The Piano Teacher

Chapter 18

On the way down the stairs, he ran into Harriet, who had just opened the store, and let in a few customers. "Nels, listen," she began. "Around noon, we'll be having lunch with some of my friends visiting from Saint Louis. I want you to wear your nice suit. Presentable. I can't introduce you to my old companions looking like some scrappy country merchant."

"I am a country merchant, Harriet," Nels droned. "As are you. And the suit you got me is too short in the arms."

"Father," Nellie called in her high-pitched voice. "Everything's going to burn."

"Nels, I don't want your excuses," Harriet hissed. "Just make sure you're here and in good shape. I've got to make a good impression on them; I haven't seen them in ten years."

"They wouldn't miss much if they waited another ten," Nels muttered.

"What was that?" Harriet snapped.

"Nothing, dear. Nellie, let's go."

They hurried across the street to the restaurant which already had black smoke billowing from the chimney. When Nels burst into the kitchen, he was overwhelmed with a cloud of smoke and the stench of burning food. Nellie had stuffed half a dozen steaks into an iron pan, all of them so burnt that when he tossed them into the washing basin to stop the smoke, they hit the bottom of the bowl with a clatter akin to rocks.

Another pan, equally stuffed with fried eggs, had become the most horrific mess of hot oil and bubbled egg whites he had ever seen. He ran that pan under the water pump as well, and the whole thing sizzled at him like an aggravated snake. Meanwhile, a big pot of water was boiling dangerously into the fire that heated it. "Nellie," Nels gasped. "What in the world did you do?"

"I told you I don't cook," she shouted.

"How long have those people out there been waiting for their food?"

She shrugged, clueless.

Nels wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. He hurriedly scraped out the pans and put fresh steaks and eggs in them, not having to cook for long before they were finished and ready to be served. Cooking had always been easy for him as he had done it all his life, but that didn't mean he always enjoyed doing it. "There, go take these out," he said.

Nellie took the plates out into the restaurant while Nels pressed his head against the nearest wall. He felt that the only time his family called for him, it was to get him to do something they didn't want to do themselves. He always obliged; what else was he supposed to do?

He was about to return to the mercantile when he realized he might as well visit Charlotte Richmond upstairs. He hadn't seen her in a few days since the store had been busier than usual, but he had heard from Doctor Baker that she was improving by the day. He checked his pocket watch and supposed he could spare some time. It was too early in the morning for there to be too many people at the mercantile, and he wasn't expecting any incoming shipments until the evening.

He left the kitchen, weaving through the occupied tables in the restaurant, when he encountered Almanzo and Eliza Jane Wilder coming down the stairs. "Oh, good day, Mr. Oleson," said Eliza Jane with a small smile. "How are you?"

"Fine, thank you."

"We were just visiting Charlotte," she continued, clasping her gloved hands together. "As soon as we heard what happened, we had to come see her. I had no idea she had such a dangerous heart condition."

"But she's looking well today," Almanzo said, holding his hat and running a hand through his wheat-colored hair. "And she's in a good mood. I'm glad; she can be a little on the blue side, you know?"