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Ten minutes later, however, his car pulled up. I looked out the window and saw him hugging the bags as he made his way to the front door. For a few seconds. I actually considered not opening it. If only...

"Sorry I took so long." he said when I let him in. "They were so busy. No one cooks anymore, just like my father tells his friends about my mother." He charged down the hallway toward the kitchen, excited and happy, as though he were being carried along on some magic carpet. He turned back to me.

"My mother's favorite meal is reservations. Get it?" he asked when I didn't burst into laughter. "Reservations?"

"Yes. Brady. I get it," I said shaking my head. He set the bags down on the kitchen counter. "The table is already set for us," I told him.

"Oh. Sure. Great." He brought the bags into the dining room, setting them on the table so he could take out the containers.

"I can make some tea," I suggested.

"Tea? What have my English great-aunt and great-uncle done to you? Naw. I bought some good Chinese beer," he said and plucked two six-packs from the second bag. "It's all still hot." he said, nodding at the containers of food. "I'll serve it."

He started, dipping the big spoons into the containers and filling up a plate for me.

"I didn't buy any soup. I thought it might be too much." Seeing the amount of food he had bought. I could only laugh. "I'll say."

"So you'll have lunch tomorrow. Big deal. You're supposed to have leftovers with Chinese food. It's expected. Dig in," he ordered.

It was good and I said so.

"Yeah. I remember enjoying a meal at that place. We had come down to see grandmother and my father decided we should all go out to eat.

Grandmother didn't want to, but he talked her into it and she enjoyed herself." He laughed. "Aunt Victoria checked the bill at the end of the evening and found where they had charged us for a full dinner when it was supposed to be a la carte. She's got an adding machine in her head. I think.'

I smiled. It was as if some sort of dam holding back his childhood memories had broken and all of the images. Words and events were rushing out.

"Want one of these beers?" he asked.

"No, thank you."

"They're good." He poured a whole bottle into his glass. "Did you always like coming here?" I asked.

"We didn't come that often. Most of the time. Aunt Victoria would insist we came because she had to discuss same business problem or something. My mother hates talking about business. She doesn't even run her own checking account. My parents have a business manager who calls her when she's overdrawn or something and then she moans and groans about it to my father, claiming it's their business manager's fault for not waning her soon enough."

"Is she really that irresponsible?" I asked. I couldn't help but be interested in what my mother was really like and what Brody's family life had been and was like.

He stopped eating and smiled.

"Naw. She just knows how to manipulate my father. He's supposed to be the politician in the family, but my mother's the champ. I never saw her not get what she wanted."

"If your father didn't want to give things to her, he wouldn't," I charged.

He thought a moment then nodded.

"Probably true. The only advice he ever gave me about women was never to underestimate them. 'When it comes to women, things are rarely what they seem,' he said."

"Men can be just as conniving, Brody."

"We try." he said chewing on his egg roll. smiling, "but we're amateurs compared to the supposedly weaker sex."

"We are weaker." I insisted.

"Oh sure." he said, losing the smile. "Look at Queen Elizabeth. You lived in England. You should know all about her in history,"

"That's different. She was a queen. She had to be strong."

"All women are queens in their own homes," he said. "Hey, don't get me wrong. That's the way it should be. You're right. If my father didn't want it to be that way, it wouldn't. Lately, though. I think he agrees to things and does things more out of a need to avoid any controversy. He doesn't want to be distracted. My father's an ambitious man, but that's only because other people recognize he's very capable. You know, he could end up being president of the United States," he said proudly.