cleared my throat and continued: “No, no! I believe! I believe!”
“Hmmph! You had better!”
“Hmmph, yourself! By the way, nowadays we have a plastic wrap that can seal bowls tightly. It’s in the drawer over there.”
Pearl opened the drawer and saw boxes of plastic bags in three sizes, a box of plastic wrap, and another of aluminum foil.
“Well, would you looky ’eah?” She pulled a long sheet of plastic wrap, tried to sever it on the serrated edge of the box, and of course it stuck to itself and became entangled into a plastic wad. “Hmmph. Waste of good money iffin you ask me!”
“Oh! My dear friend, there are so many things that are a waste of time and money in today’s world, it would make your head spin.”
“I reckon that’s fuh true, too!”
“You can’t believe how people live! Start with that blasted huge television back there in the family room! It’s high-def, whatever that is! The drone of it is absolutely stupefying. When the adults aren’t staring at some violence beyond description on the thing, the young people are playing video games, which are likea narcotic designed to make you into an idiot, if you ask me…”
I went on and on with my personal diatribe against the modern world and how it all but shunned board games, jigsaw puzzles, and other old-fashioned pastimes. These things brought families together in favor of all the solitary pursuits that didn’t enrich anyone’s life by one iota, and worse, these mindless, worthless activities kept families apart. Pearl agreed with me about it all.
Except she said, “I guess you have to wonder who allows all this foolishness to go on?”
“You’re right,” I said. “Barbara and Cleland should’ve put their foot down.”
“Iffin they ain’t gwine do it, who then?”
“Me?”
“Hmmph. It ain’t fuh me to be the judge.”
We talked for a long time as we drank cup after cup of tea, each of Pearl’s of course laced with a tiny shot of blackberry brandy. Although we were in the kitchen, we seemed to have been barricaded in our own space and time so that we could talk uninterrupted about all the heavy stones I carried.
“They don’t even like to read!”
“What? Lawsamercy! Now, whose fault is that? That is a sin fuh sure!”
“You’re right.” I sighed hard. “I see it now. You’reabsolutely right. I should have read to Barbara more when she was little.”
She stared at me with a crooked knowing smile. She had me nailed to the wall again. But Barbara had become apathetic and simply shirked her responsibilities. No! That wasn’t right. Barbara floundered because of my failure to give her a clear and concise direction. I had never adjusted to life without Fred, and in some ways was just sitting around waiting to die. I felt terrible that I had been so self-absorbed.
She patted the back of my hand and sniffed the air. “Don’t fret so. That’s why I’m ’eah, and guess what? That ham’s done!”
I felt my spirits rise a little, but oh, my soul was still deeply troubled.
Pearl lifted the fruited and glazed ham from the oven and placed it on the counter. I cannot tell you how divine it looked. There was nothing else in the world that mattered except that ham! It could have been on the cover of a magazine! I could barely muster the discipline to restrain myself from slicing a little piece off its bone right that second.
The red rice was steaming away, and the combined fragrance of bacon, onions, and tomatoes was fueling the flames of an appetite I had not known in decades. What was happening? The collards smelled—well, they smelled like collards smell. Rank. Pearl knew what todo. She threw a long dash of vinegar in the water to squelch the stench. I would be tortured by famine until lunch was on the table.
She raised the oven temperature, dusted the marble slab with flour, and I knew she was going to make biscuits. The halfhearted but very necessary renovation of the kitchen three years ago had
“Hmmph! You had better!”
“Hmmph, yourself! By the way, nowadays we have a plastic wrap that can seal bowls tightly. It’s in the drawer over there.”
Pearl opened the drawer and saw boxes of plastic bags in three sizes, a box of plastic wrap, and another of aluminum foil.
“Well, would you looky ’eah?” She pulled a long sheet of plastic wrap, tried to sever it on the serrated edge of the box, and of course it stuck to itself and became entangled into a plastic wad. “Hmmph. Waste of good money iffin you ask me!”
“Oh! My dear friend, there are so many things that are a waste of time and money in today’s world, it would make your head spin.”
“I reckon that’s fuh true, too!”
“You can’t believe how people live! Start with that blasted huge television back there in the family room! It’s high-def, whatever that is! The drone of it is absolutely stupefying. When the adults aren’t staring at some violence beyond description on the thing, the young people are playing video games, which are likea narcotic designed to make you into an idiot, if you ask me…”
I went on and on with my personal diatribe against the modern world and how it all but shunned board games, jigsaw puzzles, and other old-fashioned pastimes. These things brought families together in favor of all the solitary pursuits that didn’t enrich anyone’s life by one iota, and worse, these mindless, worthless activities kept families apart. Pearl agreed with me about it all.
Except she said, “I guess you have to wonder who allows all this foolishness to go on?”
“You’re right,” I said. “Barbara and Cleland should’ve put their foot down.”
“Iffin they ain’t gwine do it, who then?”
“Me?”
“Hmmph. It ain’t fuh me to be the judge.”
We talked for a long time as we drank cup after cup of tea, each of Pearl’s of course laced with a tiny shot of blackberry brandy. Although we were in the kitchen, we seemed to have been barricaded in our own space and time so that we could talk uninterrupted about all the heavy stones I carried.
“They don’t even like to read!”
“What? Lawsamercy! Now, whose fault is that? That is a sin fuh sure!”
“You’re right.” I sighed hard. “I see it now. You’reabsolutely right. I should have read to Barbara more when she was little.”
She stared at me with a crooked knowing smile. She had me nailed to the wall again. But Barbara had become apathetic and simply shirked her responsibilities. No! That wasn’t right. Barbara floundered because of my failure to give her a clear and concise direction. I had never adjusted to life without Fred, and in some ways was just sitting around waiting to die. I felt terrible that I had been so self-absorbed.
She patted the back of my hand and sniffed the air. “Don’t fret so. That’s why I’m ’eah, and guess what? That ham’s done!”
I felt my spirits rise a little, but oh, my soul was still deeply troubled.
Pearl lifted the fruited and glazed ham from the oven and placed it on the counter. I cannot tell you how divine it looked. There was nothing else in the world that mattered except that ham! It could have been on the cover of a magazine! I could barely muster the discipline to restrain myself from slicing a little piece off its bone right that second.
The red rice was steaming away, and the combined fragrance of bacon, onions, and tomatoes was fueling the flames of an appetite I had not known in decades. What was happening? The collards smelled—well, they smelled like collards smell. Rank. Pearl knew what todo. She threw a long dash of vinegar in the water to squelch the stench. I would be tortured by famine until lunch was on the table.
She raised the oven temperature, dusted the marble slab with flour, and I knew she was going to make biscuits. The halfhearted but very necessary renovation of the kitchen three years ago had
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