The Sweetness of Salt by Cecilia Galante

Author:Cecilia Galante
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published: 2010-06-12T16:00:00+00:00

chapter

27

I could smell the Chinese food as soon as I walked into the house. My stomach growled. I’d been so immersed in Aiden’s pottery lesson that I hadn’t even realized how hungry I was—or how long I’d been gone. By the time I walked back, the sun was low in the sky. Not quite dusk, but still. I’d been gone for hours.

“Jules?” Sophie’s voice came out from one side of the house.

“Yeah, it’s me. Where are you?”

“Living room,” she said.

The living room was completely empty, except for the red and white checked tablecloth Sophie had spread out on the floor. Two stubby-looking candles, their flames soft and flickering, anchored opposite corners, and white cartons of food—some with chopsticks sticking out of the middle—had been placed in the middle.

“Oh, it’s so nice!” I squatted down, crossing my legs in front of me, and reached for a carton. It was filled to the brim with shrimp, snow peas, slivered carrots, and water chestnuts. I pulled a large pink shrimp out with my fingers and stuffed it into my mouth. “Mmmm. Spicy shrimp is my favorite. Thanks!”

“I never knew you liked Chinese food.” Sophie picked up a carton of brown rice and began eating it with chopsticks. “You should’ve said something. Mom and Dad and I would’ve taken you out to a Chinese place for your graduation.”

I shook my head, trying to form words around the wad of food in my mouth. “Mom’s allergic to MSG.”

“She is?” Sophie’s chopsticks paused by her lips. “Since when?”

I shrugged. “Since forever, I guess. I don’t know. We’ve never eaten Chinese at home.”

“Where do you eat it then?”

“Zoe and I get it a lot.”

Sophie sighed softly. “Thank God for Zoe.”

I stopped chewing. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’m just glad you have a friend like that,” Sophie said.

“Like what?”

“Like…” I could tell Sophie was backtracking, choosing her words carefully. It made me even angrier.

“Like what?” I said again.

“Why are you getting all bent out of shape here?” Sophie put her chopsticks down. “What’d I say?”

“Nothing. But I can just tell you’re going to say some judgmental thing about how Zoe brings me out of my shell or how pitiful I would be without her.”

“Pitiful?” Sophie repeated. “Julia, the last word I would ever use with you is pitiful. Pitiful is some helpless little thing. An injured rabbit, maybe. Or a bird with a broken wing. Not you. Ever.”

I inhaled tightly through my nostrils. The spiciness of the shrimp had cleared them considerably. “Okay then, what were you going to say?”

“All I meant,” Sophie said, “is that I’m glad you have someone who exposes you to different things.” She leaned forward a little, put her hand on my knee. “I mean, you have to know by now that Mom and Dad have kind of raised you in a bubble all these years. They’ve protected you from a lot of different things.” She shrugged. “I’m just glad Zoe’s there to remind you that life isn’t a bubble. That’s all.”

I plopped the shrimp carton down.

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