Excerpt from The Avocado Grove Emily - The Character Emily
As a writer, you spend a lot of time with your characters. And after this past week, I would like to shop in Don's grocery store in Avocado Grove, where the shelves are stocked and there are still meat and cheese samples at the deli, even if I don't eat them. I wouldn't mind one of Don's sandwiches either, I'd ask for vegan meat and all the fixings, lettuce, tomato, mayo and mustard. And of course, thick slices of bread like Texas Toast with only two carbs. (I've never seen a loaf like this, but maybe in Don's Publix it exits along with people).
There's a new girl living in the house. She's Ally's sister's kid. She's been here for a few days. He isn't used to her sounds (or lack of sound). The place is too quiet and the girl, Emily, she's too quiet too. She seems out of it. Her mind is someplace else. Maybe it's the kid he once was, the one that never got asked to go places with his dad, maybe this kid, this long-ago Don is the reason he asks her anything at all…
"The desserts are okay," she says. "The brownies are dry; they almost always have cookies. But they never make anything with cookies and brownies together. And they don't leave the chocolate syrup on the table for ice-cream. Some days you need more than one dessert. Big food." It is the most she has said to him at one time.
Emily doesn't ask what her mom Grizzly wants and she doesn't make any additions to the list, and Don writes down Oreos, ice-cream, and extra sandwich supplies. And he thinks, I am not your father. He keeps thinking this during their trip through the store and it makes him move fast, so fast he skips the cheese and meat samples at the deli. He speeds through the checkout and drives home before he realizes he left Eddie's daughter there, in the bakery mooning over treats. And he blames the giant, new deli, the great selection of meat and cheese and bread as the reason. He blames Eddie too and other things that flit through his brain on the drive back to the store, her newness, the silly mantra about not being her father, not liking this kid straight off the same way he does Ally's other child, Thom, the one he bought the extra sandwich supplies for. He pulls into the Expectant Mother parking space and rushes towards the cakes.
Happy Cafe Music
There's a new girl living in the house. She's Ally's sister's kid. She's been here for a few days. He isn't used to her sounds (or lack of sound). The place is too quiet and the girl, Emily, she's too quiet too. She seems out of it. Her mind is someplace else. Maybe it's the kid he once was, the one that never got asked to go places with his dad, maybe this kid, this long-ago Don is the reason he asks her anything at all…
"The desserts are okay," she says. "The brownies are dry; they almost always have cookies. But they never make anything with cookies and brownies together. And they don't leave the chocolate syrup on the table for ice-cream. Some days you need more than one dessert. Big food." It is the most she has said to him at one time.
Emily doesn't ask what her mom Grizzly wants and she doesn't make any additions to the list, and Don writes down Oreos, ice-cream, and extra sandwich supplies. And he thinks, I am not your father. He keeps thinking this during their trip through the store and it makes him move fast, so fast he skips the cheese and meat samples at the deli. He speeds through the checkout and drives home before he realizes he left Eddie's daughter there, in the bakery mooning over treats. And he blames the giant, new deli, the great selection of meat and cheese and bread as the reason. He blames Eddie too and other things that flit through his brain on the drive back to the store, her newness, the silly mantra about not being her father, not liking this kid straight off the same way he does Ally's other child, Thom, the one he bought the extra sandwich supplies for. He pulls into the Expectant Mother parking space and rushes towards the cakes.
Happy Cafe Music
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