Biggie and the Devil Diet - By Nancy Bell Page 0,29
on a shiny, pink, plastic shin. "'Course, I couldn't drive any more, so Rex took me on as his crew boss."
"How do you get a cowboy boot on that thing?" I asked.
"It's built right onto my wooden leg," Abner said. He pulled on the boot and it didn't budge. "See here, the thing won't come off for nothin'."
"What'll you do when those boots wear out?" They looked pretty run down to me.
Abner scratched his head and looked up at the sky. "Wellsir, reckon I'll go back to the feller that made this leg and have a new one put on. If I live that long, that is. These here boots got plenty of miles left on 'um.
"Now, like I was saying about old Rex, he designed the very first fiberglass racing helmet. I forget who was the first to test it out. One of them Unsers maybe? Naw, it was before them. Anyway, now all of them guys wear that same helmet. That Rex, he's really something."
"Uh-huh." Rosebud took a long string of sausages out of a red cooler. "Ready to put these on?"
Abner nodded. "Yep, old Rex, he's the best. Nerve like a cougar, don't you know, and smart, too. You ever hear about the car he designed? The Baracuda? Best in its class in its day. Won I don't know how many awards for design excellence."
He went on like that until the sausages were done and the chickens were piled up in a big roaster pan. All Rosebud had to do was throw in an Un-HUH from time to time and sip on his beer.
I was getting hungry. "What time are we eating?"
"Right soon," Abner said. "Here comes Josefina with the fixings now."
As soon as we had the tables all set with tin plates and cups and red paper napkins and the food lined up on a long table made from two sawhorses and a hollow-core door, here came the girls, jogging down from the bunkhouse with Grace Higgins in the lead. Abner took an iron rod and rattled it against a triangle hanging from a tree branch to call the folks down from the big house. Soon we were all seated, Biggie on my right and Monica on my left.
"Where've you been?" I asked Monica.
"I'll tell you later," she said. "Shh, Grace is saying something."
"Everybody, quiet down." She turned to Biggie. "We say some words before meals, words of thanks to Nature and the Universe. Girls!"
The girls all rose to their feet and stretched their arms over their heads. Then they chanted something that I couldn't understand one single word of. It sounded a little like: Ummm-gallawatchitt-hoooooo. They said that three times then sat down and drank something out of half coconut shells before plowing into the food on the table.
I turned to Biggie. "What do you reckon that is?"
She didn't answer, just shook her head as if to say I should keep quiet about it.
The sun was setting red over the trees when we finished eating.
"Red sun at night, sailor's delight," Monica said. "It's gonna be a pretty day tomorrow, Miss Biggie."
"You're right," Biggie said. "How about the three of us taking a little walk while there's still some daylight?"
We walked around the corrals and through the barn, stopping to talk to the horses as they hung their heads over their stalls.
"Maybe I'll ask to have a ride tomorrow," Biggie said. "It's been a long time since I've sat a horse."
"Would you really, Miss Biggie?" Monica said. "I'd give a hundred dollar bill to see that."
"If you had it," I said.
"It was just a figure of speech. J.R., don't you know what a figure of speech is?"
"Yeah, right. Here's the back door." I pulled open the kitchen door and the others followed me in.
Josefina was standing at the sink wiping it out with a clean towel.
"Josefina, this is my grandmother, Biggie, and this is Monica Sontag." I hoped Biggie noticed I remembered my manners.
"Hay, Madre de Dios, and me looking such a mess." Josefina smoothed her salt-and-pepper hair. "Oh well, sit and have some hot chocolate with me. I've just taken Seċ¸½or Rex's in to him."
We drank delicious hot chocolate out of Mexican mugs while Biggie asked Josefina questions. She can't help it. It's just Biggie's nature to be as curious as a raccoon in a campground.
"Have you been with Mr. Rex long?"
"Me? Not Mr. Rex. I have been with Miss Laura almost all her life. You see, she was born in Monterrey, Mexico, my hometown.