She waved me away. “Don’t worry about it.”
Nana and I shared a conspiratorial look. She pushed herself up from the table, and tucked the newspaper under her arm. “I guess I’ll get in the bathroom next.”
Mom pointed. “I haven’t read that yet.”
Nana unfolded the paper, and dropped a few sections back onto the table. “Here’s the weather, the fun stuff…” She rattled off a few more. “You’re lucky I feel generous today,” she said with a wink. “Usually if you snooze, you lose.”
My mom rolled her eyes good-naturedly, and didn’t seem to notice at all that Nana had tucked the front-page section back under her arm.
I did a few morning chores, checked my e-mail, then called Bucky and Cyan.
Mom and Nana were at the kitchen table looking ready to go, when I approached them with an idea. “How about you two come with me to Bucky’s place?”
At their confused, expectant looks, I explained.
“First of all, I really wanted you to meet my team, and although this isn’t the most optimal of circumstances, I think it could work.”
“You’ve got a funny glimmer in your eye,” Nana said.
I pointed to her. “That’s because I want to put you both to work. Bucky, Cyan, and I are convinced that Paul Vasquez-he’s our chief usher and in charge of just about everything at the White House-will eventually tell us that the Egg Roll is back on. I want to get started on boiling eggs.”
“Should you do that?” Mom asked. “Until the medical examiner-”
“This isn’t that CSI TV show. It may be months until we get a definitive answer.” I shuddered at that thought. “I just have to do something. I mean, if the Egg Roll is canceled then we’re stuck with a roomful of eggs. I get that. But what if they decide that the event will go on after all? What if they decide that on Sunday afternoon? Then what? We’ll never get enough eggs boiled in that amount of time.”
Nana said. “I’m up for it.”
Mom nodded. “Me, too.”
“Good. Bucky’s expecting us there later this morning. If we work all afternoon, we can still quit in time to come back here and change before going to Minkus’s wake tonight.” The idea of going in there by myself was unpleasant at best. And if my family was with me, I figured I could make a polite and fairly quick exit after paying my respects. “You are both planning to come with me, aren’t you?”
My mom’s face went red. “Of course. I wouldn’t want you going alone.”
Nana laughed at her. “And you wouldn’t want to miss the opportunity to pay your respects to-or should I say flirt with-Kap, would you?”
Darn. I’d forgotten about him.
“At a wake?” my mom asked with a touch of indignance. “I wouldn’t do anything like that.”
I could have kicked myself for forgetting about Kap. “I can go alone.”
“No,” Mom said, too quickly. “We wouldn’t want you to have to face those Minkuses on your own, honey.”
I swallowed my reply.
CHAPTER 15
CYAN PULLED ME TO THE SIDE MOMENTS AFTER we’d arrived at Bucky’s. “Did you see this place?” she asked gesturing around the rooms with her eyes. “It’s gorgeous. I don’t know what I expected, but it sure wasn’t this.”
Bucky was still near the front door, hanging up coats, making small talk with my family.
“I know what you mean. I was here the other day for the first time-which is why I knew his place was perfect for our project. But”-I ran my hand along the living room sofa again-“purple suede?”
“Is he married?”
We were still talking in whispers. “I asked. He said, ‘Not yet.’”
“Lots of work ahead of us today,” Bucky said, clapping his hands together. He seemed unnaturally cheerful, and completely at ease with the four of us just hanging out at his house. “Let’s get started.”
Again, he was dressed in shorts, with an apron over. He ushered us all into the back of the house and his expansive kitchen. Mom and Nana exclaimed delight when they stepped into the bright, professionally appointed space. Cyan’s mouth dropped and she turned in a slow circle, taking it all in. “Wow,” she said. “If they ever decide to renovate the White House kitchen, I think you should design it.”
Bucky glanced at me quickly-almost as though he was fearful that I would take Cyan’s comment as a slam against me. “Yeah,” I agreed. “Bucky, if they ever give us the money to redesign the kitchen, you’re the man. I can’t imagine anyone doing it better.”
He gave a half smile, which was an odd sight. It didn’t last long. He clapped his hands again. Bucky was ready to work, and in this domain, he was clearly the boss.
“I arranged for the eggs to be delivered here,” he said.
Cyan had opened his super-sized refrigerator and turned to us with a pained look on her face. “This is nowhere near enough.” she said. “Looks like maybe ten dozen or so.”
My stomach dropped. Bucky had assured me he could handle the egg acquisition, and I’d trusted him to do so, without any double-checking. Bucky shook his head. “The rest are downstairs,” he said. “I’ll show you.”
Nana opted to stay on the main level, but the rest of us traipsed down the steps into the dungeon-like cellar. “Wow,” Cyan said, her voice echoing off the stone walls. “It’s cold down here.”
At the head of our little troupe, Bucky turned. “Exactly,” he said. “I keep it at about thirty-six degrees.” He opened a heavy door and pointed to a thermometer inside. Flicking on the light, he kept talking, even as the rest of us gasped. “Here we are.”
He wasn’t kidding. There were eggs… everywhere.
“This is almost as big as our storage at the White House,” Cyan said in awe. “You could start your own banquet business out of your house.”
Bucky winced. I wondered if his fears about our losing our White House positions were working on him. He stepped forward and rested his hand on one of many stainless steel carts filled, top to bottom, with fresh eggs.
“I talked with our friends at the American Egg Board,” he said. “They’re sympathetic to the situation and after a little coaxing, they agreed to let me hold on to these for transport.” He turned to me. “But I had to promise that they’d get them back as soon as the Egg Roll was over.”
“No problem,” I said. “Bucky, you’re a miracle worker.”
Again, the half smile. “Have you talked with Paul recently?”
“I called him just before we left,” I said. “No updates yet.” “So, we could be doing all this work for nothing?”
“So, we could be doing all this work for nothing?”
“We could.”
Bucky nodded. “Well, you’re the boss.”
“And I think this is a great idea,” Cyan said. “It sure beats staying home waiting for the phone to ring. At least we’re doing something.”
Upstairs, we settled ourselves into an assembly line of sorts. We estimated we had approximately six thousand eggs on site. “That’s a great start,” I said. “If we can get these done, then maybe in the next few days we’ll be able to pick up the rest, and by the time Monday rolls around, we’ll be all set.”
Cyan and I were the runners. We went up and down Bucky’s back stone steps, carrying large square crates of eggs. Mom and Nana made sure to gently place each and every one into giant pots of cold water, easing them in to prevent cracking.
Once the eggs were boiled, Bucky ran them under cold water, then dried and placed them back into their cradles. “Why do you bother to dry them off?” Nana asked. “I never do that. The heat makes the water evaporate.”
He pointed into one of the crates. “If they’re not dry, they tend to drip and then the eggs sit in little puddles of water.” He shook his head. “I don’t like that.”
“But when we dye them, they’ll just get wet again.” Nana said.