Aunty Lee's Deadly Specials Read Online Free PDF

underneath the table!”) when she saw the electric gates slowly open
     as Cherril returned with two bags of syrup bottles looped over her shoulders. Cherril
     looked surprised but pleased. Of course there would be a remote control for the gate
     somewhere, Aunty Lee thought, most likely in the family cars. She was just going to
     warn Cherril to watch out, a vehicle might be coming, when a black car turned sharply
     off the road and charged through the gates. The car’s passenger mirror caught on the
     handle of one of Cherril’s bags, pulling it taut against her shoulder and dragging
     her after the car at a stumbling run.
    “Don’t fall under the wheels!” Aunty Lee shouted. “Stop! Stop the car! Stop!” She
     dropped the chafing pan and started to run toward the car, desperately waving her
     arms and wishing she had spent more time with her Active Elders exercise group. Cherril
     had dropped the other bags and was frantically trying to loosen her arm. Fortunately
     the bag handle snapped. The car continued up the side slope to the house, leaving
     a trail of broken glass and syrup stains and a shaken Cherril in a heap on the drive.
    By the time Nina and the other guests reached her, Cherril was sitting up and saying
     she was all right. There were red welts on her arm from the bag strap and painful-looking
     scrapes and bruises on her legs but nothing worse. The electric gate slowly swung
     shut.
    “Do you want to go home?” Aunty Lee asked. “Nina can drive you back. You should rest.”
    “Of course not. This is my first big job. But all my coffee syrups are smashed!”
    “I don’t think the driver even saw you,” one of the guests said. “Nowadays, with tinted
     windows, with stereo system and shock absorber and noise cancellation system, you
     hit something, also you don’t know until you get home and find your car dented.”
    Or bloody, thought Aunty Lee. That was another disadvantage of too much privacy. Sometimes
     you didn’t know what damage you were doing. Or perhaps you didn’t care.

4
    Preparing the Buffet
    The food looked and smelled good, laid out on the heating pans. The early guests had
     been calmed down and, drinks in hand, were chatting in little clusters. Aunty Lee,
     Nina, and Cherril set to work clearing up the mess of broken glass and syrup concentrate
     on the driveway.
    “It’s nothing compared to what we used to get during in-flight turbulence,” Cherril
     said lightly. “Once you get used to clearing up coffee and cake smears on the cabin
     ceiling and broken glass and vomit on the cabin floor without spoiling your makeup
     and manicure, nothing on the ground is too much to handle. Since this is a driveway
     and they don’t have a dog or children, we don’t worry about the glass dust, okay?”
    Even Nina could not fault Cherril’s cleanup. If Aunty Lee had had any lingering doubts
     about working with Cherril, this dismissed them. It was important that a team be able
     to handle disasters together, but this was seldom tested till it was too late. Perhaps,
     Aunty Lee thought, it would be a good idea for all restaurants to plan a disaster
     as part of the staff screening process. Perhaps she could come up with a restaurant
     staff training guide and take on apprentices at Aunty Lee’s Delights. Perhaps this
     could become the next big reality-TV hit that everybody looked down on in public and
     watched in secret . . .
    “What are you thinking, madam?” Nina asked suspiciously. Nina believed they should
     only take on jobs they knew they could do and knew they would make a profit on.
    “Nothing,” Aunty Lee said. “Can you believe we were afraid Cherril couldn’t do real
     work?”
    “What’s that?” Cherril asked.
    It was Nina’s turn to say, “Nothing,” She tied up the final bag of stained newspaper
     and glass shards and took it out to the bin.
    “You look so delicate, Nina thought you are not strong enough to do real work,” Aunty
     Lee explained.