Chapter 3 #2
When I was told about the party there was a mention of barbecue and crabs.
I also noticed that people here love seafood.
I’d had crabs once, but it was snow crabs, not blue.
If there was one thing I knew, it was barbecue.
Yes, I primarily baked, but I was also a queen when it came to that.
Cooking in general was what the women did.
I asked her if I could cook the barbecue instead of have it catered.
I would even pay for the ingredients as a thank you.
She was hesitant at first, but a day later she agreed.
I loved being able to cook. It was something that gave me peace.
She looked at me sideways when I told her that I would need a barrel or drum grill, and she told me that I must know what I was doing.
“Girl, when you said dat you knew barbecue I ain’t gonna lie, my expectations were low. Lovina, this is da best that I’ve eva had. The man I normally use, I thought he was da best. Baby, you got him beat,” Ms. Beauvia said with an empty plate in her hand.
I was standing at the grill watching the hamburgers that I had on it. “Thank you, Ms. Beauvia. I’m happy everyone likes it.”
I cooked a lot of food because they told me earlier this week that there would be fifty to sixty people coming in and out. That didn’t worry me. At my family’s restaurant, we cooked for hundreds of people a day. I used to work at the barbecue restaurant at least once every other week.
She took me to a butcher, and I made a big order.
My order consisted of steaks, beef and pork ribs, two pork shoulders, brisket meat, premium ground beef for the burgers, sausages, and three pounds of leg quarters.
When he told me the total, Ms. Beauvia bullied me to let her pay for half of it.
Beyuna came into town a week before the party.
She and her aunt helped me clean all the meat that needed to be cleaned.
It took us two days to clean and a full day for me to prepare the meat.
The party didn’t start until one in the afternoon.
The night before the party it was already a full house.
Beyuna was there with her father, brother, and Erygon.
They played cards, watched movies, and just had fun.
From what I was told, Erygon had worked a long shift the two days before to have the weekend off.
When I came down at midnight to start smoking some of the meat, everyone looked at me like I had lost my mind.
The brisket and shoulders would take at least twelve hours to smoke.
The beef and pork ribs could take anywhere from four to eight hours.
I could put them on later. The chicken thighs would only take two hours or so.
I would grill everything else. Once I had all the meat in the smoker, I made my homemade barbecue sauce.
Just as I put the medium steak that Ms. Beauvia requested on her plate, Erygon approached. He is so handsome. “You’re not hot in all dat? You don’t want to change into something cooler?”
I glanced down at my attire. It was my everyday attire.
Yes, I got weird looks when I came out. The party was in full swing, and I stuck out like a sore thumb.
No one had to wonder why I was dressed the way I was.
Ayriss was sure to go around to everybody to tell them I was Amish and her friend so they couldn’t talk about me.
It was the sweetest and most innocent action that I’d ever seen.
“No, thank you. I’m fine and the material is actually quite cooling,” I told him. “Would you like something?”
He glanced at the grill. “Nah, you got a nigga full. Where you learn to cook like that? I’ve never met a female that can grill like that.”
“My family owns a barbecue business that I worked at sometimes. My father and brothers taught me, my mothers, and sisters how to barbecue. My mother taught me and my sisters how to bake.” I flipped the burgers that were on the grill, then put on gloves to move the baked beans to the table.
He followed me to the table. I jumped with a shriek when I turned around because he was right there. “How many brothers and sisters do you have?”
“I’m the oldest of six, two sisters and four brothers. All of them are married,” I told him. I quickly moved around him to go to the grill.
He followed me again. “You’re not married?” When I shook my head, he smiled awkwardly. “No disrespect, but I read that Amish females get married like in their early twenties. I’ll assume you older than twenty-two, twenty-three.”
“Um, I’m thirty years old,” I confirmed. “Yes, that is true that most get married young, but I’m different. I wasn’t very desirable in my community.”
His eyes bucked a little. “The hell! What do you mean that you weren’t desirable? Did those white boys see you? I’ll assume they were white.”
That pulled a slight giggle. I have never in my life heard the term white boy as much as I have here.
Oh, and crackers is one that I’d never heard at all.
Every time I heard it, I laughed on the inside.
“Yes, they saw me, but again, a black Amish girl is a phenomenon. They didn’t want to bother with being linked to a phenomenon. ”
He sucked his teeth. “They’re crazy as hell. You seem like a cool chick. Quiet as hell but cool. I guess the quiet shit is to be expected with the whole Amish culture. I can tell through your long ass, hot looking dress that you got a lil body.”
My gasp was loud. I lowered my head to my dress, then up to him. His hands went up in surrender before he told me that he didn’t mean to offend me. “No, you didn’t offend me. No one has ever said that to me before,” I mumbled.
“Considering where you came from, I can understand that. I’m gonna go over here and jump on this spades table. Thank you for cooking for my baby’s birthday party. She’s over there in a rib coma now,” he joked.
I smiled. “You’re welcome! Anything for that sweet little lady as she’s told me to call her. I guess it’s a good thing that her father is a doctor if she’s in a coma.”
He chuckled, then winked. “I guess you’re right.” With that he just walked off, leaving me frozen.
When I heard giggling behind me, I turned toward it. Ms. Beauvia and Beyuna stood there staring at me. I thought I had done something wrong. “It looks like my son got a lil crush on someone. Let me find out.”
I think my eyes fell out. “No, no, he would never be interested in a simple girl like me. He was just being nice.”
“Girl, have you ever had a man flirt with you?” Beyuna asked.
“I know my cousin and he’s not about to be that invested in what you have going on if there wasn’t some kind of interest there.
” She pointed out in the yard. “All his baby mama’s friends are here dressed like this isn’t a kids’ party.
Even though they shouldn’t want his attention since they are his baby mama’s friends, they’re still out here being pressed.
My cousin could entertain them, but he’d rather be over here asking you a million questions.
” She smirked then crossed her arms over her chest.
I had to use context clues to understand what she said.
Pressed, I assumed, meant that they wanted his attention badly.
I took the time to look out into the yard of people.
There were so many people and children who wore smiles.
The kids played on the playground that was in the yard while the women sat in a group talking.
The men congregated between three tables where dominoes and card games were played.
It was such a different experience than I was used to, and I felt bad to say that I loved it.