Bone Bread

C₆H₁₂O₆ → 2C₂H₅OH + 2CO₂
Equation for alcoholic fermentation

LATE ON HALLOWEEN NIGHT at the kitchen window. She catches a glimpse of her reflection; she looks tired in her grandmother’s apron tied over the witch costume she’s still wearing.

Most years, she buys the pan de muerto from a panadería in the Mission, selecting the bread shaped like bones from a smudged glass case, but this year, she needs to make it from scratch.

Get out the flour, the sugar, anise seed. Wipe down the butcher block. Two large bowls, clinking stainless steel from the depths of the cabinet. Find the rattling measuring spoons, all linked together in a ring. Butter. Salt. Yeast.

Often when she cooks, she wings it: a pinch of something, a shake of another. She eyeballs it. But with the bread of the dead, you need to be careful.

After her