Chapter 2: Casado Americano

https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-a-grilled-cheese-sandwich-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-200972

    “More tomato soup Ernie?” asks Robbie’s mother as the boys lap up their bowls.

“Thank you Mrs. Reed,” I reply in my most polite English, stopping myself from using the Tico language that I grew up with.

“Get the boy another grilled cheese, won’t you Kar?” asks Mr. Reed who’s having trouble getting up out of his chair at their kitchen table.

“Only if it’s no trouble,” I smile into my bowl. “So how does one get to the point?”

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     By 1999 Blaine Reed and Karma Czarcinski had been married for nearly ten years. Though it was a marriage of convenience for old friends who happened to sleep together one New Year’s eve and wound up as forty-year-old new parents, they were, conveniently, loving partners and committed parents.

     To the surprise of his doctors, Blaine’s amyotrophic lateral sclerosis had stabilized into intermittent leg weakness except for the middle leg, which petered out not long after their son Robert was born. Karma had taken up the camera when Robbie was little, and her early conversion to digital along with being conversant in baseball landed her a job as Topps regional photographer soon after Robbie started school. Between her spring training assignments and Blaine’s twice daily therapy walks, their ten-year-old was given plenty of free reign to go fishing.

__________

    “Cross the brook at the trestle, then turn left and pick up the old fisherman’s trail along the river,” instructs Mr. Reed. “It’s out past the stadium.”

“Now Blaine, you know that’s a Superfund site and no place for boys, fish or no fish.”

“Just make sure the rail isn’t vibrating before you cross,” he winks, ducking as Karma flings a potholder at his head, “and steer clear of any colored pools.”