The Learning Curves Omnibus

by Ceillie Simkiss

  “Have you finished undressing yet, mija? I want to hear about this girl.”

  She was close. She wanted to get into her pajamas, but she supposed that could wait.

  “Don’t emphasize girl like that, Mamá. She’s cute and sweet, but it’s not like that.”

  “Not like that ye-et,” Maria sang into the phone, stretching ‘yet’ into two syllables. “So her name is Cora, and she’s sweet and cute. What is her degree in?”

  Elena poured herself a glass of water and wandered over to her loveseat, tucking one of her legs and settled in.

  “So, she’s getting her MBA and she does a lot of freelance writing. I’m honestly not sure how she manages everything she says she does on top of school. She’s ADHD and very pretty.”

  “I see! What kind of pretty is she? I assume since her name is Cora she’s white?”

  “Yeah, she’s kind of a stereotypical white queer girl - she’s slim and blue-eyed with curly hair. She keeps it pretty close shaved on the sides, so she doesn’t fidget with it.”

  “She sounds pretty. Does she have a cat? She sounds like the kind of girl I would expect to have a cat. Or three. You know you are very allergic to cats.”

  Her mother wasn’t wrong. She’d been known to break out in hives from even being in a room that had held a cat in the last few days. Luckily, that wasn’t a problem here.

  “She doesn’t have a cat. She wants a dog, but wants to wait until she graduates in the spring and will have more time for it.”

  She could hear Maria nodding through the phone.

  “She seems sensible. I like this Cora.”

  Elena couldn’t keep a smile from spreading across her face at her mother’s approval.

  “I’m glad to hear that, Mamá. I really am.”

  Chapter 2

  Over the next few weeks, Cora and Elena fell into an easy routine. They’d walk to the dining hall together after class for lunch, and talk about anything and everything from the antics of their classmates to the books Cora had been reading.

  They took turns sending ridiculous selfies to their siblings and parents, reassuring all that they had only fallen into the depths of grad school, not off the face of the earth.

  Elena caught herself giggling at her phone when Cora texted her throughout the day. Cora had taken to joining Elena in the library for long studying sessions, usually bringing some sort of fast food for them both, her laptop and at least three books for work or for pleasure.

  Whatever Cora brought with her, Elena was glad for the company. The food was usually less satisfying than Elena wanted it to be, but given that they were college students and it had to be able to be eaten either warm or cold, they worked with what they could get.

  “Why do you always bring your own books with you?” Elena asked one day when they were working together in the library and Cora pulled a book out of her purse. “We’re literally in a place that has books. For free. Why do you need more?”

  Cora’s eyebrows knit together, and she pulled the book to her chest protectively.

  “The library doesn’t have the right books,” she said with a pout. “This library only has academic stuff. I want fun - magic, dragons, queer people. The works!”

  “Okay that’s fair,” Elena admitted. “But why do you read them at the library?”

  “I don’t really have anywhere else I need to be,” Cora said with a shrug. “Plus, I like hanging out with you, even if we are just doing classwork.”

  Elena tilted her head curiously. Surely there was someone else Cora wanted to hang out with.

  “Don’t you have other people, though?” Elena asked. “There’s no way I’m your only friend. You’re too neat not to have anybody here!”

  Cora’s mouth twisted, and her eyes dropped back to the orange book that was sitting on the table between them. She didn’t answer for a moment, instead drawing small circles on the book cover with her finger.

  “Not so much. I moved here for school, and I had a boyfriend and a few friends in the city. The boyfriend didn’t work out and I kind of lost contact with most of them. My roommates are neat, but they’re pre-med and engineering, and also have boyfriends. They’re pretty busy.”

  “Oh.” Elena almost regretted asking the question, even if she did want to know the answer. Cora clearly didn’t want to talk about it.

  “Well, I’m glad you’re here - even if you’re the only person I’ve ever met that brings books to the library that don’t belong here.”

  “They’re books, you heathen!” Cora gave an exaggeratedly pretentious sniff while simultaneously shooting Elena a teasing glare. “They belong everywhere, much like myself!”

  Elena smiled widely. There was the cheery woman she knew and adored. She blinked a little, realizing that she did adore Cora.

  “Hell yeah, you do. I’m glad you choose to hang out with my queer ass on a regular basis. You’re pretty great.” Elena smiled shyly, and Cora returned it with a smile so wide that it made her nose wrinkle.

  “Yeah, yeah. Don’t you have homework you should be doing?” Cora’s tone was chiding, but the smile took all the sting out of it.

  As Elena watched, Cora glanced back down at the book she was still clutching to her chest, and one of her curls had flopped forward into her face. She set the book lightly on the table and shook the curl back into place as she raised her head, still smiling. Elena was still watching her.

  “I’d think that was more important than staring at my silly face.”

  Elena’s face turned bright pink.

  “I’m totally working.”

  Her normally deep voice had raised an entire octave, and she had started digging through the pile of textbooks with a vigor she hadn’t had a few moments ago.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

  Cora’s smile turned into a smirk, and Elena knew she was letting her have the lie.

  A few weeks later, Elena stared sadly at the dining hall cheese fries that Cora had brought to munch on while they worked. Finally, Elena threw her pen down. It bounced off the book she was working from and into the sad tub of fries. The cheese was so plasticized that you could use it as a mirror.

  Cora giggled.

  “Are you doing anything tonight?” Elena asked.

  Cora set her book down face down, careful not to wrinkle the pages and looked at Elena quizzically.

  “I’d planned on being here until we quit studying, so I guess not?”

  “I haven’t cooked in weeks,” Elena sighed dramatically. She usually cooked at least a few dishes on the weekends. “No offense, Cora, but I’m tired of eating boring white people food. I want proper food. I want sancocho and water bread!”

  “I have no idea what sancocho is, but I’ll try anything if you know where to get it?” Cora replied, sounding hesitant but brave. “Is it Puerto Rican? Is there a good restaurant to get it in Greensboro?”

  “It’s like beef stew, but better, but there isn’t a good Puerto Rican restaurant here,” Elena chewed on the inside of her lip while she thought. “Luckily, Mamá taught all four of us how to cook like a proper Puerto Rican housewife. I need to cook something and get away from these textbooks or I’m going to explode.”

  “Well, we can’t have you exploding!” Cora giggled, a sound Elena adored. “I’m guessing since you haven’t cooked in a while, you’ll need to go grocery shopping. Want to go now?”

  Elena’s eyes lit up with excitement.

  “Yes! Let’s go!”

  They packed up their bags quickly, clearing the room in record time, and walked toward the exterior doors of the library as quickly as they could without actually running.

  Passing the double doors, they both burst into giggles, leaning toward each other with the effort of trying to catch their breath.

  “Why are we moving so fast?” Elena asked breathily.

  “I have no idea!” Cora laughed. “But it seemed like the right thing to do!”

  After a quick but productive tri
p to the grocery store, Elena had gathered all of the ingredients for sancocho and splurged on a bottle of an oaky Italian red wine that she knew would pair well with the beef in the stew.

  The two women had driven to Elena’s small apartment and lined up the group of ingredients so that everything was where Elena wanted it to be. She surveyed it with a practiced eye, rearranging the bags of vegetables and beef until she was satisfied.

  “This is a lot of vegetables for one pot of stew,” Cora noted with a hint of skepticism. “Do you always put corn on the cob in yours?”

  Elena tsked and glanced at her sideways. “That’s one of the most important ingredients, girl! Corn on the cob is what makes it Puerto Rican! The corn soaks up all of the flavors from the beef and the sazón. Mm!”

  “I’m not usually a veggie person…” Cora was sitting on a barstool in front of the counter, looking skeptically at the bags of vegetables sitting in front of her.

  “You won’t even know you’re eating veggies once the sazón gets in there.” Elena asserted, pulling her hair into a high ponytail. “I bet you 20 bucks you’ll like it.”

  “I’ll take that bet,” Cora cocked an eyebrow at the larger woman. “In the meantime, gimme a knife and tell me what to do!”

  “Sweet,” Elena smiled widely, her tongue resting between the rows of her teeth.

  She pulled a knife out of the block on the counter, and slid a cutting board over to the short girl where she sat.

  “You can chop the onion and green pepper while I cut up this beef. One small onion should do it, just nicely chopped. It doesn’t need to be that small. No crying, though. The kitchen is for cleansing the soul.”

  “Pfft.” Cora began to chop the onion. “I don’t cry. I’m a grown woman.”

  “Okay, first of all, you can’t say you don’t cry. You just cried yesterday in the library because a character in your book died.” Elena pointed out, to Cora’s embarrassment. “Second of all, you have to cry sometimes. It’s good for you”

  “My book was sad, okay? He was a rogue with a heart of gold, and they killed him. You know they’re my favorite!” Cora stuck her tongue out, and immediately regretted her decision. “Well, that was a mistake. Now my whole mouth tastes like onion, blah!”

  Her face wrinkled in disgust and Elena burst into laughter. Cora’s tongue was darting between her lips trying to get rid of the onion flavor that had snuck in.

  “You’re a hot mess, Cora,” Elena declared through her giggles.

  “At least I’m hot, then. You invited me to dinner, so it’s good enough for me!”

  Elena shook her head at her friend’s silly remark and pulled out a mixing bowl. She set it on the counter for Cora to put the onions in when she was done dicing, and turned back to the stove.

  The two women fell into a companionable silence, chopping vegetables and watching the pan. Hisses and sizzles soon filled the air alongside the smell of searing beef, onions, and garlic.

  “Is your apartment always this quiet?” Cora asked as she finished chopping her last pepper before she folded the plastic cutting board and tilted it into the bowl with the rest of the veggies. Tossing fresh cilantro on top of it all, she passed the bowl to Elena.

  “I’m not much for loud music,” Elena said as she added the vegetables to the cast iron Dutch oven that would soon hold the sancocho. “It makes me really anxious, and being in relative quiet really helps me calm down.”

  “I can understand that,” Cora said with an easy shrug “Are your neighbors always this quiet, too? That’s unusual in student housing, even an end unit apartment.”

  Elena had expected a different question, and filled the pause by wiping her sweaty forehead on her upper arm.

  “Yeah, they’re very nice. I really got lucky with this apartment. Can you get the beef stock out of the fridge?” Elena asked. The shorter girl did as she was asked. She twisted the lid off the top, and handed the box of stock to her. “This would be better if I’d had time to make my own stock, but that is not meant to be today.”

  “I’m sure it’ll still be delicious, El.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Elena caught Cora smiling at her while she poured the stock into the pot.

  Setting the bottle down, she moved back to her cutting board and knife.

  “How much of this butternut squash do I need to cut up?”

  “Half of it, in like one-inch cubes. And the plátanos need to be sliced in one-inch slices as well. I’ve got the potatoes to peel and cube, the corn to slice and the yucca to dice. Sound good?”

  “Sounds good!”

  Both women went back to chopping while they waited for the stock to reduce, all of the sliced and diced vegetables going into the bowl that stood between them on the counter.

  “What made you want to be a lawyer?” Cora asked out of nowhere, keeping her eyes focused on the plantain in her hand. Elena looked up at her, her eyes serious.

  “Mamá was a foster parent for a long time. Most of the kids that came to us were the ones who were 14 or 15, and maybe had a little bit of an attitude. We’d have the social workers telling us that they couldn’t get emancipated from their parents, so they were stuck in foster care. Nobody wanted to adopt them because new parents want to adopt cute kids, not teenagers.”

  Elena could tell that her face was getting red with an anger she’d had for as long as she could remember, and she could feel her chest heaving. She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. Cora looked at her, concern etched in the wrinkles on her forehead.

  “Sorry, I don’t usually get this upset in front of people.”

  Cora made to pat her on the shoulder or hold her hand, but Elena waved her away.

  “Anyway, we helped Everett, one of the kids that lived with us, get emancipation after he turned 16 with the help of a family lawyer,” She explained. “That kicked him out of the foster care system, which is another issue entirely, but he didn’t have to deal with his mom swooping in and overturning his entire life every three months.”

  Elena took a deep breath and set her knife down.

  “Well, I didn’t mean to tell you my whole life story,” she laughed awkwardly. “I guess my brain trusts you more than I thought it did.”

  The corners of Cora’s cheeks lifted, showing off her dimples. Her eyes remained fixed on her friend’s. Elena took another deep breath and continued.

  “Anyway, I want to help more kids do that. I want to help the kids who need homes to find them, and the ones that just need a way out of their own to find one, too. But I get too emotionally attached to be a social worker, so family law was the way to go for me.”

  Elena peeked at the other woman, and couldn’t help but admire the soft blue eyes that hadn’t strayed from her face.

  “That’s amazing, Elena. That was so awesome of your mom to do, and it clearly made a huge impact on you. I can’t imagine how much better Everett’s life must be now that his mom’s not in it.”

  “Well.” Elena smiled dryly. “This was 10 years ago now. He’s got a wife and a house in Wilmington. He works for a pharmaceutical company out there. It’s pretty cool. But, yeah.”

  She scratched the base of her skull with one finger, loosening the ponytail that held her hair back a little bit. “Anyway. That’s what made me want to go to law school.”

  “Oh, oops! I thought it was more recent. That makes much more sense.” Cora fair skin flushed, clearly feeling silly about the assumption she’d made. “Also, um, I think the stock is reduced? I’m not much of a cook, but this looks right.”

  Elena crossed the kitchen and looked into the pot, double-checking to make sure it was exactly right. “Yeah, you’re right. Time to add the vegetables, potatoes, and the rest of the beef stock.”

  Walking back over, Elena picked up the bowl of vegetables and potatoes in one hand, and gestured toward the remainder of the box of stock with the other.

  “Pour that in, and dinner will be in half an hour or so.”

  Cora gra
bbed the box and poured the rest of the stock in over the vegetables. Elena stirred everything around, and placed a lid on the dutch oven.

  Turning around, Cora picked her phone up off the counter, and set a timer for thirty minutes.

  “All right - time to relax!” Elena exclaimed. “We’ll clean up after.”

  She walked around the counter to the living room, and let herself flop over the arm of the couch, somehow grabbing the blanket off of the back on the way down. She tucked the blanket around her and then turned so that her large frame was mostly covered by the fabric.

  Cora laughed heartily at the sight

  “That was smooth, Elena.”

  She unfurled herself from the blanket just far enough to stick her tongue out at her companion before whipping it back over her face.

  Cora chose to plop into the wide, forest green armchair a few feet away. She curled her bare feet under her and nestled into the chair, squirming a little bit to get comfortable. Tilting her head back, she soaked in the comfortable silence of the apartment.

  “How’d you get all this nice furniture?” Cora asked after a few minutes. Elena’s apartment wasn’t full of the Walmart and Ikea furniture that was so common in grad student apartments. “You’re on the same shoestring budget as the rest of us grad students, aren’t you?”

  “All of this is either thrifted or an old family piece,” Elena laughed lightly. “Mamá and my tías are all great at finding awesome stuff. They know what I like, so if they find something I can use, they’ll send one of my brothers to go pick it up and bring it to me.”

  “I bet that turns out pretty badly on occasion. My Ma does that for me sometimes, but sometimes she picks things that are just strange.” Cora turned in the chair, throwing her legs over the arm so she was looking directly at her Puerto Rican friend. “My mom once bought me these cat statues that are just…oh! Hang on. I think I have a picture.”

  She pulled her phone out again and began scrolling through pictures.