noise from the back seat, and believes for a moment that Turtle has been hurt.
- Turtle is fine: the noise that Taylor heard was the child's laughter. It's the first time that Taylor has ever heard her make a sound. Whoa.
- The group watches as a mama quail anxiously shepherds her chicks across the road.
- Weeks later, as Taylor and Mattie are planting seeds for Mattie's summer garden, Turtle says her first word, "bean" (7.49). Yep, title reference number two.
- Taylor gives Turtle some beans to play with, and Turtle plants them happily.
- Taylor's narrative jumps ahead a little ways, and she tells of a night when Estevan and Esperanza come over for supper. Because Mattie is going to be making an appearance on the six-o'clock news, Lou Ann has suggested that they invite the couple over to watch.
- Since Lou Ann no longer owns a TV, they have also invited their neighbors, Edna Poppy and Virgie Mae Parsons, and asked them to bring their portable set along. Now that's adaptability.
- After some confusion—hey, what do you expect from a portable TV in the late '80s?— the group tunes in just in time to catch Mattie's conversation with the news correspondent. They're talking about Guatemala, El Salvador, asylum seekers, and American policies for refugee status and immigration. Yup, this was a big deal back then, too.
- Virgie Mae talks all the way through the interview, and Lou Ann misses it entirely. Taylor gets the gist of it, but hopes there isn't a pop quiz later.
- As things get settled, Taylor realizes that she hasn't yet introduced Estevan and Esperanza to the neighbors.
- As she begins to make introductions, Estevan interrupts her to make the introductions himself. Only he says their names are Steven and Hope.
- Those are direct translations, in case you missed the first week of Spanish class.
- Anyway, it's a hint that they've got something to hide.
- Taylor has made sweet and sour chicken for supper, and Estevan produces a package of chopsticks for everyone to use.
- Estevan explains that he's been working in a Chinese restaurant as a dishwasher. This provokes some commentary from Virgie Mae, who's convinced that immigrants are ruining the great American nation. Real tactful, Virgie Mae.
- Turtle pokes around with the chopsticks, but can't manage to get the food into her mouth. Taylor pulls the kiddo onto her lap, and Estevan begins to tell a story about heaven and hell.
- It's true, learning to use chopsticks can be kind of hellish. But that's not the point of the story.
- In hell, says Estevan, there is a room like Lou Ann and Taylor's kitchen. Wonderful-smelling food is on the table, but the people sitting around the table are dying of starvation. All they have to eat with are spoons that have very, very long handles, and although the spoons can reach the food, the people can't get the food into their mouths, because the spoons are so long.
- In heaven, Estevan continues, the scene is exactly the same. But instead of starving, the people are blissfully well fed. Isn't right-sized spoons how you've always pictured heaven?
- As his story concludes, he reaches across the table with his chopsticks, and feeds Turtle a piece of the pineapple she couldn't reach for herself. Cute.