RAIN part 6.

Rain part 6.

Her heart thumping louder than the rain pelting the truck’s roof. 

      “ Anne…”

      “ Jack…..” 

*********

The rain outside her bedroom window, had turn into a drizzle. 

      “ Jack…..”

      “ Yes……” 

      “ I know there is no rain in heaven, but if there ever were…would you….. think about me and our rain…..?” she whispered. 

        “ I think about you all the time, Anne, “ Jack assured her. 

        The drizzle out of her window had come to a complete stop. 

        “ I miss you, Jack,” she said. And she mean it with all her heart. Jack was her lover, her life. He had brought happiness back to her when she never knew she had lost it in the first place. 

      “ I miss you, too,” Jack said. 

        Outside her window, a weak ray of western sun suddenly appeared, turning the water droplets on the wet grass and leafs into gold, a sign that her  grip on Jack existence would  dissipate soon. How much she wished he were here with her, holding her in a flesh, feel the warmth of his body and his breath. His large calluses hands touching her skin. “ Miss  you, Jack. Very, very, much. “ 

      Then she heard the sound of light footsteps on the soft carpet entering her bedroom and the familiar voice…..

      “ Anne, there you are. I’ve been looking all over for you.”

      Anne turned to face the owner of the voice. Found her husband of thirty- two years, smiling at her. She smiled back,”Hi, Tom. “

                   …….to be continue next week or sooner………

RAIN part 5

Rain part 5.

She stared at him, calculating, balancing and wondering, if she should or would. Before she could change her mind or lose her nerve she said,“ Let me have your wallet. “ 

      

“ My wallet?” It was Jack turn to look confused. But without asking more question,  he sifted in his seat and retrieved his wallet from his back pocket, then handed it to her. 

       

Anne opened the leather bifold, averting her eyes from Jack questioning one. Like the contents of the glove compartment, Jack’s wallet was also tidy. Each of the credit cards occupied its own  individual slot. The paper receipts and the money were each stored in their own compartment. She dug her finger into the hidden pockets under the credit cards slot, one contained a paper with series of phone numbers written on it, the other held what she was looking for. She touched it with the tip of her index finger. For a split second, she wanted  to leave it where it was. When she pulled out the single,  square, foil package with a visible raised ring inside it, she felt her heart  beat loose and run away from her. 

      

She gave back the wallet to Jack, “Now, we are ready!” she announced. 

       

Jack gave her another stare, not the “watermelon size red nose” kind. This time, it was a stare as thought she had more heads than Cerberus and more gruesome teeth than the beast itself. 

       

“ Ready for what?” Finally Jack regained his voice.

     

In a different setting, seeing Jack’s reaction would have made her laugh. But her mind was on something more important at the moment. She was going to change who she had been. Good girl as expected, no more. 

       

“ Ready to do what you suggested us to do,” she said calmly. 

       

Jack shook his head slowly and said, “ No, we are not.” 

       

“ Why? You suggested it.” Anne said, rather confused. Someone had given her a toy, and now that person want it back. 

       

“ Yes, I did. I was just teasing.” Jack said. 

       

“Oh…”Anne stared at the still fogged up windshield. The rain was still falling hard. The ping-ping noise they created when it hit the truck sounded like a Morse code to her ears. A series of code saying she had made a fool of herself. Jack was only teasing. Jack never really wanted her. “ I am too old…..” she quietly said to no one in particular. Even to her own ears, she sounded hurt.

       

Jack immediately reached out for her hand. “ Anne, age doesn't have anything to do with this. I was only teasing when I suggested that. We don't have to do anything. You….don't have to do anything. Like you said, we barely knew each other, “  Jack explained.

       

She looked at him, accusing, more hurt. “Am I not your type?” 

       

“ No…. I mean…. yes. “ Jack blabbered.” Anne you are beautiful. And I am very flattered that you like me, because I like you too. But….” Jack sighed, reached for her hand, let it go, reached for it again, “ What I want to say is……we don't have to do anything you aren't comfortable  doing. “ His hazel eyes looked deep into hers, asking for her understanding. 

       

Anne nodded her head,“ But, I am, Jack.” she told him.” I want to…” What was she saying? Jack had given her the way out…. Was she losing her mind?

       

“ Are you sure?” Jack asked.

       

“ Yes.” Anne nodded again. Yes, she had lost her mind. 

       

“ We might not see each other again.” Jack reminded her. 

       

“ One night stand,“ Anne gave him an assuring smile.” Even better,” she said. She wasn't only losing her mind, but had gone completely insane.

       

Using her teeth, she tore the corner of the thin foil then handed it to Jack. “ I ….want….us….to…..” 

       

Jack took the thin foil offered to him with his free hand, then quietly scooted across the empty seat between them, his eyes never leaving hers. There were unspoken desires in them. His uneven breathing added few degrees of extra heat into the truck’s cab. 

" Anne......" Jack said her name. 

The fog on the truck’s windshield had turned into a thin layer of white silk. Anne’s heart was thumping louder than the rain pelting the truck’s roof.

        

 " Jack…..” 

                         ………to be continue next week or sooner……

RAIN part 4.

Rain part 4.

Her embarrassment forgotten, she stared at him with ballooning anger. A dragon holding her breath of fire.  Are you out of your mind? I barely knows you. This is our second date. If her stare could produce daggers, Jack would had been dead by a thousand stabs. 

And to her surprise Jack broke into laughter. He wasn't only laughing, he was hooting and hollering as thought he had just watched a clown successfully pulling  off his funniest act. His palms banging the truck stirring wheel, shaking the truck more than the storm had been. 

“ What are you laughing at, Jack?” she asked angrily. Greatly irritated. His proposition was insanely degrading, his reaction to her reaction was degradingly insane. 

Jack give her a look, that made her want to rub her nose, ensure her nose hadn't turned into red bulbous nose of a clown, the size of a ripe summer watermelon. 

“ You, “ he said between his laughter. 

“ Me?”

“ Yes, you. You are soooo  very predictable.  Your reaction, exactly I pictured it would be. Predictable as expected.” 

She was? She didn't know what to say. Jack said it, so matter of factly and correctly. It must be correct. All her life she had always tried her hardest to be the person what others expected her to be. A good daughter, a good student, an active volunteering youth, a good….the list went on and on. She never had that moment of 'grew your hair long while your temper runs short' a reflection of youth's recklessness, 

Without saying a word, she reached onto the truck glove compartment box, opening it. In her chest, her heart, bounced around   worse than a loose buoy in a tormented sea. She didn't know exactly what she was doing or planning to do or what got into her. Part of her wants to stay the way she was, and let Jack laugh all he wanted, laughing at her very predictable approach to life. But part of her also wants to break free. In the short span of moment between Jack’s laughter and the look he gave her, she decided to let fate made decision for her. If she found what she was looking for in the glove compartment,  she would  change, if not, she would stay the way she had been all her life: good, obedient, as expected. 

Her hands rummaged through the truck glove compartment’s, surprisingly neat contents: a pair of well worn brown leather gloves, a yellow Manila envelope with a torn top, a handgun,  black and shiny. Men with their truck and their gun, what a surprise.  She moved the gun to the side. But found nothing else. She let out a breath of relief and disappointment at the same time, not knowing what to do next. 

From the corner of her eyes, she saw Jack watching her with questioning eyes. 

“ Can I help you with something? “ he asked. 

She shook her head. “ Nothing. Don't worry about it” 

“ Are you sure? “ 

She nodded. Then shook her head again. “ I don’t know.”

She must have  looked very confused because Jack reached for her hand.” Anne, you can tell me anything, okay?”

She stared at him, calculating, balancing and wondering, if she should or would. Before she could change her mind or lose her nerve she said,…………

                                    ……. To be continue next week or sooner…….

Rain. Part 3.

Rain. Part 3. 

“ Alien space ships?”

She shrugged her shoulder. “ I think I saw it once on a Sci-Fi movie.” 

Jack let out a soft chuckle. 

“ Do you know what movie scene comes to  my mind?” Jack asked, a mischievous smile on his face. 

She shook her head. 

“The Good Mother”, Jack said. 

“ The Good Mother?…..Diane Keaton?” 

“ Yap.” Jack nodded his head.

It was her turn to laugh, Jack and his love of movies, including chick-flicks. How many male on earth willing to admit that with complete honesty. “ What scene?”

“ The scene after they saw the movie. “ There again, that mischievous smile blooming on Jack face. 

It took her awhile to recall the movie and the scene Jack mentioned. When she remember it, she felt her face turning hot red from embarrassment. And Jack noticed it too. 

“ What do you think? We have the truck, the rain, the fog, the alley. We could do what they did, “ he said innocently. 

Her embarrassment forgotten, she stared at him with anger.  Are you out of your mind? 

Rain, part 2.

Rain,  part 2.

It was on their second date when it happened. 

They had gone to early dinner and planned to catch a movie at a downtown theater. But the storm, carried over from the hurricane touching the East coast, had arrived before they did. The old and mostly one-way  downtown streets were under water, forcing Jack to find an alternate route. He drove his truck through an alley, between a bank and a closed gift shop, in attempt to make a short cut to the next street. But a few yards in, he realized the  alley was getting narrower and narrower.  His pick-up truck wasn't going to make it all the way through. They were stuck: A too- narrow alley in front and a street quickly becoming a  creek behind. 

“ Now what?” Jack asked. “ Should we wait here, or back up to the street?” 

She looked back, watching the street behind them for a few minutes. In that very short time, she saw two small cars being washed away into the unknown by the water current. 

“We, wait? “ she suggested in the end. 

“ Are you sure?” 

She smiled. “ I don’t  have any other plans this evening. How about you?” 

Jack returned her smile, appreciating her sense of humor. They both knew they were stuck in this town with nothing to do, until the highway to their destination reopened.

Jack shut off the  truck's engine. Soon, the heat of their breath combined with the difference  in temperatures inside and outside of the truck’s cab fogged up the truck’s windshield, cocooning them from the outside world. 

She used her right palm to wipe the fog. No sooner had her palm cleared it, then another layer of fog formed in its wake.

 “ We couldn't see a thing, “ she said, “if an alien space ship landed in the front of us, ready to kidnap us, we wouldn't  even know.” 

Jack raised his eyebrows. “ An alien space ships?”

                                ................ To be continue next week...............

Rain part 1.

Rain part 1.

“ It is raining here,” she said. Watching the outside world from  her   bedroom window, the window panes were wet from the rain.

“ It is? “ he asked. 

“ Yes, “ she answered, “ rain, thunder, gusty winds and maybe some hails. The whole nine yards. We almost lost our maple tree.” Our maple tree, being the tree he planted three years ago, on the border of their property. “ To remind you, I’ll always be there for you,” he had said. 

“Are you alright? “ he asked. 

“ I am. “

“ And the tree?” 

“ Lost few branches. The wind whipped it up good. But at the last minute, the wind changed its mind, tearing apart the old oak tree next to it instead.“ 

“ It was a big rain then, “ he said.

“ Yes, it was.”

“ As big as, ‘our rain’?”

“ No rain nor storm, could be as big as ours, Jack, “ she said with a shy chuckle. From the blurry reflection on the still wet window pane she could see her cheeks had turn a little pink. The memory of that night always made her feel that way. Embarrassed, yet full of longing and wanting. 

*****

It was on their second date when it happened……,

          …….to be continue next week…….

The Chicken Breast Affair

The Chicken Breast Affair. 

Why did  the chicken cross the road? Some say, “to get to the other side”  (sound like the “ Twilight Zone” other side, doesn't it?). Some say,” to catch the bus.”  Some say, “ to chase the handsome rooster”. There are so many answers, yet none of them is more correct than the other. But, I know why the chicken crosses the road, to run away from me! To run away from my sharp cleaver, to be exact. 

                                           

                                         

Every week, I have to clean and then cut almost 600 pounds of chicken breasts. One side of a chicken breast weigh roughly a pound. Each chicken has two breasts.  So,mathematically speaking, I butcher nearly 300 innocent chickens a week. Some say ( this again) , I am the chickens’ murderer. At best, I promote cruelty to animals, namely chickens. But hey, I don’t like to picture myself as a mass murderer (who does? ), so I say, I help those poor chicken get to heaven. Sound better right? 

Well, to make a short story stay short, I will briefly explain what I do to those chicken breasts  and what happen to them in the process from being raw chicken breasts to yummy chicken dishes in the restaurant where I work. I have to warn you though, you  might not be able to see your General Tao’s Chicken or KungPo Chicken in the same way again. 

Chicken  breasts arrive at the restaurant, in boxes. Each box, weight precisely 40 pounds. If we were to get fat chickens with super large,  triple D, rated R chicken boobies, the box would contain fewer chicken breasts. Less work for me. If the chickens happen to be skinny ones, more like an a A cup breast (there aren't such thing as flat chested chicken are there? ), each box would have more breasts in it. In other words more work for me, to clean them.

 First, I had to place the chicken breasts  in the two compartments food prep sink and let the faucet water throughly  run through  them. The running water  help to clean the slippery slime around the chicken breasts. “Slippery slime? What are you talking about?” you might ask. Oh ya, trust me, there is slippery slime. The grocery stores employs a   different method to clean them, before placing  those chicken breasts in their packaging in order to make them look more presentable to you when you browse the meat shelves. 

 

Then, I trim all of the visible, unsavory, ugly-looking  fat around the chicken breasts. ( I  wish, I could  do that to my  own unsavory ugly looking fat, have a  lots of that).After that,  I cut them into several different sizes:

- Nugget size pieces, for Sweet and Sour Chicken dish or General Tao’s Chicken dish. 

- Thinly slices, for any stir fried dishes, like KungPo Chicken or Szechuan Chicken

- Fillet, for Almond Chicken or Teriyaki Chicken dish. 

Then, I marinate the chicken slices before storing them in the refrigerator. That way they are ready to be stir fried with different vegetables and sauces to create one of the restaurant’s stir fried dishes. I deep fry the nugget pieces and the breast fillets. Then let  them cool to room temperatures before storing them in the refrigerator. The cook will deep fried them again to the correct temperature before he adds some sauce to them to be served as Sweet Sour Chicken or Almond Chicken. Now, the chicken breasts are no longer breasts, they are part of the delicious dishes we serve at the  restaurant.. Pictures of a few dishes I mentioned are on the following page.