Dinner With Howard

¶ In a small red house the Sadler family was preparing for dinner. Mrs. Sadler was in the kitchen putting together the last of the meal. Mr. Sadler was reading the newspaper in the dining room. Howard Sadler was in the living room talking to his friend Lil.
¶ "My mum makes great lamb stew." He was saying.
¶ "Lamb?"
¶ "Yea, lamb."
¶ From the kitchen Mrs. Sadler called, "Howie! Dinners ready!"
¶ Howard and Lil entered the dining room and everyone took their seats. Mr. Sadler sat down at the far end of the table and Mrs. Sadler sat next to him. Howard sat in his usual spot on the other side of the table and pointed Lil to the spot set next to his. Soon they were all eating the lamb stew.
¶ Mr. Sadler mentioned something he'd read in the paper. Rioters had attacked a research laboratory the previous night.
¶ "People are crazy." Lil said, shaking her head.
¶ Howard laughed, "Those ones were."
¶ "What are you laughing about Howie?" his mom asked.
¶ Howard glanced at the empty chair next to himself. "Nothing. Just a thought... this is good stew Mom."
¶ "That it is." Mr. Sadler said.
¶ "I'm glad everyone likes it." Mrs. Sadler answered the two. "It's nice that our family can all have a quiet evening alone to eat dinner together isn't it?"
¶ "Yes it is." Mr. Sadler said.
¶ "Yes." Howard said absentmindedly as his thoughts drifted to Leo's house.
¶ Howard, Leo, and Bill were in the family room, watching a movie on Leo's big television. Bill laughed and pointed at a character on the screen, saying how dumb he was.
¶ Howard defended the character, "Some people do that kind of thing."
¶ "Some people are dumb." Bill said.
¶ Howard said, "Consider his situation."
¶ Bill answered, telling what he would have done if he'd been the character.
¶ "You aren't considering all his situation though." Howard said. "If you were there you might have done that, just as if Leo were there he'd have done some other thing or if I were there I'd have done something different. Everybody does something different."
¶ Bill pointed at the screen again, "And what he did was dumb."
¶ Leo joined in, "I think I'd actually do the same thing as Bill.
¶ "Almost the same thing maybe, but..." Howard was saying, but then he was interrupted by his dad.
¶ "How was your day at school?"
¶ Howard looked up from his lamb stew. "It was good."
¶ "That's good." Mr. Sadler said.
¶ Howard was halfway through his stew.
¶ Lil chuckled.
¶ "What?" Howard asked.
¶ "Your day at school" she answered.
¶ "Hu? Oh!" Howard laughed. "Yeah. That."
¶ "Another funny thought?" Mrs. Sadler asked.
¶ "Hm? Yea." Howard said as he told himself to control his laughter better. He thought someone was bound to think him crazy if he kept on like that.
¶ "Care to share your funny thought?" Mr. Sadler asked.
¶ "Oh, yea... It was just this joke I remembered..." Howard thought for a second. "How do you disguise an elephant like a rosebush?"
¶ "Hmm." Mr. Sadler contemplated. "I think I know this one. I think I've heard it before."
¶ Howard remembered that he'd told his dad this joke before.
¶ "Maybe not." Mr. Sadler finally said. "How do you?"
¶ "Paint its toenails red." Howard forced a small laugh. Mr. Sadler chucked and Mrs. Sadler smiled. Howard returned to eating his stew. He wondered if Lil would enjoy this lamb stew if she were there. He remembered a conversation he'd had with her.
¶ They were walking up the road just outside his house. They'd been talking for a while and the subject had turned to food. "Lamb is probably my second favorite meat."
¶ "Really? What's your first favorite?"
¶ "Pig." Howard answered.
¶ "Ham or bacon or what?"
¶ "All of it. I like pig. Good meat."
¶ "Hmm. Better than lamb?" Lil asked.
¶ "A little better."
¶ Lil thought for a moment as they continued walking, passing someone out gardening on the warm day. "I don't remember what lamb is like." She laughed. "In fact, I don't know if I've ever eaten lamb."
¶ "Never eaten lamb?" Howard was surprised.
¶ "No, I don't think so."
¶ "Oh. You should come over for dinner some time when my mom's made her lamb stew. It's really good. We get some meat fresh from my uncles farm once a month."
¶ Ms. Blount, a rotund woman was coming out of her house to get the mail, "Hello Howie!" she waved.
¶ "Hello Ms. Blount." Howard waved back.
¶ "It's a nice day for a walk isn’t it?" Blount said. "You two are the third couple I've seen passing by today. Love must be in the air."
¶ Howard and Lil looked at each other embarrassedly and laughed.
¶ This time Howard managed to not laugh in reality. He was just finishing his stew. "Thanks Mom." he said. "That was good."
¶ "You’re welcome." Mrs. Sadler said. Her voice echoed in Howard’s mind until he looked back down at his empty bowl of beef stew. He wished his mom were around to cook up some of her lamb stew. Looking back up from his bowl he stared at the table, barren of any place setting but his own.
¶ Howard stood up and picked up his dishes in his right hand while he pushed in his chair, the only chair in the dining room, with his left hand. He went to the kitchen and set his dishes in the sink, then walked through the family room toward the front door.
¶ In the family room Lil was just finishing reading a book. She looked up as he entered the room. "Good stew?"
¶ "Yea, but I can't cook anything like my mom could, and it's beef too. I wish I had some lamb stew."
¶ Lil set down her book and rose from the chair. "Perhaps I could cook you some one of these days."
¶ "You cook?" Howard smiled.
¶ Lil smiled back. "I could try."
¶ Howard laughed, "That sure would be nice." He opened up the front door and stepped out into the ashen wasteland. "I'm getting tired of only eating these darn emergency rations."
¶ Looking back into his empty house, he wondered if life might be easier with someone to share it with.
¶ A small gust of wind blew some soot into the house, so Howard closed the door before more could blow in, then he turned away from his small red house, the only house still standing, and walked out into the lonely grey desert in search of memories.