Chapter 7

'Hungry is she?' he thought, 'this'll be fun.'

There wasn't a line yet, but Ed walked up to the lady with the huge knife and monster fork. She gave him a exasperated look.

"You adults are worse than a pack of hungry wolves." She pointed at an assembling bunch of kids. "If the wolves have to wait, you do, too."

"It's for Violet," he pointed at the registration tent. Violet made eating motions. "See?"

"Ok. For Violet, I'll do it." She shouted at the kids, "Don't get your knickers in a twist ... I'm feeding Violet. If you want to work I'll feed you."

The gang of kids disappeared at the word ... work.

She groused about 'Kids these Days', 'permissive parents' and 'crazy laws' ... and 'it wasn't like that when I was growing up' ... Ed was right there holding out the platter while she played Zorro with the knife and beef.

The more she bitched a fit, the higher the platter filled. When ever she wore out a bitch, Ed brought up another problem with kids and she started shaving and shoveling all over again.

The platter was getting hard to hold up when she said, "Pork ... I forgot the pig in the ground."

Ed handed the platter to Eleanor and John stuck another in his hands. Eleanor trotted over to the registration tent and plopped the platter down. Seph was right behind her carrying five plates, cups, and eatery; knives, forks, spoons. They hustled back in time to pick up as big a platter of pork as there had been beef. The cook slopped big bowls full of ranch style beans, slaw, oven roasted taters and pre buttered corn on the cob in the hands of all four and said, "Scoot!"

There were a lot of people who wanted to know how come this bunch got fed and nobody else did when the woodcutters and water haulers showed up with platters of food and sat down with the five already eating.

The woodcutters all growled about 'the busy bee gets the honey' and 'there were work-lists that still needed volunteers'. "Sign up for tomorrow and get firsts at tomorrow's feast."

Then the kitchen witches and helpers showed up with more food.

The Town Crier walked all over the camp, powered megaphone in hand, and announced, "Eats in thirty minutes. Eats in thirty minutes." Amazing wasn't it, that his last call was right outside the registration tent. He unhooked from the pager and dug in.

People came rushing over to the tent, "Where are the sign up lists?" and a lot more like it.

It was yummy! They ate every slice and fought over the crumbs. The wood cutters licked out the bean and slaw bowls. One big gutted bald guy drank the leftover butter from the corn.

That was slightly disgusting until he said, "Gotta keep up my investment and this is way better than beer." He rubbed his belly and shouted, "Buddha Belly ... who wants a rub?"

High school junior and senior girls, along with numerous college witches came running to rub Buddha for luck.

Eleanor stuck out a hand and rubbed. "First time for everything," she said. "You shaved!"

"Nope, I've never had body hair. Smooth as a baby's behind." The big guy laughed, "You would be amazed at how many times I get lucky."

In a day of successes, the meal ranked right up there.

After the gatherers ate their fill, the work crews went back for more. The first go round was lunch for all of them and breakfast for most. The second dinner proceeded at a more leisurely pace. 'Filling up the voids.'

'Summer solstice, Litha, has remained a special moment of the annual cycle of the year since Neolithic times. The concentration of the observance is not on the day as we reckon it, commencing at midnight or at dawn, as it is customary for cultures following lunar calendars to place the beginning of the day on the previous eve at dusk at the moment when the Sun has set. In Sweden, Finland, Latvia and Estonia, Midsummer's Eve is the greatest festival of the year.' (Excerpt from WIKI)