The Evening’s Frivolities

Saturday October 28th 19:25:04

Shortly afterwards, the brisket was done and pulled from the smoker to rest. The crew chatted and caught up for the two hours it took for the meat to rest and everyone was nearly famished. Caleb dragged the cooler to the back patio, while Chris and Evan grabbed the sides and Anita took plates, cutlery, and napkins out onto the patio and with the smorgasbord arrayed, dug in heartily with more than a few choice morsels “falling” onto the concrete for scant seconds.

With a contented sigh and a pat of his belly, Caleb leans his chair back against the brick wall. “Damn good vittles, y’all. Chris, those Beef ribs were fantastic…and Hope seems to agree.” He points to a dark brown lump at Andrea’s feet, worrying and gnawing on a large rib bone.

“Special family recipe, took me about 3 and a half hours…”

Anita turns an admonishing glance at Chris.“Christopher Aloysius Rosen, why are you lying to your friends like that? You bought those pre-seasoned at Almenico’s Butchery yesterday. Special family recipe, my ass.”

Caleb, Andrea and Evan all snicker as Chris's head starts to hunch like a retreating turtle. “Well, I still had to do the hard part of smoking them….”

Andrea does her best to defuse the tension by switching tack. “Hey Caleb, are you gonna get Hope spayed soon? She's probably gonna go into heat here in a month or two and you definitely don't want Brutus to look her way.”

At this point, Hope finishes cleaning her bone and wanders over to Caleb and nuzzles his leg before plopping down to snooze over his feet.

Caleb looks thoughtful “Just so you know, Brutus hates Hope, almost tried to kill her the first time they met. In fact, it's kinda weird, none of the other dogs at the park want anything to do with her. Plus she looks pure-bred so I’d hate to have to do that.”

Turning back to the conversation, Anita frowns. “Wait, no other dogs like Hope? Maybe that's why you found her lost and alone. I've heard of some animals getting rid of or killing their babies if they don't imprint on the mother or siblings. She certainly imprinted on you though.”

Caleb reaches down to scratch her ears, eliciting a huge contented yawn.“Yeah she did, she's a good girl though I'm pretty sure she's part Garbage Disposal. Honestly, you may be into something with the imprinting thing, it may have to do with her scent, ever since I got her and no matter how many baths she gets she smells faintly of bananas. Wonder if it's some kinda gland thing. Certainly ain't a bad thing, but it is strange.”

Looking up from his phone, it is apparent that Chris didn't pay attention to the conversation. “Hey, it's really nice out here still, let's clear all this off and play some Colonists of Catalan? Board games and drinking!”

At that pronouncement, Andrea rolls her eyes. “Can't we play something more normal like Magus or MinMaxxer? Colonists takes forever.” Looking around for support, Andrea finds herself outnumbered and sighs. “Fine, but next we play something actually fun…”

The patio table is cleared of the spread and the game set up and for the next four hours the friends bicker over metal, wood and wool trades until the clock chimes midnight and everyone packs it in and heads home.

Cleaning up the detritus of the party, Caleb puts all the leftover meat in the rib pan and combines all the side dishes into another foil pan. Job done, he takes a half-finished beer and water bottle upstairs and falls asleep mostly dressed in a semi-drunken stupor.

Unbeknownst to him, Hope had slightly different plans…