FICTION -
    With the Theme of Making or Breaking Bread    

 "There was a faint glow at the horizon to the
south-east from San Jose, 2500 feet below."

​                                   Photo by Weebly.com                                    

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Perseid Bean Party
by  Daniel Raskin

​The August night of the Perseid Meteors, we revelers at the yearly “Poor Man’s Meat” party ate pasta y fragoile, Cincinnati Five Way Chili and a rattlesnake bean chili. One family contributed Boston Baked Beans and some teens from Las Cruces, New Mexico brought a version made with Appaloosas. There were dal and roti, refries with cheddar, Hoppin’ John, an impressive Fejoada completa, and homemade hummus. A family of latecomers arrived with mujadara buried under caramelized onions, and we ended the meal lightly with agadashi tofu. There were sweet bean cakes for dessert. The new babies, ready for solid food, got initiated to legumes that August night of the shooting stars, a ritual that was the custom among our crowd of old friends, going back to the 1960’s.
 
After beans in the field folded their leaves, the fog billowed in and froze out the party; time to catch shooting stars. We headed south, climbing the ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains, on California 35. We got above the fog, dipped back down into it, in and out again, finally above the fog for good, Borel Hill, Russian Ridge, above Palo Alto. There was a faint glow at the horizon to the south-east from San Jose, 2500 feet below. Otherwise, we had the night to ourselves.
 
We cast beans around the ground for good luck seeing a wondrous star show. We zipped sleeping bags together and cozied in, the babies on their daddies’ chests, looking heaven-ward. Blue fireballs, white pin stripe flashes, yellow and red streaks crossed the Milky Way in the moonless sky. Bats flitted through the air. An owl swooshed over our heads, leaving behind its feathery aroma.

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​We told Perseus’ story. King Polydectes wanted him out of the way so Perseus would not be able to stop Polydectes from marrying his captured mother, Danae. He challenged Perseus to bring him the head of the Gorgon Medusa, whose stare turned people to stone. He expected Perseus never to return. But Perseus had help. Hermes loaned him winged sandals. Zeus gave a sword and The Helmet of Invisibility. Athena provided a gleaming shield to reflect Medusa. That way Perseus could see Medusa without looking at her fatal gaze. The Hesperides gave him a sack to hold Medusa’s head until he needed it to turn Polydectes to stone. “Ohs,” “Ahs,” and “Did you see that one?” framed the story of the meteor shower’s namesake.
 
Riding home in the early dawn, the sleepers in the backseat didn’t wake even when we screeched to a halt to save two fawns blinded by our headlights. Later, we slept until supper and then cooked up some sausage to go with the leftover beans. The babies on laps licked their rose bud lips and opened their mouths for more. “Mmmm, mmmm, mmm.”

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​​Daniel Raskin is a retired preschool teacher. He lives in Bernal Heights. Daniel writes with The Older Writers Laboratory at the Bernal library, The MERI Center at UCSF and Laguna Writers.

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