Book Three: Part 7 - Varied Evil - Chapter 3

Sunday – April 1st – 1:30 p.m.

The Baker-Manning Home

111 Homestead Lane

Backyard Cooking

Today was the first really good spring day, and to prove that, Baker, Ed, and Stevie, invited friends and coworkers over for a cookout,

Johnathan and Dianne, Andre Devon, with his wife Vanessa, and daughter, Jenny. There was also Ellie, with her parents, Barry and Julie Whitmore; Satchell Page, and even the mayor, Jean Marsh, and her husband, frank. A few others were invited and would probably stop by when they got off work. J.W. was unable to attend, but Baker made a promise to bring him some of the food later in the day.

Stevie was the intrepid chef for the day. On the broiler he had plenty of beef-ribs, chicken breasts, hamburgers, and hot dogs. For those who wanted their meat barbequed, he had plenty of his mom’s homemade recipe for everyone to pour over their meat. Stevie wasn’t taking any chances, especially since he knew Ellie’s mom didn’t like anything barbequed. This way; each to their own tastes.

A few people brought a small dish of food. Satchell brought three-dozen doughnuts. Johnathan brought macaroni salad, and Dianne, potato salad. Andre and Vanessa brought macaroni and cheese. The Whitmore’s brought egg salad. Baker also made some homemade bread, just in case. The Marsh’s brought four cases of beer and soda.

But today was a feel-good day. After the nightmare Baker had, this was just the ticket to bring her back online with what being a mother, wife, and friend is all about.

If only, Baker mused, every day could be this serene. This calm.

Deep down, she knew better than to go there. The minute she thinks life will be a piece of cake, is the day when pigs fly; and Elvis comes back from the dead to start a second musical comeback.

At least the sun is shining. The weather is forecasted with warmer weather in the high sixties. Spring has sprung, and please, no more winter’s like the one that just disappeared.

Today was a day that held no talk about work. It was more about family, such as it is with Andre and his family. Then there was the closeness you could see developing between Johnathan and Dianne, and of course that certain feeling between Stevie and Ellie.

Young love, ain’t it grand, she heard someone once say.

Smiling, she watched as Stevie flipped burgers, turned both chicken and ribs over, and watching Ellie dog him every step of the way.

Before dark hurtled her black blanket over a beautiful blue sky, Baker made certain she remembered to pack enough away for J.W. She wouldn’t feel right if he didn’t at least get to taste some of the food since he was still unable to move around as well as he would like. Stevie and Ed would go with her after things were cleaned up.

But today was one of the better days. In another week, it would be even better.

Stevie gets his driver’s license.

1125 Clearfield Street – 6:05 p.m.

After letting them in, and allowing Baker to take over his kitchen, J.W., and Ed, spoke.

“How are things going for you, Ed?”

“To be truthful, it’s still taking me time to get adjusted that I pretty much have a useless are hanging by my side. I sometimes think I would have been better off if it hadn’t been reattached. But, I’m doing rehab.”

“Look at it like this, Ed; if Hollywood decides to remake ‘The Fugitive’, you can always get your arm removed and take the role of the one-armed killer.”

“I think I’ll pass on that idea.”

The reheated aromas were filtering their way into the small living room.

“Man-oh-man, that sure does smell good, Baker,” said J.W.

“Don’t give me the credit, that all goes to Stevie. I’m just reheating his masterpiece meal from earlier.”

“Is that right?” J.W. looked at Stevie. “Where did you learn to cook like this?”

“From, mom, and my dad, and his….” He looked at his mom, then, Ed. He wasn’t sure how to say partner. Lover.

“He means significant other, J.W.,” countered Baker.

“Oh, okay. I get it. Your dad was gay.”

“Yeah, he was. I just didn’t know how to say it since you are. I didn’t want to offend you.”

“No offense taken.” J.W. looked at everyone standing in the living room, with Baker holding two plates of hot food.

“Actually, it’s nice to be around people who understand what it means to be gay.”

“I will tell you, J.W., that in the beginning, I couldn’t accept Mark being gay, that’s Stevie’s father. It was a blow to my psyche, and also being a woman, who, at the time, had a high sex drive. It took time for me to adapt. Stevie was about ten at the time. Mark and I divorced, he moved out of state, and we mutually agreed it was better for Stevie to stay with him, than me. As a cop, I am a liability for a stable home environment. So we traded off holidays and vacations. Worked out well until the accident. Now, it’s working even better.

“Now start eating. I don’t really want to have to reheat all this food again.”

Five minutes into an eating frenzy, J.W. looked at Stevie.

“You keep cooking like this, and one day you’ll have your own restaurant and a TV cooking show.”

Stevie grinned.

“One day, I want to make a difference in the lives of people. Maybe be a cop like mom, and Ed. Maybe a Congressman or Senator, maybe even the president. I think if I can really make a difference for someone’s life and convince someone else to make a difference; we can double, triple, and quadruple that and so on; until we live on a world where the only difference between life and death isn’t a bullet fired from a gun, or a fist hitting another human being, but the difference is ridding the world of famine and disease, homelessness, and having, and keeping world peace among all nations.

“I know it won’t all happen. But it might, one day. And that would be so cool. Be like the movie, ‘Pay It Forward’. Keep it going, and never let it end.”

“Yeah, that would be, cool, Stevie.” J.W. smiled and winked at him.

“Going from peace on earth to the here and now; just how are you doing, J.W.?”

“I go back to the doctor, Thursday. I’m hoping he will finally give me a clearance to return back to work. That damn knife of Freddy’s did some major damage, but everything’s healing fine. Just healing too slow for my tastes.”

“When a knife goes through you the way it did,” interrupted Baker, “and goes through part of a lung and breaks two ribs, and a collar bone, as well as tearing through muscle tissue, until the blade is sticking out of your back; be grateful for slow. Slow is good. Slow beats the hell out of dead in my opinion.”

“You get no argument from me on that. It’s just being laid up like this. I wish I had something to do.”

“Trust me; when you get back to work, I’ll have plenty for you to do.”

J.W. and Ed looked at one another. Ed held up his good hand in defense.

“Don’t look at me. I have no idea what she has in mind.”

“Ever hear of be careful what you wish for?” Baker asked.

J.W. nodded his head, but he was grinning.

“You might get your wish and then some when you get back.”

The doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it,” said Stevie.

Opening the door, Andre Devon stepped inside with a bottle of wine.

“Hello, everyone. I’m not intruding, am I?”

“Nope. Not at all. C’mon in, Cisco.”

“After I took Vanessa and Jenny home, and Vanessa sends her best to you; I thought I’d drop by and see how you are doing.” Andre pointed to one of the plates of food. “Good stuff, huh?”

“Sure is. I see you have a bottle of wine. What? Are you going to try and get me drunk and take advantage of my poor state of health?”

Andre turned a bright red.

“Oh, c’mon, Cisco. I’m just teasing. What kind of wine did you bring?”

As Andre went into the kitchen, he removed a corkscrew from his pants pocket and inserted in the cork and started twisting until he could get it to come out.

“Well, I think we’ll leave you two alone to catch up on things. Some of us here have a work day tomorrow, and Stevie has school.

“It was good seeing you again, J.W.,” said Baker, as she lightly clapped him on his back with her left hand. “Call me after you see the doctor and give me a heads up.”

“I’ll do that, and thanks for coming by. Really. Means a lot to me.”

“No problem,” grinned Stevie.

Just as the door was closing behind Baker, she heard Andre say, “It’s pure vintage, 1991 Mogen-David wine. I couldn’t find us any Mad-Dog 20-20 for us.”

As she followed Stevie and Ed down the steps to her Hummer, she could only smile.

Today turned out to be better than just a good day.

It was the best of days.