My Mother-in-Law's Sweet Milk novel · Chapter 5 of 12

Chapter 5: The Milking

Celaya smelled of burnt sugar.

I knew it the moment we got out of the car, at four in the afternoon on Thursday.

In front of us stood a sheet-metal gate painted red, with white lettering: "Cajetas Arizmendi, since 1951."

Behind the gate was a yard of packed earth and a brick warehouse with a chimney.

A herd of goats bleated behind a wooden fence.

Delfina stepped out of the car in jeans, a plaid shirt, and field boots.

She looked like a different woman.

Younger, taller, with her shoulders loose.

Two workers greeted her from the warehouse door.

"Good afternoon, boss."

"Good afternoon."

"And who's that gentleman?"

"Doctor Isaac. He's here to see the milk."

The workers exchanged a look I didn't fully understand and burst out laughing.

Delfina led me through the warehouse.

There were copper cauldrons the size of a bed, stirred with wooden paddles by men in white aprons.

The air was thick, sweet, warm.

"Two hundred liters of goat's milk to get twenty kilos of cajeta," she explained. "Six hours of slow fire. If you leave it, it burns."

"If you rush it, it curdles."

"What patience."

"Patience is the whole business."

She showed me the storage room, the boxes ready to go, the office where an old desk held ledgers the size of a tombstone.

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