Stepping to a New Day by Beverly Jenkins

Author:Beverly Jenkins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-05-08T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

10

When Eli came home from school, he checked the mailbox first thing, hoping to get news from the art competition. He rifled through the small stack of envelopes at warp speed and stopped at the one addressed to him. The return address showed the name of the museum running the contest. He ripped it open as if it held gold and read:

Dear Eli,

Thank you for your submission. The judges found your sculpture to be outstanding. However it was not picked as the best in its category. Much success with your artistic endeavors in the future. Your bust will be returned via mail. Sincerely . . .

He dropped his head and went inside. Disappointed, he sailed the letter across the room and plopped down onto the sofa. “Damn!” He’d been so confident the bust of his mom would win first place and he’d planned to use the scholarship money as part of the leverage he needed to convince his dad to let him attend community college in California. Now, he was no closer to that goal than he’d been a week ago. He sighed dejectedly. Feeling sorry for himself, he sat there for a good twenty minutes before deciding to hell with it. He’d planned to surprise his dad with dinner so he got up, walked into the kitchen, and washed his hands.

The meal would be a simple one: broiled whitefish, a salad, and mashed red potatoes. His dad always left for school earlier than Eli so that morning, after his departure, Eli took the whitefish fillets out of the freezer to let them thaw in the fridge. Now, following Siz’s written instructions, he put the potatoes in a pot of water to boil, put the lid on it, turned on the burner, and began working on the fish and the marinade. Once the seasoned fillets were ready, he placed them on the foil-lined broiler pan, set it aside, and checked the potatoes. His eyes widened seeing white foamy water boiling out from beneath the lid and sizzling down the side of the pot. He quickly grabbed the lid, singed his fingers, and immediately dropped the thing onto the floor. Cursing, he danced around a minute before turning on the faucet in the sink and sticking his hand into the stream of cold water. With the lid removed the over-boiling water subsided. His hand felt better too, so he dried it gingerly, said a small prayer of thanks, and made a note for the future not to use a lid when boiling potatoes. He put the lid in the sink.

He let the potatoes boil for another twenty minutes and placed the fish under the broiler. Siz said it would only take a few minutes, so Eli very carefully poured the water and softened potatoes into the colander waiting in the sink. Siz suggested rinsing the pot and quickly putting the potatoes back inside, adding some milk and butter and putting the lid back on so they’d stay hot while Eli searched for the potato masher.

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.