Nowhere but Home A Novel - By Liza Palmer Page 0,100
it’s time.”
21
Merry Carole’s mac ’n’ cheese
He didn’t eat the Starburst.
As I sit in my car after the guards’ supper and after we cleaned up the kitchen, I can’t stop staring at the colorful assortment of candy now littering my passenger seat. Shawn thought I’d want them. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that they were, quite frankly, the last thing in the world I’d ever want.
He ate the tamales, the cabrito was gone, the rice and beans peppered the tray as he made soft tacos from the handmade corn tortillas. He dipped the churros in the cajeta and, based on the stain left on the mug, it looks like he actually just drank the Mexican hot chocolate. He picked the pomegranate seeds out of the ensalada and really ate only the citrus. The orange soda cans were crushed and bent. He was angry. Scared. Who knows?
But he didn’t eat the fucking Starburst.
I watch the guards pace as dusk turns to darkness. This meal was harder in every way possible. I’m already over an hour late to meet Hudson and yet I don’t move. I just need to sit here in the quiet of this car and run through tonight’s events. The guards didn’t really eat as much as the last time. That could have been about the goat more than anything else, come to think of it, but I don’t think so. The Dent boys ate their supper at the table and chairs Shawn brought in for them sometime last week. Shawn stopped Jace before he took the Dent boys back inside the prison and before I escaped out the back door to the safety of Lot B.
“We just got word that your next meal is this Friday,” Shawn said. Harlan, Cody, and I just looked at each other. We had ten days between the last two meals.
“That’s quick,” I said.
“The next two meals you’re going to be cooking are for convicts brought in from Huntsville,” Shawn said. Harlan and Cody were deathly quiet.
“Is that a thing? Is that bad?” I asked.
“They’re usually higher profile,” Shawn said, choosing his words carefully.
“Oh,” I said.
“Here’s your next order,” Shawn said, handing me a slip of paper. I took it, but couldn’t unfold the paper.
“Do you have the next one? The meal after this?” I asked.
“Why don’t we take one meal at a time, Queenie,” Shawn said.
“Oh, all right,” I said, feeling embarrassed.
“I’m just . . . I know how focused you can be,” Shawn said.
“Sure . . . sure, and I appreciate that,” I said, unfolding the slip of paper. Harlan and Cody crowded around.
Inmate #8JM-31245:
Barbecue, vegetable plate, baked beans, sweet tea, fried cherry pie, and an apple
I’m almost catatonic as I hold the little slip of paper in my hand now. Harlan, Cody, and I didn’t need Shawn to go into what “barbecue” meant. Classic Texas barbecue is a beef brisket, sausage, and ribs. A “vegetable plate” is traditionally a potato salad, raw white onions, and pickles. Not quite what most people would call a healthy vegetable plate, but this is how we do it in Texas.
As I roll down my window, hoping a rare summer breeze will find its way to me, I think about that damn apple. It’s the unique, individualized requests that affect me. First it was the Starburst, and now this apple. I’m already winding myself up about being the one who has to choose the last apple this person ever eats. And I can’t even bite into it. What if it’s mealy? Bruised? Why didn’t he just ask for a fried apple pie? I won’t have long to obsess about it and I certainly don’t need the time to practice or research. I could make barbecue in my sleep. And because this meal is going to take me two days to prepare, I really only have tomorrow off. This is a good thing.
I run Shawn’s words through my head over and over again. My next two meals are for high-profile inmates transferred from Huntsville. What does that even mean? Why would they do that? Enough. Just . . . drive, Queenie. Get to the bar and have a well-earned drink. Get to the bar and see Hudson. Everything will be better.
As I drive to Evans, I think about the night ahead. I just want to lose myself and not think about any of this. The Death House. High-profile inmates being shipped in from Huntsville. A lot of things.