eight

(I'm a vegetarian 99.44% of the time, until I get it into my head that I really want some fried catfish, or a good scoop of tuna salad.)

I sent Liliana and Kelly back to their hotel with some cookies. They helped me bake, after all, and I was taught that under some circumstances, the good hostess thing to do is send one's dinner guests home with leftovers.

I did not learn that from my mother. I learned it from mine and my sister's nanny, who took care of us when we were babies and continued to watch us after school until I was ten, at which point my sister was thirteen and my mother decided she was old enough to look after me. Our nanny, whose name was Olivia, was also the housekeeper and occasional cook, and it was from her that I learned how to fry catfish and chicken and how to make pie crust and biscuits. Even after she stopped working for us she would send me and my sister cards on our birthday and for Christmas. She retired and moved in with her daughter in Tuscaloosa, and every now and then I think of her and have an overwhelming urge to fry something.

( I don't know if Olivia had any magic herself )

words: 1847
total words: 14,469