[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Peaches are in season and sometimes there are figs.I do not like the olives or peaches, but the figs are quite pleasant, with centers rather like blueberries when they are neither too sour nor too sweet.Luke Phoenix likes to eat olives and then spit the pits at his brother.He has a surprisingly good aim.When a pit hits Martin Phoenix he wriggles in his chair and then Luke Phoenix says, "Hot cross buns!" and Martin Phoenix calls Luke Phoenix bad names using his Tango, just as he has done before.I don't know what hot cross buns have to do with anything.Sometimes, while we are eating, there are silences, and my friend Luke Phoenix usually fills those silences with quotations.Sometimes he talks to the cuckoo we hear in the trees, calling out to it: "'Sing on there in the swamp/O singer bashful and tender.I hear your notes, I hear your call, I hear, I come presently, I understand you …' Walt Whitman, 1865." I don't know why he does this.The cuckoo cannot understand him.At other times when there are silences, my mother fills them by trying to give me advice.She is continually telling me what to do.Lately, she has been talking a lot about my jean dress.My jean dress, she says, is disgustingly old and should be thrown away.She has also been talking a lot about cooking classes.She thinks I should take a cooking class and learn some professional skills.She also thinks that I should get a card for the public library in Vaugines and see if they have any film nights where I would meet nice young people.Film nights? Nice young people?I told her that Martin Phoenix and Luke Phoenix were nice young people and that I was happy associating with them.That's when our conversation got kind of confusing.My mother said that because she and Alan Phoenix were a couple, even though they weren't married, Martin Phoenix and Luke Phoenix were kind of like my brothers."Not really my brothers," I clarified, because I want to put the job of personal care assistant on my resumé."They are not really your brothers," she said."But they could be someday.So I don't want you getting ideas about Luke Phoenix, even though he is your age and you like him and spend a lot of time with him.You should be out meeting lots of other teens your age."I do not know what she meant about Luke Phoenix, so I am specifically writing that part down here.Maybe I will be able to figure it out if I think more about it.I wonder if my mother should be out meeting more people her age.Is consistency of age an important quality among friends? Sometime at lunch or dinner I will ask my mother about that.I like to ask her questions at lunch or dinner so that if she starts to talk too long, she will get hungry and stop talking.My mother seems to like the food here a great deal.The deli ham is disgusting—all slimy and full of fat.Also disgusting is the baking that comes from the markets where there are flies and other bugs.I saw a wasp crawling out of a hole in a honey pretzel just before someone bought it.Once Alan Phoenix brought home pigeon eggs, but I did not eat them.Pigeon eggs would be especially disgusting.I have seen what the pigeons eat around here.In the afternoons I usually go for a walk or a bike ride, but sometimes we all go sightseeing instead.One afternoon we drove through the Luberon Mountains to Apt and then over to Isle sur la Sorgue, and then to Fontaine de Vaucluse where there was supposed to be a special fountain, but it wasn't very interesting.We ate in a restaurant and I had crepes with butter and sugar, even though my mother tried to get me to order something containing a vegetable.Alan Phoenix and my mother had onion soup, and Luke Phoenix had duck basted with honey, garlic, and thyme, as well as creamed zucchini.Alan Phoenix asked him if he had brought his wallet.Martin Phoenix had chef's crepes, which had cheese, ham, and an egg on top, and then he had pistachio ice cream with a hair in it.The waitress told us that she came from a family with eight brothers and four sisters and she was proud to say that they all worked in restaurants.She herself has two children and is very happy with that number."Mais vous semblez très heureuse avec trois enfants, Madame," she told my mother, holding up three fingers.My mother got all red and flustered.She had understood enough to know that the waitress thought Martin Phoenix, Luke Phoenix, and I were all her children.That would only be true if my mother and Alan Phoenix got married, and all I can say is that this better not happen this summer."Do you offer cooking classes?" my mother asked the waitress in English and then Alan Phoenix translated it into French.I can see the scene now as if it is a movie replaying in my head."Non," says the waitress, shaking her head [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]