Granmere….the thought of her brought a smile to her face. What a character, she had been. Small, no more than five feet and hair the same color as the white sheets she would insist on hanging on a line even though everyone else’s grandmother had a clothes dryer. And tough….Lord she was tough. Raised eight children on her own after her husband was killed in an accident in the cane fields, and everyone of ‘em turned out right. She and her switch had seen to that.

DP shook her head as she remembered that on most Saturdays when her grandchildren would be underfoot and her patience worn thin, Granmere would go to her kitchen drawer bring out a small derringer , wave it around dramatically and say, “Don’t nobody go near this pot, ya’ll hear or they gonna git shot! Them seasonings got to sit together fo awhile and get to know each other. We ain’t eaten none of it until tomorrow so y’all might as well git on out of here.”

DP and her little cousins would scatter. Their mothers had always told them that Grandmere’s pistol was not loaded and that she just did it to scare them, but no one was taking any chances. Grandmere was crazy. Everybody knew that. By Sunday noon, after smelling that gumbo for two days straight, everybody was ready to eat. After so many years away, just being in the vicinity of Kit’s kitchen and smelling those familiar scents made DP’s stomach rumble just the way it had as a kid . Yes, this place definitely had character.

Trying to find an empty table, however, was going to prove difficult. The place was packed. Maybe this was not such a good idea after all. Just as she was turning to leave, DP heard someone call her name. She heard it over her left shoulder and stiffened. “Dr. Wilson….Dr. Wilson.”

“Damn. DP thought, “Can’t I go anywhere without running into patients?” She liked to keep her off time private. In fact, she thought ruefully, she was so private that she had no social life at all. Putting on her professional face, she turned to face the caller and was delightfully surprised to find herself looking right into the eyes of Bette Porter.