My grandmother sent me a photo last week. In it, a white candle burns inside a metal bucket.
Balanced on the bucket’s rim are the cast-iron grates from the gas stove—the stove that no longer has gas. And, on top of the grates, sits the coffee maker. The idea is that the candle’s small, dying flame will heat the stovetop espresso maker just enough for the coffee to brew. The whole contraption looks like something a child would build at a survival camp. My grandmother is over 80 years old, and she built it because in Cuba right now she has no gas to cook with, virtually no electricity at any hour of any day, and her morning coffee is non-negotiable.
I stared at that photo for a long time. I was sitting in my apartment in Houston. Outside the window, Texas was still Texas.
