Scandalous novel · Chapter 9 of 24
Chapter 9: The Kitchen
Junie decided that frog lady would stay for dinner, and nobody argued with her.
Burke cooked.
He wore an apron that said KISS THE COOK in loops of faded red, a gift from Junie that he plainly hated and had never thrown away.
I sat on a stool at the kitchen island and peeled carrots badly.
"You're holding it wrong," he said.
"There's a wrong way to peel a carrot?"
"There's a wrong way to do everything. Give me that."
His hand closed over mine on the peeler, warm and rough, and showed me the angle.
Neither of us moved when it was done.
"Dad, are the noodles supposed to be stuck together?" Junie called from the table.
"They're al dente."
"They're a brick."
"They are a delicious brick."
We ate the delicious brick with butter and too much parmesan.
Junie told us about the boy who ate a crayon in the second grade, and I told her about my first pet, a hamster named Mr. Biscuit who'd escaped into the vents of my parents' house and was never seen again.
"He's still in there," Junie said gravely.
"I think about him every day."
When Burke carried her up to bed, she was already half asleep, with her recorder clutched to her chest.
I washed the dishes because I couldn't think of anything else to do with my hands.
I heard him come down the stairs.
He stopped in the kitchen doorway and watched me.
"You don't have to do that."
"I know."
"The woman who comes Fridays will do it."
"I like it. It's quiet."
He crossed the kitchen, took the dish towel from my hands, and set it on the counter.
"Tell me something true," he said.
I went still.
"I told you something true. I said my family's business failed."
"Another one."
I looked at him, at the scar in his eyebrow and the gray at his temples and the plain steel watch.
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