Mr. Evans brought ‘guest vegetable’ for Christmas dinner one year, and afterwards we always called creamed leeks guest vegetable, even after Mr. Evans became Uncle Alec and Dad moved out into the shed. We knew that other Dads went to work and didn’t drink and weep and sleep in gardens, so we never let the other kids come to our house, but we were mostly happy because Uncle Alec peeled oranges for us, and cooked us dishes with meat and onions and paprika, meals that made our house smell like the inside of a casserole dish, and even Ma grew softer, and once Uncle Alec took us in his car to the beach for the day.
Uncle Alec packed up his car and left one day while Ma was at work and we were at school. Dad moved back into the house. Ma got scrawny again.
That Christmas there was no ‘guest vegetable’ at ours; no Christmas.
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