The driveway was empty, but I parked on the street knowing that we’d want to use the driveway for basketball later today. Grabbing my purse and the container with my seasoned leg of lamb, I made my way across the weed pocked grass of the front lawn to the front porch. The main door was open with only the screen door keeping the cool fall weather from coming inside. Normally dad would have had a fit over wasting electricity trying to heat the whole darned neighborhood, but with so many people inside, some fresh air would do us all good.
The laughter and loud voices could be heard from the street, but I loved how the sound increased as I stepped inside. My grandfather was sitting on the couch with Michaela’s husband James and my brother Leroy, who I hadn’t expected would be here this weekend. They were watching football and arguing over if the Ravens were going to turnaround their latest losing streak and beat their nemesis team, the Philadelphia Eagles.
I bent down to plant a kiss on my grandfather’s cheek, and smiled over at Leroy. “Are Sarah and the girls here too?”
“No, they’re off to seeGabby’s Dollhouse Livethen to some American Girl Doll tea.”
I laughed. “How’d you manage to get out of that one?”
“In the way of all successful marriages, I made a deal.” Leroy grinned. “Sarah does the theater and the tea, and I chaperone the zoo trip next week, and take the girls to the splatter-paint obstacle course later this month.”
“I think you got the short end of that stick,” I told him, although the splatter-paint obstacle course sounded like a blast.
“Anything to get out of American Girl Doll tea,” he replied.
The others shushed me as the game resumed, so I waved at Leroy and headed into the kitchen. Mom and Grandma were there along with Michaela.
“TaDa!” I announced as I pulled the leg of lamb from the bag. Michaela snatched the container from my hands, putting it on the counter and removing the lid as the other two women gathered near. The chorus of “ooo’s” made me laugh. It was as if they were admiring a newborn or a piece of artwork instead of a hunk of meat.
“That’s a fine leg of lamb, right there,” Mom announced.
“Did you marinate it or is that a dry rub?” Michaela asked.
“I used a rub, but I scored the meat and let it soak in for a couple of hours,” I told her. “Lemon and olive oil base with garlic, smoked paprika, ground dry mustard, and onion powder.”
Grandma nodded. “I usually do mint, or a rosemary rub, but that paprika and mustard sounds good. Is it from Binkert’s, or Wasserman and Lemberger?”
I shrugged. “I’m not sure. I found it outside of my door yesterday morning.”
The words were out before I realized how absolutely weird that sounded.
Michaela folded her arms across her chest and raised her eyebrows. “Girl. You’re telling me you brought us a piece of meat you found lying around the hallway of your apartment? What’snext, dumpster diving for your contribution to Thanksgiving dinner?”
“It’s not like that,” I protested. “It was on my doorstep, wrapped in butcher paper with those freezer things in it.”
Michaela huffed. “Random ass piece of meat. I’m not gonna eat it.”
“I am,” Grandma announced. “Look at it. I don’t care where she found it, that’s a nice-looking leg of lamb.”
Mom nodded. “Even if she found it in some alley, it’s not spoiled and I’m sure she washed it off good before she put the dry rub on it.”
“It’s not some ‘random ass piece of meat’ and I didn’t find it in an alley,” I argued. “I’m pretty sure my ex…ex-boyfriend left it for me. It’s a thing in his culture, evidently.”
“Oh,hellno,” Michaela announced. “Ex-boyfriend? I’ve heard about some of your ex-boyfriends, Willa. It’s probably laced with cyanide or something.”
Grandma leaned over and sniffed. “I don’t smell any almond. Even if he did lace it with cyanide, the moisture plus the washing, and then the heat of cooking would get rid of almost all the poison.”
We all stared at her.
“What?” She returned our stares. “You learn these things in the old country, especially when your mother had to poison a few Nazis during the war.”
“A useful skill to have,” Mom said before turning to me. “Okay Willa, tell us about this ex-boyfriend of yours so we can best judge if we need to have your Grandma test the lamb for other known poisons.”
My face heated up. “He wasn’t really a boyfriend. We…we were sort of hooking up regularly for a few weeks.”
Michaela blew out a breath. “Let me guess—you wanted more.”
My cheeks were on fire by this point. “I thoughthewanted more too. He took me out to dinner and dancing and axe throwing. Quite a few dinners out, actually, and a sail boat ride on the river too.”
