“Maybe because it’s not armored?”
Sally was caught off guard and laughed. “I understand we’re getting a refrigerator?”
“That’s what I hear.”
“It must have been my lecture on the types of bacteria I could identify without a microscope in the meat drawer of the existing icebox.”
“I like that you say icebox.”
Sally blushed. “I guess whatever term you grow up with, you use.”
“Yes. My mother called ours the side by side. It was confusing when I was at my BFFs house and they didn’t have a side by side refrigerator. Ted’s sisters teased me about it.”
“Mama Lee had a side by side by the time I came through her house, but she was raised with an icebox, so it was the icebox.”
Cid plugged the address of the Best Buy into the navigation system of Kiki’s truck and backed out. “Would I be overly nosy if I asked how you ended up under Carl’s mother’s roof?”
“Yes, but since I’m going to grill you about your past, I’m not going to complain.”
“Thank you for giving me fair warning.”
“My mother and father died in a traffic accident when I was thirteen. I was in school at the time. My mother Gamila’s family didn’t even show up for the funeral. They said it was too far to come. They live in Oslo, Norway. My mother fled Norway when she was offered a modeling contract when she was fifteen. My father Charlie Wright met her when he was playing blues guitar for a touring band. They wedded under the stars. I don’t think there was a marriage certificate involved. Charlie brought my mom home to the United States, and they traveled the blues circuit until I was born. My father took one look at me and said I looked like Sally Brown from the Peanuts cartoon.”
“I like the name Sally,” Cid said. “If you take after your namesake, you’re protectively fierce.”
“I like to think so. I have Dad’s curly hair, lips and build. I have my mother’s coloring and nose. Both of my parents had blue eyes. Dad wasn’t exactly sure or didn’t want to explain why he had blue eyes, only that my mother liked them and that was that. My parents died in a car crash when we were on our way through Charleston. The socials found me holed up in a motel room. They wanted to put me in a white foster home, but the case worker thought better of the idea and placed me with Mama Lee. I was very lucky. I learned to be a strong woman, self-reliant, and I have a very protective foster brother. No one in the town messed with me.”
“How did you end up in the Army?”
“It seemed like a good fit. After high school, I had held down a secretarial job for a few years where I met Eric. We were going to get married. His parents didn’t know about my heritage until they had supper at my tiny apartment. I proudly showed them my photo albums. Evidently that evening, they sat down with Eric and discussed the possibility of his children taking after my father in coloring. I don’t think they were racists, just not the right people. Mama Lee said that you have to look at the parents of the person you’re going to marry because, odds were, the future spouse was going to take after one of them.”
“If that’s true, then I’m going to be overprotective, stubborn, and slow to make decisions. I’m not sure I like that.”
“It could be worse.”
“You said you went into the Army, but you had a secretarial job…” Cid led.
“I had to leave my job because things were just too awkward, and my employer didn’t know that I was mixed race until Eric’s father had a polite word with my boss. So, I joined the Army. It got me a few years down the road, put a few bucks into savings, and paid for junior college and then cooking school. Mama Lee connected me with a few folks who needed temporary cooks. I still hadn’t gotten a full-time job when Carl called me about this place. I couldn’t pass up the pay, ghosts or no ghosts. Your turn.”
“I grew up nearly blind and fat. I saved my whole life to have surgery done on my eyes. The labor of my profession burned the baby fat off. I worked with Jesse when the houses were selling like hotcakes. I learned on the job from several good carpenters and used to study at night to learn better ways of finishing wood. When the housing slump hit Kansas, I moved in with Ted and lived with him until I could afford to start building my own place. He married. His partner and I are good friends. The Martins insist I use their big kitchen and cook as much as possible.”
“Did you go to school to learn to cook?” Sally asked.
“No. I took a course here and there. I learn just about everything from books and trial and error,” Cid laughed.
“What’s the laugh for?”
“I was thinking about a big error. I didn’t properly set my first foray into canning tomatoes and peaches and… kaboom! How did you learn?”
“Mama Lee and then the military. I can cook for hundreds at a time. The challenge I have here is to cook for a smaller group.”
“They aren’t picky eaters. They eat a lot. Wayne will get a bellyache if he eats cream-based dishes. I suspect he’s lactose intolerant, but he says he’s not.”
“Good to know,” Sally said. “So, do you have siblings?”
“Just a sister who
