Ballet

EXT. FARM HOUSE - SOLEDAD ETLA, OAXACA, MEXICO - AFTERNOON - February 24, 2025

EXT. FARM HOUSE - SOLEDAD ETLA, OAXACA, MEXICO - AFTERNOON

A beautiful, rustic farm house with an outdoor kitchen, exposed dining room and many vine-covered trellises curl around the fertile land and plots of crops. The house is adobe and stucco, lots of overhanging roofs to block the blistering sun.

A cooking class of tourists - nine from the US, one from England - sit around a long dining table introducing themselves.

The last of the group is DOUG (65, American, boyish charm, a Michael Pollen type). He blinks behind his tiny glasses with an innocent smirk.

DOUG: Hey, I’m Doug. I’m from Portland, Maine. Well, from Jersey, originally. But I’ve sort of lived all over. Was in the Navy then moved to the Bay Area, and raised my kids there. Then me and my wife moved to Portland a few years ago. That’s where she’s from. And, I’m here in Oaxaca for three weeks taking Spanish classes.

The group all say hello to Doug in cliche AA fashion.

JOSE (40, the jovial guide of the cooking class) stands before the table of tourists.

JOSE: So now- Thank you. So now, I want to tell you about this farm. This was my grandparents farm.

Jose reaches down and picks up a framed black-and-white photo. The photo has aged poorly even inside the glass frame. Chemicals and ink bled and blochey, but the subjects in the image remain visible. Jose explains:

JOSE: These are my grandparents. They’re making cheese their whole lives. My grandmother - she said she wanted to die making cheese. When she was 92, she was making cheese all day. In the afternoon she went to her bed, and she died, very peaceful, no pain. So she died doing what she loved. How she wanted to go.

The eyebrows on the tourists rise in awe.

JOSE: We believe Oaxacan cheese is the best cheese in the world. We compete, in the world competition. The last five years we place top five. This year, we hope, it will be Oaxacan cheese number one.

LATER

The group spread out around the outdoor kitchen doing tasks assigned to them by SONIA (80, petite Mexican woman with loving wrinkles, hair different shades of gray, and the projected wisdom of an elder Mexican woman).

Some chop. Some roll. Some mix.

They all wear “aprons”, though most of the aprons are simply dresses. Shane’s is in a dress.

SHANE: So Doug, how is your Spanish?

DOUG: It’s okay. I used to be a teacher in the education system in Oakland, and a lot my students’ parents didn’t speak English but they spoke Spanish. And it felt crappy not being able to communicate with them. So when I retired I took a job as a dishwasher and I learned a little Spanish in the kitchen where I worked.

SHANE: Why’d you take a job as a dishwasher?

DOUG: Just for fun.

SHANE: Was it fun?

DOUG: It was! Yeah.

SHANE: So from the Navy to education to dishwashing? Feels like the reverse of a lot of people’s career paths.

DOUG: Well, I’ve had a lot of careers. After the Navy I worked in the healthcare system. Trying to bring military tactics to change the operations systems of the healthcare system.

SHANE: Whoa. How’d that go?

DOUG: It went pretty well, actually. I did that for about twenty years. Then decided to go into teaching. Just for fun.

LATER

The group sit down to eat their first dish and try some Mezcals.

SHANE: So, Doug. You solo travel often?

DOUG: Sometimes. My wife doesn’t want to learn Spanish so I am doing these three weeks solo. Sometimes we travel together, or I travel with my kids. My last solo travel was the Appalachian Trail.

SHANE: Oh shit, that’s big. That’s like six months right?

DOUG: Well, yes, but I only had four months available for it so I did it in four.

SHANE: Wow. That’s fast.

DOUG: It was, yes. And I was about fifty-eight when I did that, so it was a lot.

SHANE: Did people visit you? Hike with you for a few days here and there?

DOUG: I had a couple friends who would pick me up at the end of a day and bring me to a hotel, so that was nice, to sleep in a bed for two or three nights here or there.

SHANE: What inspired you to do it?

DOUG: I don’t know, just thought it would be an interesting challenge. Just for fun.

LATER

They walk the land at sunset, the farm golden bathed in sunlight. Shane and Doug meandor through the fields, mid conversation, several Mezcals and cervezas deep.

DOUG: I was an engineering major in college, and at that time it was mostly men in engineering classes. And I wanted to meet people of the opposite sex, so I took ballet as my art class. Figured it would be a good way to meet women.

SHANE: That’s fucking genius, Doug. Did you like ballet?

DOUG: I liked watching ballet. I wasn’t very good at it or anything. But it was fun.

SHANE: How did it work out for you? Meet any women in the class?

DOUG: Yeah, it worked out pretty great. I met my wife in that class.

SHANE: Are you serious?!

Doug giggles.

DOUG: I swear, yeah.

SHANE: You’re an interesting guy, Doug. A curious guy.

DOUG: Life is interesting. It’s fun to try things. Learn things. Do things.

SHANE: Sure is.

They pause and look out at the sunset.

SHANE: It’s amazing Jose’s grandmother knew she wanted to die making cheese, isn’t it? Can you imagine? Loving something so much you want to die doing it? Maybe eating cheese. But I don’t know what I want to be doing when I die.

DOUG: You’ll see.