Abide with Me by E. Lynn Harris

Author:E. Lynn Harris [Harris, E. Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-83176-7
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2012-11-27T16:00:00+00:00

Raymond could hear the clatter of dishes and voices as he reached the top steps of Peaches and Enoch’s apartment on the top floor of Cuts ’n’ Cobblers.

The door was open, so Raymond walked in and saw Peaches talking on the phone and attending to several pots and skillets on the stove.

“Puddin’, I got to go. I ain’t got time for yo’ mess. My baby just walked in the door. Oh yeah, don’t forget to play my numbers,” Peaches said as she hung up the phone.

“What’s going on?” Raymond asked.

“So what did that crooked asshole say?” Peaches asked Raymond as he pulled out a chair at the small dining room table in the kitchen.

“Don’t I get a hug or something first?” Raymond asked with his arms open.

“Yeah, baby, but you the one who pullin’ out the chair. Don’t worry, Peaches saved you some supper,” Peaches said. She gave Raymond a hug around his waist. “Um, you smell good, baby. Got on some of that expensive cologne.”

“Thanks, Peaches. Where is your man Enoch?”

“Who said he was my man? He’s down there cuttin’ heads. You know he got his regulars who always come late,” Peaches said while pulling out a pan filled with pork chops covered with onion-filled brown gravy. On the top of the stove was a pot of spaghetti and another one with green beans and mushrooms.

“That food smells good,” Raymond said. He pulled out a yellow legal pad from his leather bag.

“You know it’s good. Look who cooked it,” Peaches said as she set a chipped plate in front of Raymond. She placed a paper napkin and a set of mismatched silverware on the side.

Peaches’s kitchen was a cheerful blend of function and down-home comfort. Sheer Swiss dot curtains covered the lower half of the windows that reached from one end of the wall facing the street to the other end. Enoch had attached a redwood planter to the outside of the middle window so Peaches could plant an herb garden. He had also built the floor-to-ceiling knotted-pine shelving on the adjoining wall according to Peaches’s specifications. She kept the shelves stocked with every kind of can, bottle, box, and bag of food she needed on hand to create what Enoch called “her magic.”

The only thing that seemed out of place was the huge white refrigerator that took up almost one whole wall by itself. A calendar for the Good Shepherd funeral home, a broom, sponge mop, and the folded-up ironing board shared the wall with what Peaches had called a “monstrosity” when it was first delivered. But she was beside herself with joy that Enoch had spent so much of his hard-earned money on her birthday present. While the fancy new refrigerator happened to have all the features that Peaches had pointed out in the mail-order catalog she kept alongside her bed, the real selling point for Enoch was the automatic ice dispenser on the outside of the door. It pleased him to no end to fill glass after glass with crescent-shaped ice cubes to demonstrate the feature to friends.

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