Five
“TOM, CAN YOU GO AHEAD and uncork the wine?”
I’ve just set the plate of Nibbles—a Helen specialty and my all-time favorite hors d'oeuvre—on the coffee table. “Sure. Which one?”
“The chianti we’re having with dinner,” she answers from the kitchen. She’s putting the finishing touches on the meal, featuring her chicken parmesan using homemade marinara sauce—a secret recipe she refuses to divulge.
Which is only fair. I have yet to give her Grandmama’s biscuit recipe.
I walk into the kitchen and ask, “Where is it?”
She points to the bottle, fat-bottomed and covered in the traditional straw basket. “Time?” she asks.
I check. “They’ll be here anytime now. You know, it’s only Clark and Vivian. They’ve had dinner with us before.”
“I know,” Helen says as she shakes the bottle of vinaigr
