Abuela brings the pot out from her mobile home. It’s heavy with the weight of the seed pods from the ebony tree on our lot. Her four grandchildren sit beneath the ebony tree. When she lifts the lid, a plume of steam rushes outward, framing her face and clouding over her glasses. The ebony pods have split in the heat, showing their wax-covered seeds. We reach eagerly toward them, but Abuela swats our hands away to protect them from the hot water. She reaches in, grabs the first one, pops in a seed, then deftly spits out the waxy covering.
Samuel Hernandez grew up along the Rio Grande River in Texas. He moved to New York City for college and hasn't been back since.