Body Bags & Blarney by J.D. Shaw

her coat and blew her nose. “Is there a
restroom in this place? I’ve never been here before.”
    Vivienne
pointed toward the restaurant area off to the side. “Yes. It’s to the left of
the small water garden in the dining room.”
    “Thank you.”
Suzette rushed off in a hurry.
    The young
woman returned from the kitchen with a large plastic bag in her hands.
“Imperial Feast, two spring rolls, and a large bowl of wonton soup?” She asked.
    “Yes, that’s
right.” Vivienne pulled her wallet out of her purse.
    “Seventeen
dollars please.” The woman opened the bag and dropped in a handful of duck and
soy sauce packets.
    Vivienne retrieved
a twenty dollar bill from her wallet and handed it to the girl. “Keep the
change.”
    “Thank you and
come again.” The girl smiled.
    Vivienne
grabbed the bag and was about to leave when she paused. “Excuse me, but the
woman who just came in, did she have an order waiting?”
    “I don’t
know.”
    “Her last name
is Powell.” Vivienne added.
    “Let me
check.” The young girl disappeared into the kitchen for a moment and then
returned. “Yes she has an order waiting.”
    Vivienne set
her purse back on the counter. “I know this may sound strange, but I’d like to
pay for that.”
    “You want to
buy her order?” The girl asked with a slightly confused look on her face.
    “I don’t want
to take it. I just want to pay for it. She’s a friend and she seemed a little
upset when she came in.” Vivienne pointed to the dining room area. “She just
went to the restroom for a moment.”
    “Oh, that’s
okay then.” She walked over the register and pulled the order from the stack of
papers. “Her order is twelve-fifty.”
    Vivienne gave
the exact change. “Thank you.” She hurried away, hoping that a little act of
kindness might bring Suzette some comfort.
    As she dashed
into her car with the bag warm in her grip, she caught wind of the acrid
burning smell again. A few moments later, the bag of warm Chinese food rapidly
filled the car interior with the smell of sweet and sour chicken and spring
rolls. Her stomach groaned a little, but she resisted the urge to snack on some
of the crispy noodles on the drive home.

 
    *             *             *

 
    “The fire was
contained without too much structural damage to her home, but the catering
kitchen building was in pretty bad shape.” Joshua explained as they finished
dinner. “Almost all of the equipment was destroyed.”
    “Poor
Suzette.” Vivienne now understood why Suzette had been such a wreck at Shanghai
Sunset. Her home-based business, The Formal Affair Catering, was operated out
of a large three car garage that Suzette’s husband had converted into a kitchen
and business office several years ago. Although she had made a respectable
profit from it each year, it had never quite lived up to her lofty goals when
she first opened. Vivienne recalled how much Suzette admired Martha Stewart and
the empire she created from a rural home in Connecticut. She had dreams of one
day matching that, but apart from lots of weddings and retirement dinners, the
business never exploded into something on a grander scale. There were no
cookbook publication offers, no food magazine write-ups or reviews, no big
network morning talk shows to demonstrate food preparation for. She was a small
fish in a small pond. Despite her best efforts, it was going to remain that way
for the foreseeable future.
    “She’s lucky
that the wind blew the flames away from their home.” Joshua added.
    “That Dutch
Colonial they live in is quite old.” Vivienne finished off the end piece of her
spring roll. “Those places can go up fast.”
    “Most
importantly, no one was injured.” Joshua dipped some of the crispy noodles into
some duck sauce and munched happily.
    Vivienne
gathered up the little cardboard containers the rice had come in and stuffed
some of the empty sauce packets inside. “Do they know how the fire