Nowhere but Home A Novel - By Liza Palmer Page 0,48

yesterday. No time to mourn Everett. No time to fantasize about finding him and repeating yesterday over and over again. No. I have a meal to plan and the Dent boys to meet.

I hear the kitchen door click and Jace and LaRue walk through with two men just between them.

Guards. Guns. Convicts. Shackles.

Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.

“These are them,” Jace says, ambling over to Shawn and motioning to the two men. LaRue stands at attention behind the men. The older man is balding and slight. His rangy frame swimming in the all-white uniforms the convicts wear. The other man is basically a younger version of his father. He’s taller and his head of hair is definitely on its way to going bald. They look like a couple of guys you’d see anywhere and not think twice about. If not for the shackles and chains, they’d look like a couple of hospital orderlies coming in to check on your bedpan. But I know better.

“All right, boys. This is your new work assignment. This here is Ms. Wake. She’s from up in Hill Country—North Star. She’s going to be cooking our last meals. Ms. Wake, this here is Harlan and Cody Dent,” Shawn says, presenting me to the two men. The men don’t make eye contact and nod their greetings. I nod back, not knowing exactly how to communicate with them. I don’t want to get them in any kind of trouble or, for that matter, get me into any kind of trouble.

“Harlan here worked at diners all his life and works in the prison kitchen when he’s not assigned here,” Shawn says.

“Cody here bartended, so if you need some limes cut up, he’s your guy,” Jace adds. Shawn shoots him a look and Jace immediately recoils.

“May I?” I ask Shawn, motioning to see if I can approach the Dent boys. He nods. I walk up to the father, Harlan, “Would you mind answering some questions?” I ask, looking from Harlan to Cody.

They look to Shawn, he gives them the okay, and they nod.

“Mr. Dent—Harlan—what kind of diners did you work in?” I ask, not getting too close.

“I was a short-order cook mostly, ma’am,” Harlan says, finally making eye contact. His eyes are a hollowed-out, dark blue. His skin is wan and he just looks tired.

“That’s good. What’s your specialty?” I ask.

“I can cook anything and cook it fast,” he says, his chin rising just a bit.

“I bet you can,” I say. Short-order cooks are masterful. To watch one of them in their element is to watch a genius at work.

“And you? Cody?” I ask, my voice strong and level.

“I didn’t do much of nothing, but I did hold down a job at a couple of bars,” Cody says.

“Before he robbed ’em,” Jace says. Shawn shoots him another look. Jace recoils again. Cody tenses and deflates.

“Okay, we can work with that,” I say.

“Yes, ma’am,” Cody says, still averting his eyes.

“Now, boys, I’m going to need you to clean this kitchen while Ms. Wake meets with Warden Dale and goes out and gets what she needs for supper,” Shawn says as LaRue and Jace bring out cleaning supplies and mop buckets. How much cleaner can this kitchen get?

“Yes, sir,” the Dent boys say together.

“Come on with me now,” Shawn says to me. I follow him back through the kitchen and out into the main room, past the unmarked door of horrors.

“They’ll be perfect for you. A kitchen assignment, especially in the Death House, is a real plum. They won’t want to mess it up,” Shawn says as we walk outside in the purgatory between high prison walls and barbed-wire fencing. The heat beats down on us as we walk back into the prison.

“I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed,” I admit as we walk down the Hall of Echoes.

“Yeah, that happens,” Shawn says, his voice strong and sure.

“Are they going to be in shackles the entire time?” I ask, trying to get my bearings, to hold on to some normality about this new setup.

“No, they won’t need to be, although that has been done in the past,” Shawn says.

“How do they do anything?”

“Slowly and without killing anybody,” Shawn says, leading me into Juanita’s office. I just nod. Shawn continues, “But Jace’ll be in there with you, so it don’t matter.”

“Warden Dale is ready for you,” Juanita says, thanking Shawn. He says his quick good-byes and leaves us.

I walk through to Warden Dale’s office still in a daze, exuding a false sense of first-day bravado.