Page 3 of A Dish Best Served Hot

A chorus of hisses, grunts, and rough exhales drowned out the El Alfa song playing from the community center multipurpose room’s stereo system. Lola León smiled to herself as she watched the adults in the room, mostly women in their forties and above, go through the move she’d demonstrated moments earlier. She loved having a full class. Her hope was to one day have multiple classes at different times to allow anyone interested to join.

“Stop!” she called.

Immediately the sounds stopped, leaving only the bass-heavy dembow music from the famous Dominican artist that had gone viral thanks to a social media dance challenge.

Before she could congratulate her students on a job well done, a voice called out, “When do we get to ball squeezing?”

She knew that voice well. It belonged to her youngest and most gung-ho student. A student who should technically be at the high school right now.

Lola met Ruby’s eyes in the mirror in front of them and raised a brow. “Ball squeezing?”

Ruby nodded, causing the sweat beading on her dark brown skin to run down her face to her neck. “Yeah. You know, the shit that will really take a motherfucker out. Like ‘oh, you thought you could just keep grabbing my ass whenever I walked to my desk in chemistry? How do you like it when I grab these?’” She made a grab-and-squeeze motion with her hand. “And then you just crush them like an egg until yolk and whites are all over the place.”

Another voice chimed in. This one from the oldest member of the class, Gladys, who must have been in her early seventies. “That makes me wonder, which is more effective, Lola, squeezing the balls or kicking them?”

Lola bit a lip to keep from smiling at the question and gave it some serious thought before answering. She also made a mental note to check in with Ruby after class, the specifics of her scenario were a bit too detailed. “We know Krav Maga is about attacking the most sensitive parts of your assailant for self-defense, right?”

Nods all around.

“But what else do I always tell you?”

“Keep as much distance between yourself and your assailant as possible,” the group said in unison.

“Exactly.” Lola held up a finger. “If you have the space to kick, you kick. If you can’t kick, use your knee. If the angle is wrong or you won’t be able to put the right amount of force behind your strike, then by all means grab those nuts and crack them. I like to do a grab, twist, and push motion.” Lola demonstrated the motion slowly so everyone could see and then more quickly. “But remember that your goal isn’t to completely annihilate your opponent. This isn’t an MMA fight you’re trying to win. You want to incapacitate them in order to get away.”

Lola liked to give the reminder frequently because some of her students thought they were going to use their Krav Maga knowledge to become neighborhood vigilantes going around kicking everyone’s ass. She didn’t blame them. When her mother had first made her begin classes at age seventeen, she’d been the same way. She’d even gotten into some trouble for going around hammer punching dudes. Through time and continued practice she’d learned just how much damage the moves she’d mastered could do, so she was now more conscious of how she used them. Honest self-defense only. Being obnoxious wasn’t enough of a reason to take someone out. Sadly.

Her students would learn that eventually. They were less than two months into the course, so they were still learning the very basics. Which reminded her. “Let’s practice how to plant our feet when someone is trying to push us. Partner up.”

Lola led her students through more and more practice moves until both she and they were pouring sweat and time was up. As everyone filed out she called Ruby over to talk.

Ruby didn’t even let Lola open her mouth before she was defending herself. “Look I already know what you’re going to ask and yes I am still supposed to be at school. But honestly it’s not even that big of a deal because I only skipped my last two periods and one of them is study hall. I don’t even need a study hall because I’m getting As in all my classes so I wouldn’t even really be studying. I’d just be messing around and distracting other people who do need to study because they are stupid and not acing their classes. So basically, isn’t it better for me to be here learning something useful and letting others learn at school?” The girl finally paused to take a breath and Lola jumped in before she started again.

“What’s the other class?”

“Huh?” Ruby screwed up her face like she was confused, but Lola knew better.

“What other class did you skip to come here, Ruby?”

She stayed quiet.

“I’m going to take a wild guess here and say that it’s chemistry.”

A shrug, which meant “yes” in teenager.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Why? It’s not like you can do anything about it.”

“I can help you figure out a solution that won’t get you in trouble with the truancy officers.”

Ruby scoffed. “I’ve already done everything we’re told to do. I told him to stop, I told the teacher, I talked to the guidance counselor, I reported it to the principal. They did nothing because he’s the highest scorer on the basketball team and I’m just the quiet nerdy girl who lives in a homeless shelter with her gay little brother.”

Lola, who operated on a simmer at all times, felt her blood begin to boil. “That’s not okay.”

Another shrug. This one to convey, “it is what it is.”

“I’m going to talk to Yara. She’ll have some thoughts on what to do.” Yaraliz Vasquez was the director of El Hogar, the shelter Ruby and Marcus currently lived in with about ten other unhoused teens, most of whom had been kicked out of their homes because their self-righteous parents couldn’t tolerate their gender identity or sexual orientation.

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