PAST LIFE DIARY 2 - Story 417 - Meatloaf and baseball (Louise)

MEATLOAF AND BASEBALL (Louise)

I see a neatly sprayed blob if whipped cream. I see a woman's hand putting a cherry on top. I'm in the kitchen. Outside, I can hear the sneering sound of an electric tool being used. I look at the clock on the wall. It's right about two o'clock. Okay, I'll start preparing the meatloaf. I look among the used matches for a single match that hasn't been used yet, and bend through the knees a little to turn on the small fire at the front of the stove, the one on the right. I'm wearing a white waist apron with frills. As the large cube of butter has started to melt in a small pot, I now lower the heat to let it melt more slowly. Then, I add the jam and cinnamon.

Q: Really?

Louise: Just let me be; you'll see. Then, I put the breadcrumbs.

This turns into a bit of a cooking lesson...

Q: Where did you get these?

Louise: Oh, you can buy them at the store. I see a transparent bag with "Franklin's Bakery" written on a yellow label. Oh, Jeremy's the best for me. I don't need to explain anything to him. Now, let that cool down to a paste.

Now that it's cooled down, I put one egg and another egg white.

Q: Salt and pepper?

Louise: Oh no! You save that for last. Ain't your mama taught you that?

Q: Did she teach you?

Louise: Well, kind of… I'm the one that told her, actually. I can't remember where I heard.

Q: Now what happens?

Louise: You stir and stomp!

Q: The meat.

Louise: The ground! Half pork, half… something else - beef, I guess. NOW… you put the salt and pepper. Onions too, raw! Then later, you put caramelized onion on top and whatever garnish you can find. Penny likes to pick the parsley, but I don't let her have it till she asks nice. So… The phone rings. Excuse me, someone's calling. That'll be Olivia. I was expecting a call from her.

I take off my apron and walk to the living room, passing by the round table which currently stands near the window and is covered with a pale blue Gingham table cloth. I'm wearing "slip shoes". (Slippers) Oooh, I'm excited to find out what happened! I sit down on the arm rest of the velvety chair, and pick up the phone. "Hello, who's speaking?" I say in a high-pitched voice. "Oh, you know who it is!" a lower female voice says, then, confirming her identity, says: "It's me Olivia." "Yeees?" I say, inviting her to tell me her story. It has something to do with sports. "Well…" she starts, "Sit down. Are you sitting down?" With a long, stretched "Hmm-mm" I confirm that I'm indeed sitting down. "He got the medal" she says. "He got the medal?" I say, almost shrieking with excitement. "He show did!" she says, "Now, don't tell anybody" she continues, talking secretively. I say: "Okay, but me and…" She goes on to tell me how she arranged with a couple of guys to do a little surprise party for him, even though "he don't like that kind of thang." I ask her if she's sure. "Louiiise!" she says, then argues that it's inevitable. "You can't be winning medals and then expect everybody to keep quiet about it!" she says. "Well… I suppose" I manage to squeeze in. "No" she continues, saying she's gonna let him take a bath, get him to wear a nice tie (i.e. a suit)… "Puffume..." (perfume), the whole nine yards… "And then" she says, "we'll have a nice little drink. And afteeer…" "Afteeer?" I ask. "Oh, you know what I mean" she says. "Should I tell Jeremy?" I ask. She says: "You can tell Jeremy if you like, sure." She then abruptly tells me she has to go, and quickly says goodbye. I put down the phone and laugh a little. What a complicated man her husband is. He's alright, but I sure am glad I don't have one of those myself. Jerrold is his name. She calls him Jerry. I ain't never met him, only hear A LOT about him. Oh God, there's a fly in the kitchen, and it's coming for my meatloaf batter! "Shoo!" I say, waving my hand, then looking as it flies off, my knuckles placed on my hips.

Q: How do you know this Olivia?

Louise: Oh, she's a sweetheart from middle school. We went camping together, done all kinds of crazy stuff kids do - grown up kids, that is. We swam in the pond, naked. It was waste water from a factory, but we didn't care. At least there were no fish to worry about. She lives far away now, but we call every here and then. She was from a family of seamstresses. She doesn't have kids, though they've been married for a few years. She thinks it's him - said: "I think he doesn't have it, you know'd I mean?" I imagine they live in a house that looks like where Josh and Bee live, with a garage and a driveway.

I wasn't trying to find out exactly where Olivia and her husband lived, but I heard the name "Mapleville" and wrote it down as such.

Q: What sport is it Olivia's husband plays?

Louise: Baseball.

I seriously doubted this to be the type of sport they give medals for - I'm European, y'all! - but the Louise in me assured me that they do when they play as high as this man apparently does. Or did, I guess.

Q: Now show me how you make that meat pie.

Louise: You make it the way you like. Vegetarian, actually… You can also use fish, with parsley and mustard. That's very fluffy, and fresh in the summer, though I know Jeremy doesn't like it. Josh does, always loves my fish pie with fried potatoes.

I make the meatloaf early cause I want it to have cooled down before dinner. I serve it with baked potatoes and peas, but not a lot of peas for Jeremy cause they give him the shizzles - I don't know why; I just make em regular. I don't know what "shizzles" is, but apparently she's referring to stomach ache.

After the session, I went on Google Maps and looked up "Mapleville". Of a few places with similar names, the one that seemed most likely is a small town in Alabama, called Maplesville. Interestingly, it lies south of Birmingham, on the extension of the straight line between Nashville and Birmingham. I knew there was a straight vertical line between those two cities cause I once looked up Birmingham after a session where Louise had gone there to visit her father's family. As if the coincidence wasn't enough, I unintentionally noticed a place called "Maplesville Little League" on the map. I hovered the cursor over that and, sure enough, it just so happens to be... a baseball field.