Joan holds up the recipe card. “White chicken chili!”
Gigi runs to the kitchen and Christopher toddles after her. “Are you feeling better?” Gigi asks, putting her hands on her mom’s leg and looking up at her.
Joan squeezes Gigi’s cheeks, kissing her forehead and then Christopher’s. “Just thinking about your grandma’s white chicken chili makes me feel better!”
“Mommy?” Gigi’s face is turned up and her eyes are wide.
“Yeah, babe?”
“Can you breathe?”
Joan smiles. “Can I breathe? I’m talking to you, so that means I’m breathing.”
“But is your breathing in half? And will it go down all the way someday?”
Joan realizes what Gigi is asking and pulls her close to her. “I will say that breathing feels different from what I’m used to, and I probably won’t be running any marathons, but that’s okay because I hate running anyway, but I’m breathing just fine.”
“And white chicken chili helps?”
“It helps and your dad helps, and you and Christopher especially help!”
Gigi smiles, wrapping her arms around her mom.
SIXTEEN
September 2012
After Lauren picks up the paperwork for the free condo rental in Florida for the Glory’s Place fund-raiser, she makes her way to the Herman farm, hoping to remember the directions. She turns left at the flashing caution light and slows down when she sees what remains of a large corn crop. Turning in to the drive, she wonders again if all of this is worth it. No dog greets her here and no one seems to be home when she knocks on the front door. She walks down the stairs of the porch and around the house, toward the barns on the property, waving when she sees a man carrying a bucket of tools.
“Hiya!” he says, setting the bucket down.
Lauren picks up her pace to get closer to him. “Are you Jim?”
“I am,” he says. He looks to be around forty-five with a stocky frame and blond, brush-cut hair. “What can I do for you?”
She stops when she’s a couple of feet away from him. “I’m hoping to find a dairy farmer named Bud.”
Jim shakes his head and his mouth turns down as he thinks. “I don’t know a Bud. A dairy farmer?”
She nods. “I think so.”
He keeps shaking his head as if the name or face will come to him. “I’m sorry. I don’t know him. But if you want fresh milk, we do sell it.”
Lauren smiles. “I’d love to buy some!”
He leads her to a small white building with a few refrigerators inside. “Two percent or whole?”
She thinks for a second. “One of each. I want to make yogurt again and use fresh, farm milk this time.”
He pulls a gallon of each from the refrigerator and sets them on a table. “Ten dollars.” She hands him the money and he turns back to the refrigerator, pulling out a Ziploc bag of shucked corn. “For you. On the house, or … on the farm.”
She reaches for the bag. “Thanks so much!”
He looks at her. “Does Bud sell something other than milk that you’re looking for?”
“I’m actually hoping he can help me find somebody.”
He lifts both gallons of milk off the table and walks with her to her car. “I can ask my wife when she gets home. Her family has been here forever. If she’s ever heard of him, I can let you know.”
Lauren writes her phone number on a piece of scrap paper she finds in her car and adds, “If you lose that, you can just call Glory’s Place and ask for the pregnant lady.”
“Will do,” Jim says, handing the gallons of milk to her. “And congratulations! We have four.”
“I’m not sure I can handle one, let alone four,” Lauren says, closing her car door.
“You’ll be amazed what you can do,” he says.
“Thanks for the corn!” she says as she turns her car around in the driveway.
Arriving home, Lauren removes a Ziploc bag of chicken pieces she had rubbed with spices and refrigerated that morning. She places the chicken pieces on a plate and picks up the recipe card, reading the ingredients for white barbecue sauce. Lauren reads the recipe: Our friend June in Alabama gave me this recipe when your dad and I were first married. It’s delicious on these grilled chicken pieces, pulled pork, even as sauce for coleslaw. When you find something you love, you stick with it. Guess that explains why your dad and I are still married! This is just exceptionally yummy! Lauren smiles reading the words and opens a cabinet to find the mayonnaise.
She mixes the mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, horseradish, and fresh lemon juice with several seasonings and then dips her finger in for a taste. “Mmm. She’s right. This is exceptionally yummy.”
When Travis arrives home, Lauren is on the back deck as she finishes grilling the chicken pieces. She has made a spinach salad that she found among the recipes inside the table and read on the internet how to boil the perfect ear of corn. The table is set with new place mats, a simple woven fabric with hints of gray and blue, and a small ivory-colored vase filled with hydrangea flowers from the shrub at the corner of their house; both items were found during a trip with Miriam and Gloria to Hidden Treasures, the local thrift store. She places the food on the table and steps into the living room, calling up the stairs to Travis. He always takes a shower when he arrives home after a day of mowing and weeding park grounds and maintaining baseball and football fields. “What is this?” he says, looking at the meal on the table.
“More recipes from the cards we found,” she says, smiling.
He wraps his arms around her, kissing her. “Our baby’s mom is the best cook in all of Grandon!” They sit down and she waits for Travis to take a bite of the chicken. “Mmm. So good! You made this?”
She smiles. “I did! The recipe cards are teaching me.”
“Man, am I ever glad you found those
