章 77: Chapter 14. Lemon Meringue Season (April)
"So then you pour the lemon pudding into the pie shell," Lisa instructed. Autumn carefully tilted the pan into the pie shell. Then she put the pan down, picked up a rubber scraper, and scraped the inside of the saucepan. She poured the remaining pudding into the pie shell. Like Lisa, she wore an apron over comfortable clothes. Her wild hair was tamed by a bandanna that matched her apron.
"Now comes the hard part," Lisa said. Autumn rolled her eyes and Lisa laughed. She hadn't liked making meringue as a child, either. At least now they used electric mixers instead of the hand-cranked egg beaters. Those took a lot longer than a child had an attention span or arm strength.
Autumn was a good student, and Lisa had been delighted that Autumn had the light touch for pastry just as she'd had as a child. Since Autumn had gotten glasses, she was a good student in school, too. Maggie and Dennis were very grateful to Fabian for discovering what had been going wrong for Autumn in school.
"How many pies do we need to do?" Autumn wanted to know.
"The diner wants two and the Tavern wants two," Lisa told her.
"Can we make them pretty?"
"In what way?" Lisa was interested.
"Sometimes when my mom makes meringue pies, she sprinkles a little bit of colored sugar over the top."
"That sounds like a good idea," Lisa smiled. "You know where I keep the colored sugar, right?"
Autumn nodded, got down from the step stool she'd been sitting on, and moved the step stool to the cupboard where Lisa kept decorative items such as food coloring and colored sugars. She got down some colored sugar and then moved the stool to where Lisa was starting to mix meringue.
"Why didn't you suggest this for the coconut pies?" Lisa wanted to know.
"Sorry, Lisa. Coconut is gross." Lisa laughed and turned on the mixer. When the meringue was finished, she carefully put it over one of the pies. Autumn took another pie, studiously making dollops that joined together very artistically.
"Did you see the peeps?" Lisa asked as they worked. The eggs she'd saved had hatched the previous weekend. "Just in time for Easter!"
"No! Can I bring Justice and Tuesday up to see? We have goslings and ducklings at our place, but I think they'd like the peeps. Are they all stripey like the chickens?"
"No -- right now they're black and white."
"Neat!"
Lisa loved the Easter season. Since she lived so close to the church, she usually did a vigil. The youth group had a sleepover at the church and did a lot of the vigil, and adult volunteers would chaperone them in the chapel. This year, she was more awake than usual, even though she'd taken the three to four a.m. shift. She went over wedding details in her head and new desserts she might like to try since her business was growing so quickly.
Father Stephen came in and knelt next to her.
"Hi," he said. She looked over at him and smiled.
"Hi. I think Ransome fell asleep up there." She nodded to the first row, where Ransome Mowery was slumped over the rail. Stephen laughed softly.
"He was so excited -- this is his first year. I didn't think he'd make it. They never do. You didn't look like you were having the most pious thoughts, either." He gave her an amused look.
"Busted," she smiled.
"Thoughts of Fabian?"
"No, actually. Just wedding details and a few business items I've been thinking about."
"You look less drowsy than usual this year. You okay?"
"I'm good," she said. "Hoping it's over now with Uncle William. I haven't asked Mom or Uncle Paul what's next. I'll deal with it when Fabian and I get back."
"Where are you going, anyway?"
"I asked for a beach with palm trees. Fabian chose Bahamas."
"Oh, you'll like it there," Stephen nodded. "Carol and I went, back before we had Scotty. How have you been sleeping lately?
"Still insomnia, off and on," she said. "Fabian lets me use the vardo every few weeks and I sleep myself out. It's not a perfect solution but it seems to work. I feel better since we started it."
"Wait -- he lets you use the vardo?"
"You thought he was sleeping there too?" Lisa raised an eyebrow. "No. He goes to his parents' or one of his siblings. Once we switched and he slept at my house. I always have the dogs with me."
"You two have more willpower than I've ever seen," Stephen smiled.
"Sometimes it's difficult," she confessed. "He is so beautiful, and it's hard to stop. But we do. He's treated it casually for so many years and he wants it to be special with me. So we wait. Not long now."
Easter was bright and sunny. Fabian accompanied Lisa to church. Afterward, she had invited the Mowerys to dinner. Her grandmother's dining room set would actually accommodate ten people, and Lisa was ready. She would enjoy the house while she had it, and that included entertaining for the first time. The kids played in the yard with Bruiser and Buster until dinner was ready. Lisa discovered that she was actually good at entertaining. She'd been a little anxious, but her ham was wonderful and everyone had enough food and a really good time. After dinner, Dennis and Lisa took Autumn over to the chicken house. Autumn had brought her little brother and sister to see the peeps earlier in the week.
"Autumn," Lisa said, "one clutch is for you." Autumn's eyes went huge.
"Really?"
Dennis laughed.
"Really," he said. "Your mom decided we could do with some chickens of our own. So Lisa set a clutch for us and I built a coop. That's what's under the tarp in the back of my truck. So you help Lisa gather up your peeps and we'll get started with chickens. You'll have to be careful of the feathers, though."
"Why?" Lisa asked, puzzled.
"We don't want chicken feathers sneaking in to the goose down and feathers," he said. "I have a spot in mind for the coop that it would be rare, if ever, that they mix with the water birds."
"Good," Lisa said. "I hadn't thought of that."
"No reason for you to know," Dennis shrugged. "Our feather business can be an odd one. It does well, though. I don't think Maggie and I would do it full time, but it's a nice sideline."
Sometimes revenge can be served warm. Very warm.
He waited until all of the lights went out downstairs. The light was on in the bedroom for quite a while; he got to work, making a mental note of which room it was. He rehearsed in his head what he'd tell her -- that he was on his way home from a trip to Newtown and saw the flames. Her back door had a glass window -- that should be easy to smash and unlock. He'd be her hero. And he might impress his dad, too. He moved the whole wood pile a few pieces at a time, stacking the wood against the side of the house as he smiled to himself. He'd seen Lisa bring her bridal gown home. Whether or not the house burned to the ground, at least the dress would be a loss. Even if it didn't burn it would certainly smell so bad it would be unusable. Served her right for buying a dress like that for another man.
週次パワーステータス
-- 推薦
ランキング 
-- 推薦
チケット