The next morning, Maite and Kepa slept like rocks. Edurne tried to let them sleep in while she spent the morning working from her home office. However, it was still pretty early when Kepa could hear voices outside his door.
“Sweety, they just flew thousands of miles across the ocean. They are very tired, they need some sleep.”
“But, I want to play cards!”
Buber’s Basque Story is a weekly serial. While it is a work of fiction, it has elements from both my own experiences and stories I’ve heard from various people. The characters, while in some cases inspired by real people, aren’t directly modeled on anyone in particular. I expect there will be inconsistencies and factual errors. I don’t know where it is going, and I’ll probably forget where it’s been. Why am I doing this? To give me an excuse and a deadline for some creative writing and because I thought people might enjoy it. Gozatu!
Kepa rolled over. He watched Maite’s peaceful face as she slept in the other bed. While no one else in the house was particularly preoccupied with Maite and Kepa sharing a bed, they themselves weren’t quite ready for that next step in their relationship and had opted to pull the two twin beds apart. Kepa sighed, knowing he wasn’t going to fall back asleep. He pulled the covers off and got out of bed. He threw on a robe that Edurne had left for him and slipped as quietly as he could out of the room.
George and Amaia were in the hallway. They looked up as Kepa closed the door behind him.
“I’m so sorry, Kepa,” said George. “We didn’t mean to wake you.”
“It is no problem,” replied Kepa. “I was awake anyways.” He looked down at Amaia. “Besides, I heard someone wants to play cards?”
Amaia squealed as she grabbed Kepa’s hand and pulled him toward the living room.
“Can I at least get you some coffee?” asked George as Kepa plopped down in a chair.
“That would be great,” replied Kepa with a smile as Amaia began dealing out the cards. “What are we playing?”
“Go Fish!”
Kepa laughed. “I don’t know that one, you will have to teach me.”
Amaia’s face filled with disbelief. “You don’t know how to play Go Fish?”
Kepa shook his head as he accepted the cup of steaming coffee from George. “Mil esker,” he said to George. Turning back to Amaia, he replied “No, my parents never taught me that one.”
After the third game of Go Fish, Kepa was beginning to think he understood the rules, even if he kept losing every game. He heard the floorboards creak and looked up to find Maite standing over him, a cup of coffee in her hand. She sat down next to him, wrapping her arm around his back. “Egun on,” she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.
“Egun on!” said Amaia enthusiastically. “Do you want to play?”
“Oh, no!” replied Maite. “I’m not a card player. Besides, I need to talk to your mom and dad about our plans for the day.”
“What are our plans for the day?” asked Kepa, as curious as Amaia.
“We were thinking of seeing the Statue of Liberty before going to that show with Unai and Eric. How does that sound?”
“Sounds perfect,” said Kepa. He turned to Amaia. “Do you have any sevens?”
“Go fish!” squealed Amaia as Maite chuckled and headed toward the kitchen.
