A Cherry Cola Christmas by Ashton Lee

Author:Ashton Lee [Lee, Ashton]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2015-08-17T16:00:00+00:00

Across town on Big Hill Lane, Periwinkle and Mr. Place were finishing up the Thanksgiving dinner he had lovingly prepared for them in the cozy little house he had inherited from his mother; although the food was delicious—from the first course of duck gumbo to one of Mr. Place’s signature desserts—Periwinkle felt Ardenia Bedloe’s presence everywhere. Not that it was a bad or intimidating thing she was feeling, for in the last few weeks before her death, Ardenia had truly warmed to her son’s new love interest over a couple of down-home dinners she had fixed for them. She had opened up her house as well as her heart.

Periwinkle had treasured those first tentative conversations, pressing the gist of them into her scrapbook of memories.

“I hope you like my cookin’, Miz Periwinkle,” Ardenia had said after loading up the dining room table with her roasted pork tenderloin, seasoned collard greens, and rice with onion gravy.

“Please. Call me Peri just like Parker does.”

“All these names I got to get right. I’m still tryin’ to get used to Joe Sam changin’ his to Mr. Parker Place back in the day once he got up to Memphis. But once a chile is all grown up, a mother got to let go and let him live his life.”

Periwinkle had sensed Ardenia’s genuine interest in getting to know her as a person—perhaps even as a future daughter-in-law—even if she was a white woman who had never experienced what it was like to grow up “Colored” in the Jim Crow Deep South as Ardenia had. Then that promising dialogue that eventually would have bridged their two different worlds had been cruelly cut short by death itself. Her task now was to be there as her Parker worked through his terrible, ongoing grief—helping him toward the closure he desperately needed.

“It’s so ironic, Peri,” he was saying to her as they lingered at the table after dessert. “You won’t believe how ironic.”

When he didn’t elaborate further, Periwinkle gently pressed on. “What’s ironic, Parker?”

He avoided her gaze, looking down at his half-eaten piece of grasshopper pie. “I used to come home every night from The Twinkle, and I could count on it like clockwork. Mama’d have that TV blaring so loud, you could hear it outside in the carport as soon as you shut off the engine. But it was reassuring, you know. Every time I heard all that noise, I knew Mama was still up, waiting for me like the sweetheart she was. ‘How was work today?’ she’d always say as soon as I walked in. ‘Y’all had a lotta people down there, I hope?’ And I’d tell her how many desserts we’d sold, or how many people came in just for a piece a’ cake or some of my cookies to carry out, and she’d just light up like a sparkler on New Year’s Eve. ‘That’s my son!’ she’d say to me. ‘You got you a gift, and Miz Periwinkle lucky to have you!’ ”

“She was sure right about that part,” Periwinkle told him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.