Once You Go Back. 32
Previously, Buckey spent a weekend at home in Savanah. His very separate worlds touched unexpectedly when his Dominican friend showed up. Bucky dropped him off at the airport Sunday and planned for a relaxed afternoon at home. Read Previous Chapters.
On Sunday night, two powerful, creative women came to me. One brought comforting closure. The other brought floral stress.
The kind of supper gathering Kenny, Glenda, and I had last night could only happen now that Kenny and I had our long weekend together. We’d talked through childhood jealousy, trauma, resentment, and different kinds of love. He and Glenda had similar talks too. For the first time since high school, we got together as adults. Sort of. We had a helpful foil in the first woman to visit me that night.
Glenda hired a young chef she'd obviously slept with to cook an elaborate meal at my house. This woman was an amazing chef. Black, no more than 21, cornrows, seashell necklaces, and sparklingly loud. Mashama helped us not go into dark conversations. She cut mushrooms and said to me, “She told me you are a garden designer to the stars. A star? I want to be a star chef.”
“Like on TV?" I asked. “Can Black people be star chefs?” She howled at that and said to Glenda, “Girl, which one of your brothers did you say was smart? ‘Cause I sure can’t figure it out.”
Therapist/chef Mashama was in her final months of culinary school. This week included a hard-won tour of Atlanta’s best restaurants. One of her teachers had invited her on trips like this to Miami, too. She wanted to open a restaurant here, home, in Savanah. “In this town, fine food means white tablecloths,” she said. “In real cities, it’s not so pretentious. There’s a space here for casual but creative.” In my humble opinion, she could become a superstar. Maybe. I joked with her, “Maybe Paula Deen needs a Black face?”
But, honestly, I didn’t know if Savannah's racism would allow Mashama to shine. I knew MissK sometimes quietly funded folks she believed in.
“If you’d come over to the farm sometimes, I could set it up for you to cook for MissK. Maybe she knows people. She’d like you anyway.”
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