It was about nine thirty in the morning when Maite\u2019s little Fiat pulled up again outside of Goikoetxebarri, the baserri where Kepa lived with his mom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMil esker for the ride,\u201d said Kepa over a repressed yawn as he opened the door. \u201cAre you sure you don\u2019t want to crash here for a while, before driving home? If you are as tired as I am\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd sleep in that creepy room with those pictures of your uncle?\u201d Maite replied, shaking her head. \u201cNo thanks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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!<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Kepa did have to admit that the middle room was a little creepy. His ama insisted that they keep the photos of his aita\u2019s uncle, Domingo, up on the wall. Domingo had died fighting for the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War as Franco\u2019s forces had sieged Bilbao, and the family had always honored his sacrifice by having many photos of the then-young man around the house. They had all gotten consolidated in the middle bedroom upstairs and now the shrine to his great uncle gave the room a very disturbing atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFair enough,\u201d Kepa said. \u201cBut, at least come in for a coffee. I\u2019m sure ama saw us drive up and already has a glass ready for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maite smiled in defeat. \u201cAdos,\u201d she said as she turned off the engine and got out of the car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The smell of coffee filled their senses as they passed the foyer into the small kitchen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEgun on!\u201d said Kepa\u2019s ama as the two entered the kitchen. She placed two glasses of coffee on the small table, beckoning them to sit. The table was already filled with cookies and biscuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHow are the fish, Mari Carmen?\u201d asked Maite as she took a seat at the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ever since they were children, Maite had always asked Kepa\u2019s ama, Mari Carmen, about her fish. She and her parents had come to dinner at the baserri one night and Mari Carmen had served the best fish Maite had ever tasted. She had assumed that Mari Carmen must have a personal pond full of the best and freshest fish in the Basque Country and ever since she had asked Mari Carmen about her wonderful fish. Even when she grew older, she kept the conceit going as an inside joke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mari Carmen smiled. \u201cThe fish are wonderful, as always. How was the fiesta?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was great,\u201d said Kepa as he shoved a few of the cookies into his mouth and took a sip of his coffee. \u201cKoldo\u2019s new band is really good. They have some excellent songs and all of them are great musicians. I think they could do really well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maite nodded enthusiastically. \u201cI agree. They\u2019re better than all of the other new bands I\u2019ve heard and better than most of the ones that are on the radio. They are really talented.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPozik nago,\u201d replied Mari Carmen. \u201cI\u2019m glad Koldo has finally found his place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kepa knew what she meant. Koldo had struggled to really find his footing as an adult. He had tried various jobs, working at one of the factories, taking classes to be a mechanic, tending bar, but nothing had stuck. He seemed to only be happy when making music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maite finished her coffee and stood up. \u201cWell, I better go. Thanks for the coffee Mari Carmen.\u201d
\u201cEz horregatik, neska. Ondo ibili,\u201d replied Mari Carmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\nKepa walked Maite out to her car. \u201cThanks again for the ride. I really appreciate it. And sorry for being so grumpy at the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maite laughed. \u201cIf you weren\u2019t grumpy, you wouldn\u2019t be Kepa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kepa leaned in to give Maite a kiss on each cheek, but Maite grabbed his head and planted a kiss on his lips. \u201cIkusi arte,\u201d she said with a devious smile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kepa just stood there, befuddled, as Maite drove off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was about nine thirty in the morning when Maite\u2019s little Fiat pulled up again outside of Goikoetxebarri, the baserri where Kepa lived with his mom. \u201cMil esker for the ride,\u201d said Kepa over a repressed yawn as he opened the door. \u201cAre you sure you don\u2019t want to crash here for a while, before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[864],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bubers-basque-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Artboard-1-1.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-Gf","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}