A SUMMER IN THE FARM PART II

CHUNKY FILLING ENCHILADAS AND CRUNCHY FRIES FOR LUNCH

After the porch table was set up, Bertha sent Kyle and his friends to wash their hands. When they sat around with Alfred, Bertha brought a big tray of enchiladas and then, a second one somewhat smaller. Those freshly made stuffed tortillas, surrounded by dense steam wafting over them, were served alongside long French fries that looked so golden that they almost crunched just by looking at them. The sight was so mouthwatering that Mark exclaimed, “Wow, that looks fire!”, noisily rubbing his hands after a strong clap, “But it´s way too much. Are more people coming?”

The couple of farmers shared a knowing smile; Alfred said, “No, Mark, one tray is for your friend Kyle.”

“That´s right!” Kyle said, grabbing the bigger tray and immediately stuffing one of the rolls into his mouth. “Mmmmmm!”

Bertha patted Kyle´s puffed-up cheeks and said, “Yours are just the way you like them, right, sweetie? Well loaded, more meat than vegetables, and lots of sour cream,” and she sat down.

Kyle agreed, nodding around groans of pleasure and muffled, “You know me too well, Auntie!” Then he raised the rest of his roll and gave Jeremy a sparkling gaze, “Deliciosas enchiladas, Jam. Viva México!” 

Jeremy just chuckled in response.

“They’re way tasty!” Mark exclaimed, chewing his first bite, “Anyway, it´s not like you´re gonna eat all that tray, dude!”

Alfred intervened with a praising tone, “Mark, to Kyle, all those enchiladas and his dish of fries are just an acceptable amount of food to beat hunger.”

At Mark´s expression of disbelief, the farmer couple recalled the day Bertha made Russian salad at his request, but she and Alfred didn´t even try it, as Kyle inhaled the whole platter as an appetizer in one go. The woman complained about Kyle´s food greediness with a glow of pride on his face.

“Look at this, Mark!” Kyle´s shoulder bumped up, almost hiding his face as he bulged out his thick tricep for his friend, “How do you think I got this big?” Then Kyle stood up and tugged his tank, “Guys, you see it covers my belly barely enough, right?” He said running his pinkies along the bottom hem, “Remember that when I´m done eating”, he plopped down and grabbed a glass dispenser, “Let these fries soak up that mix!”, Kyle exclaimed with enthusiasm as he poured it on his dish of fries with vigorous circles, “You´ll see guys, this mix my Auntie makes gives them the perfect spicy kick to take it to the next level! Just try!”

After flavoring a few fries, Mark took a crunchy bite and exclaimed, “These are so good, yeah! Just like the enchiladas, too!”

Bertha asked Jeremy, “Do you like the food? You´re so quiet, honey.”

Jeremy briefly nodded and said, “Oh yeah, very delicious.”

Kyle, who was aware of his friend´s tendency to shrink before new people, reacted right away with one of his jokes to comfort him, “Auntie, it´s just that Jam is smarter than anyone; he chooses not to speak, so there´s no chance someone gets offended.”

Bertha, sensing Kyle´s intention, winked at Jeremy and said, “Well, with how crazy you are, Kyle, you´re very lucky to have someone so prudent around!”

“I am!” Kyle exclaimed, flashing his little friend a big smile, broader by his last big mouthful of enchilada.

Jeremy chuckled in response.

Alfred, to finally dispel Jeremy´s shrinkage, asked kindly, “Did you know that your friend Kyle is the one who milked the cows for the sour cream?”

“Ah, yeah?” Jeremy said, “Is it as easy as it looks? What´s milking a cow like?”

Alfred answered, “Well, Kyle was a very fast learner with any farm task and quickly turned into a one-man army, but at first, he struggled a little with milking.”

Then Bertha added, “Milking a cow is a lot easier said than done, honey”. She turned to Jeremy, ready to give him some advice, “It´s a bit like courting a young lady, but not any lady”, Bertha stressed, shaking her index finger, ”I mean one that asserts herself. First, you have to speak to her sweetly, say beautiful things, and then gently caress her while being confident at the same time to win her trust and respect, just like a true gentleman”.

As Bertha continued with his explanation, Kyle and Alfred exchanged a couple of sideways glances with bad, repressed smiles as if such a comparison reminded them of something hilarious matter they had talked about before.

The woman, unaware of them, completed her allegory, “You can´t just go and grab her boobs at once!” Then, Kyle and Alfred finally burst out laughing. Mark and Jeremy turned to them with curiosity, expecting something amusing to happen.

Bertha put her hands to her hips. “What´s so funny?!”

Kyle grinned and said, “Auntie, it´s just that”, he glanced back at Alfred, and they both chuckled again, “It´s just that most girls I date are way easier to grab their boobs than with the cows! Haha”

Bertha replied with a joking tone of hopelessness, “Oh, now I get why you struggled with milking cows. It must’ve been a difficult concept for a cheap girl magnet such as yourself to grasp!”

After a wave of laughter from all bystanders, Alfred added, “In all fairness, Bertha, it´s not that those girls are cheap with anyone; Kyle’s a real stallion; girls just lose their heads over him! And you do beam with pride every time someone asks about him!”

Kyle reached for his next enchilada when his phone rang; he just sank his meat roll into his bowl of sour cream, opened up his mouth enough to shove half of it in, and while chewing with ample circles of his pursed lips, pulled his phone out with his other hand to laid it on the table, “Mmmm! Wanna have a good laugh?”, Kyle said before answering on speaker, “Hey, Amanda! What´s up?”

“Why didn´t you answer my messages?” The girl formulated his question quickly, overlapping part of Kyle´s short greeting

Kyle took his time to allocate his big mouthful as best as possible to speak and mumbled, “I´m having lunch with my friends”. No sign of concern in his tone.

“What???” Amanda suddenly raised his voice, “You told me we´d hang out this weekend if you were free!”

“I´m not free. I´m busy having lunch with my friends.” Kyle´s voice sounded full of immutable certainty.

So if you’d rather hang out with your friends than make time for me, that means you were just using me for sex!”

Kyle burst out laughing, “Haha, oh, then every time we did it, you didn´t enjoy it? You just did it out of the kindness of your heart. That´s so sweet, Lady! Haha. So, are you from Americares?”

Amanda finally exploded with screams and free denigrations involving Kyle´s family, who seemed to have more fun the more the girl lost her self-control, launching a second sarcastic guess even wittier, “Boobies Without Borders? Haha”

The girl kept on throwing up her torrent of venom without restraint, which was suddenly cut by a quick, simple move of Kyle´s hand to drop his phone, “Fuck the crazy bitch away! Haha. That chick’s piano is seriously out of tune!” Kyle accompanied his words with a meaningful gesture by tapping his finger on his head and finished with, “In a few days … that chick will call me to apologize and beg me to hook up again.”

After all the bystanders laughed, Alfred reaffirmed himself, “Just what I´ve just said; this stallion drives girls crazy!”

Mark added, “Haha, I love your original way of yours of saying someone´s out of their mind, dude!”

Jeremy chuckled in agreement.

Bertha let out a sigh of resignation and said, “And when am I gonna see you finally dating a real girlfriend, sweetie?”

Kyle leaned back on his chair, putting his hands behind his nape and replayed, “With this pretty face and these muscles … why should I settle for just one girl, Auntie?!” his golden armpits, totally exposed under his huge bulging biceps, and between them, his cocky broad smile.

Mark laughed, “You never change, dude! What the heck does a girl have to do to get you to take a relationship seriously?”

Kyle answered, his words garbled by the last big mouthful of his current roll, “If some girl can cook as well as my Auntie does, I’m marrying her!”

He shot Bertha a flattering smile, to which she replied, “Sweetie, I hate to sound arrogant, but…” She paused and shrugged. “You’re going to stay single!”

So, the lunch went ahead, with nice chats and a good mood, until Kyle inhaled his whole tray of enchiladas and fries. Then Alfred took the other tray and bowl, which still had some rolls and fries left, and placed them in front of Kyle. The big boy received the extra food with a broad smile and said, “Time to polish off what the little guys couldn´t finish, huh?”, pointing with his head at his friends while laughing.

Kyle opened up his mouth for a big bite when he crossed a brief gaze with Mark, whose offended expression revived his laughter with a ringing volume of satisfied mockery.

Mark suddenly leaned towards Kyle with a defiant look, “Who are you calling little guy?”

Kyle´s laughter grew thunderous, “Haha, you´re so easy to piss off, man!”

Mark shot back, pointing at him, “No matter how much bigger you are than me, man. You can´t talk about size when you have no definition and abs!”

“Definition and abs?” Kyle forced a large mouthful to free his hands and stood up. Jeremy, Mark, Bertha, and Alfred all looked up, following Kyle´s huge body towering over them.

“Oooof, this is getting tight!” Kyle pulled his tank up higher than he needed to yank down his overalls' waistband, flashing his golden happy trail to the last hair. His chunky pecs almost hiding his face from them. Still chewing, cheeks puffed with food, he mumbled, “Abs?” and rubbed his stomach in slow, wide circles, stroking his fully exposed abdomen. “I’m a real stud, dude!” He topped it off with two confident belly smacks. “A big man gobbles down all the food they put in his way to keep growing stronger. I don’t give a shit about abs. Abs and definition are for scrawny boys like you!”

Bertha intervened, “Boys, that´s enough!”

Mark raised his voice with a challenge, “We can settle it with a boxing match to see who´s the real man!”

Bertha stood up, “Enough, boys! No fighting, okay?!” she said, slicing the air sharply with her hands.

Alfred, unfazed by the sudden confrontation, said calmly, “It´s all good, Bertha. They´re just two boys full of energy and life.”

Her wife kept firm, “Neither energy nor life matters! Kyle is asking for trouble, and Mark is taking the bait!” Then she turned and said, “I’ll bring dessert”.

As soon as the woman walked through the home door, Kyle leaned towards Mark with a mocking expression, surely to resume his pranks. At that very moment, Bertha´s serious face stuck out from the door, “Kyle, what did I just say?!”

Kyle just shut up, raising his hands. Alfred chuckled and said to Mark and Jeremy, pointing his thumb at Kyle, “You see, boys? Bertha is the only woman who´s ever managed to tame this stallion.”

Alfred, Mark, and Jeremy were laughing while Kyle smiled in silence when Bertha came back with a big platter full of rice pudding between her hands. At the sight of its bright, creamy look, Kyle shoveled his last roll into his mouth and extended his arms towards the tray with a groan, even though the woman hadn´t even put it on the table yet.

Bertha tilted the platter to the side, “First, wait til your friends get served! I´m seeing you coming, Kyle!” 

Once Bertha served as many spoonfuls as Mark and Jeremy wanted, she placed the platter in front of Kyle, which was still more than half full. Alfred and his wife only took a cup of coffee. Amid the congratulations to Bertha for her delicious dessert and some joking remarks about Kyle’s past eating feats as a big guy, the farmers’ godson had already finished his large serving while Mark and Jeremy were only halfway through theirs.

Kyle, caressing his gut around moans of satisfying fullness, couldn´t take his eyes off Mark´s dish, “Bro, are you gonna eat all that rice pudding? I thought you wanted to stay shredded.”

Mark answered with satisfaction, “Rice is rice, man—perfect for a bodybuilder’s diet!” He shot Kyle a cocky grin, as if saying, ‘The last laugh is the sweetest.’  

Kyle then fixed his eyes on Jeremy’s small serving.  

Bertha murmured, “I don’t believe this!” with Alfred chuckling softly in the background.  

Jeremy looked at Kyle, then at his portion of rice. Holding the dish, he said, “Kyle, if you want it so much, I don’t mind giving you the rest of my dessert.”

Without thinking twice, Kyle sank his spoon into it, “Oh, Jam, you´re such a good bro!!”.

Bertha exclaimed, “I don´t believe this! Kyle, your friend is only staying here a few days! You can have more rice pudding another day! Besides, his portion was very tiny …” But the big boy had already quickly scooped up the entire Jeremy´s portion to have one extra mouthful.

Jeremy said with all the simplicity in the world, “It’s okay, Bertha, really. I’ve already had your dessert. Delicious.”  

Bertha just shook her head in disbelief, “Jam, my son, you’re an angel on earth.”

Kyle said to Mark with a mocking tone while chewing, “I finally got more rice! ‘Little guy’ portion, but it´s worth it yet.”

Mark finally exploded, “You bet, asshole! Kiss-ass Jam would let you fuck him in his ass if you asked!”

With a strident clink, Bertha placed her cup on its saucer, cutting the air with an awkward silence as she shot a glare at Mark and Kyle. Then, Kyle forced a loud gulp down and slowly turned his head toward Jeremy with a comical face of concern and said, “Really, Jam? Wouldn´t that hurt you if I gave it to you from behind?”

Jeremy just answered calmly and simply, “It’s not like I’m a kiss-ass or anything, but … the only thing that would hurt me about that is turning my back on you.”

After such a witty response—so unexpected from Jeremy, who had been mostly silent throughout lunch—Kyle, Alfred, and even Bertha burst into a loud fit of laughter. The woman was the last to stop laughing; as she looked at Jeremy’s innocent, amused smile and then at Mark, who was all confused and disturbed, she broke into laughter again, like crazy, until tears streamed from her eyes.

Finally, Mark joined in, chuckling and shaking his head in a mix of amusement and disbelief. He looked at Bertha and Alfred and said teasingly, “See? This is what I have to put up with every single day from these two clowns!"

“I see!” Bertha answered, still wiping her tears, “Oh my god! Haha. Kyle, where did you find such a funny character?”

Kyle rested his big arm around Jeremy’s narrow shoulders and said, “That´s our Jam, Auntie. He’s nothing like the boring guy he looks like! Right, Mark?”

“That´s right, man!” Mark confirmed, then he added to the farmers, ”Consider yourselves lucky! Took me a whole month before Jeremy loosened up enough to hear from him something that funny.”

“By the way”, Jeremy said to Kyle, “Why did you tell us to remember that thing about your tank?”

“Yeah, I almost forgot!” Kyle replied as he stood up, “Time to show off!”

“That´s our big boy”, Alfred chuckled as Kyle stood up, “Never missing a chance to show off.”

Kyle pulled down his white tank, which now didn’t go any lower than his belly button. 'You can see the difference, can’t you, guys?' he said, running his hand over his stuffed gut to highlight its bloated curve. His cocky grin spread wide, expecting reactions.

Mark gave Kyle´s bare belly base a full-on slap,  “Dude, you got your gut seriously blown up after gorging like that! Haha”

Kyle turned his gut to Jeremy, demanding praise. His little friend said, “Oh yeah! Now we know how you got so big and strong! Hehe”

Kyle now turned to the farmers, “Auntie, Uncle, just keep those big butches coming!” He insisted, giving a couple of loud smacks on his stuffed gut, “I don´t wanna ever drop under 300 pounds!” He raised his arms as if reaching for the sky, then bulged out with a roar, his massive biceps in a hard flex, round and thick like soccer balls. “I´m a he-man! I just wanna stay big and strong!”

To be continued