The Summer I Left novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: A Seat at the Table

Eddie's apartment had one table, and it seated six if nobody had elbows.

He had borrowed two folding chairs from the dorm and a card table from a girl on our floor.

He had pushed everything together under a bedsheet and stood back to admire it.

"It's the most beautiful table in Oregon," he said.

"It is crooked," Nate said.

"It's beautiful and crooked. Those aren't opposites."

The turkey sat in the oven, filling the apartment with the smell of a real holiday.

I stood at the head of the card table with six place cards in my hand.

I had written them myself that morning, in block capitals.

Eddie hung over my shoulder. "You're doing seating."

"I'm doing seating."

"Put yourself at the head."

"I'm not sitting at the head."

"Then who is?"

"Nobody," I said. "We're going to put it at the side and use the end for the potatoes."

Eddie nodded slowly.

At two o'clock, the buzzer went.

Dennis and Carol stood in the hall with a cooler between them and a pie box on top of it.

Carol had curled her hair.

Dennis was wearing a tie, and he had shaved off his stubble.

"We didn't know what you eat," Carol said. "So I brought the potatoes, and the rolls, and the green beans."

"Thank you."

"We can leave the cooler in the car."

"Come in," I said. "Take your coats off."

They did, carefully, and hung them on the hooks by the door.

I showed them to their chairs.

Carol was on the left, next to Nate. Dennis was on the right, next to Eddie, at the corner.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Summer I Left from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.