Promise Me by Evans Richard Paul

Author:Evans, Richard Paul [Evans, Richard Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2010-10-05T00:00:00+00:00

Something you lost will soon turn up.

Fortune Cookie

Sunday evening Matthew rang the bell around five-thirty. I opened the door to find him holding three large paper sacks.

“How did you ring the bell?” I asked.

“With my elbow.”

“Come in,” I said. “I’ll take one of those.”

“I wasn’t sure what ingredients you had so I just bought everything.”

We carried the sacks into the kitchen. He took off his coat, then we began emptying the sacks onto the counter. There was rice, soy sauce, carrots, onions, eggs, chicken breasts, ham steak, garlic and scallions. In addition, there were fortune cookies, three pairs of chopsticks, three rice hats and a plastic baggie filled with grass.

“What’s this?” I said holding up the baggie.

“Grass. I didn’t know where to find hay.”

“You cook with hay?”

“No. The Chinese New Year is next Friday. And it is the year of the horse, hence the hay which, in our case, is grass.”

He walked over and set a rice hat on my head. “You have to wear this. Health department regulations.” He tied the ribbon beneath my chin. “Perfect.”

“Then you have to wear yours,” I said. I picked one up, put it on his head, and fastened the ribbon. “You still look Italian.”

“Thank you,” he said.

There was another hat about half the size of the ones we wore. “You even brought a little one for Charlotte.”

“We didn’t want to leave her out of the fun. So where is Charlotte?”

“She’s next door at her friend’s house. But I called just before you came, so she’ll be home in a few minutes.”

“Great. Let’s get started.”

“What do you want me to do?” I asked, sure I looked stupid under the hat.

“You got the drinks?”

“It’s not very Chinese, but I made lemonade. There’s also beer and soda in the fridge. What else can I do to help?”

“Can you cook the rice?”

“I’m on it.”

“Where do you keep your knives?”

“Knives are in that drawer. The cutting board is below the sink.”

While I put the rice in the rice cooker, Matthew began dicing the carrots, garlic and onions. When he was done, he threw the vegetables into separate pans to sauté. Before long the kitchen smelled wonderful. Fumbling with chopsticks, I picked up one of his carrots from the pan, blew on it, then dropped it in my mouth. “Ooh, that’s good,” I said.

“I sauté all the vegetables in garlic butter. The garlic is key.”

“I love garlic,” I said. “Though usually not in the early dating phase.”

“I disagree. Garlic is the great revealer. A relationship that can withstand garlic is worth pursuing.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“My secret to a great fried rice is to make sure that each ingredient tastes delicious on its own and don’t overdo it on the soy sauce. People always overdo it on the soy sauce.”

“I’ll remember that.”

“You don’t need to,” he said. “You can always just ask me to make it for you.”

“I like that,” I said.

He was cooking the chicken when Charlotte walked into the house. “Mom!”

“In here, sweetie.”

She walked into the kitchen, then stopped and stared at us.

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