BucklerFern of Shadow

[ismo]

I decided before I started out that I wasn't going to take Madame out today. It was a chilly and blustery day, with the leaves whirling in the wind, and long waves of grey cloud rolling over the sun, and in addition to that, I was just tired and didn't feel up to all the ins and outs of getting Madame to a destination. I stopped at a coffee shop and got lattes and a snack of quiche and fruit for both of us before going. When I arrived, she was asleep in her chair. I didn't want to startle her, so I just came in quietly and sat down. When she woke up on her own, she was only mildly surprised to see me. I think she was disappointed not to go out, but cheered up when a staff member offered to bring her lunch on a tray. That seemed like a nice thing to her. I always take such pains not to offer her dishes with meat in them, so I was amused that her lunch included a breaded chicken cutlet that she ate without a second thought. She said it was good, and wondered what it could be. I didn't enlighten her. I just ate my veggie filled quiche. The piece I had meant for Madame stayed in the bag and was ultimately consumed by the Sparrowhawk.

We had a nice chat, and she enjoyed her coffee. We had to have the sad conversation about which family members are still alive, again. This time she was worried about her daughter, who she always refers to as her sister. Her actual sister is in fact dead, so I waited for some more clues before answering the question! As I thought, she meant her daughter, mother of the adorable baby, so I was happy to assure her that Mademoiselle was quite well and would undoubtedly come to see her soon. She is also still put out by not having her phone. Mademoiselle is doing something about that, but hasn't been able to arrange it yet, so every time I'm there I get thinly veiled hints that I should take her out to buy a new phone! This time I wiggled out of it by reminding her that she would have to know which phone service she was using, because you wouldn't want to sign up with more than one and have to pay twice. Being brought up Dutch, she is quite frugal, so that gave her pause. When I got up to go, she said she would walk me down the hall to the door. However, she only made it halfway. Then she said her arms hurt too much, and she would just watch me go. I turned and waved as I went out the door, and she waved back.

I stopped at the pharmacy in the grocery store on the way home, to see if they had the prescription that was supposed to be ready on Monday. They hadn't even started on it yet. I took advantage of the wait time to nip over and get some bok choy, lettuce, a cucumber, and a bunch of leeks. When I came back, the pharmacist noticed my basket and remarked that she loved bok choy. "And what else is that you have? Is that leeks?" I said yes, I was going to put chicken in the stir fry with bok choy, and then boil the bones and make soup with the leeks. "Oh! You are my kind of woman!" she exclaimed. "That is just what I would do. Now I'm feeling so inspired to make soup." I guess it's always good to make a friend of your pharmacist. . . .

Comments

[oracne]

I love bok choy, too! I generally have to get it in Chinatown or at the 69th Street H-Mart.