Before This Is Over by Amanda Hickie

Author:Amanda Hickie [Hickie, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780316355469
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2017-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

Pulling the tins to the front didn’t hide that the shelves were half empty. Two tins of tomato soup for lunch now left only two more. One more lunch, one more reasonably unsatisfying lunch. Every meal eaten now was one that wasn’t there later. Every meal she managed to conjure out of leftovers was another half a day they could stay inside. She forced herself not to count how many tins, how many packets of pasta, just closed the pantry doors.

Despite what it felt like, not every meal was leftovers. Odds and sods from the fridge and the cupboard—a couple of flabby carrots, a stick of wobbly celery, some dried beans she used for holding down baking paper, half an onion—lay on the counter. Together they looked like soup. Some barley, which she had no recollection of buying, would do instead of bread.

This was what her grandmother used to talk about, saving jars and making soup. If only she had a chicken carcass or a ham bone. Hidden at the back of the fridge she discovered a couple of dried sausages that Sean had brought back from a farmers’ market. For six months they had been waiting to be made into something sophisticated. Now they completed a farmers’ market Depression soup. The sausages probably cost more than her grandmother spent on a whole meal. She smiled.

At the kitchen table, Oscar colored-in. Lots of the coloring, not so much of the in. This was the last of the activity books Sean had bought on the first day. Left for last because it was the most uninteresting, rote, uncreative. He did it only as an excuse to sit near her, and to watch for Mr. Moon. The instant she laid out the ingredients, he hopped down. Something, anything else, was more interesting than the book. “Can I help?”

“Sure.” She looked out at the deserted garden. “You could pick me some herbs. Anything you like the look of in the herb pots. Remember to break the leaves off, not pull them up.” She handed him a bowl and moved the chopping board to the kitchen table so she could keep an eye on him.

He came back with the bowl full, mostly of parsley. “What do we do now?”

“Um…” If she let him chop veggies they would be eating lunch at dinnertime. “You could get some water for the soup from the rainwater tank.” She searched out a clean soft drink bottle. “Fill it up, and remember to put the lid on.”

“Okay.”

He walked across the garden, swinging his head from side to side, scanning for feline danger. It reassured her that he jumped when a bird lighted on the fence. She could trust him to be cautious. It was safe to look down for a few moments at the sausage she was cutting up.

She heard what could have been a wail of surprise from Oscar and on its heels the slam of the office door. She dropped the knife and bolted to the back door.

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