Food for Thought Read Free Page B

read, Recipes for the Heart: Mystical Meals and Dangerous Desserts, by Granny B.
    Carefully, Emmett started to leaf through the yellowed pages, surprised when they didn’t just disintegrate into powder.
    “ For Rainy Days ,” he read, smiling a little. “ For Courting .” He turned the page to the next section. “ For Thought . This is a cookbook?”
    “Yes, it is—but it’s an unusual one.”
    Emmett found that the thing seemed to purr in his hands, like a kitten. He wanted to wrap his arms around it, holding it to his chest.
    “Why unusual?” he asked suspiciously.
    “Because—the sections aren’t the usual ones for one thing. There’s no ‘Entrée,’ ‘Chicken,’ ‘Dessert,’ or any of that. And for another, well… you simply need to try a recipe. They’ve all been added to. You want family, Emmett? This is the advice of generations of families, all in one cookbook.”
    Emmett swallowed, wanting that book so much his mouth watered. “I can’t take this,” he said, trying to be a good guy. “You’re going to want to give it to Angela or Cecily—”
    “Angela has her own family recipes,” Flora said, sounding philosophical about it. “And Cecily has cooked from this book since she was very small. It’s her writing in some of the margins, childish as it is. Even Vinnie had something to say.”
    Emmett wanted to cry more than ever. “Then I really can’t take it,” he said gently, and to his surprise, Flora laughed.
    “You go ahead and try to leave it here,” she cackled, and then kissed him on the cheek. “You’re a good boy. I’m going to go make you some sandwiches for the trip.”
    Emmett spent a few minutes leafing through the book. There was a shortbread recipe, which seemed to be the only thing relatively untouched by comments. Awesome, fattening, and fricking easy. That looked like Vinnie’s handwriting right there—leave it to Vinnie to comment on the obvious.
    He ended up in Food for Thought . “‘Beet Porridge,’” he read, and then scrawled next to the Beet Porridge, in different ink, were the words clarifies things . He laughed to himself and read some more. Chipotle sauce, start the night before. There was an arrow to that and a scrawled comment: You can buy the cubes now, which keeps your house from becoming a tear - gas repository for two days. Wow—this must be some clarifying recipe if people were willing to go through that . Reluctantly, Emmett stood up and set the book down on Vinnie’s bed.
    Yeah, he was curious… but… but… it wasn’t right that he should take the book. This kind of book—that was family. And if Emmett knew one thing for sure, it was that as of yet, he didn’t have a family of his own.
     
     
    H E SET his duffel on the front floorboard of his Toyota hybrid, and the package of sandwiches on the seat, then went to hug Vinnie’s entire family who had arrived to see him off.
    God, he loved these people. He’d played board games with them on rainy days, and they’d gone to each other’s track meets and baseball games, chess games and theater productions. He’d held the girls through broken hearts and congratulated the guys on getting the guts up to go to prom.
    Every time he left, he felt like clinging to them, weeping, and begging to be a part of them for just another second.
    And he couldn’t stand, ever, to look next door to his and his father’s little house, which had always been so quiet, even when he and his dad were there, playing chess.

Hot Buttered Popcorn
     
    E MMETT ’ S PHONE rang almost before he pulled into the driveway in his small Folsom home.
    “You’re home,” Keegan crowed. “Movie?”
    “Absolutely—is there anything good out?”
    “There’s three movies with explosions and death that you can see with whatserface, and this really sweet indie romance that I know you’ve been saving just for me.”
    “ Stars and Dust ?” Emmett put the car into park and turned off the ignition, hopping out before