Arundel's Eggz
Family Food Truck

"There was a loud oomph in the backseat. Rosalind glanced around to make sure violence hadn't broken out, but it was only Batty struggling with her car seat–she was trying to twist herself backward to see Hound." from The Penderwicks









We found out that Lacy enjoyed parking the food truck much more than driving it.  Our first 'gig,' as dad put it, was to park right up at the corner of Martin Luther King and the Capital, where there are designated hours allowable by city ordinances.  We were in a hurry, barely shoveled up Zach and Hannah, dad was in back steeping our biggest cast iron pot with chicken broth and saffron "to give it a little Spanish" he said.  Our eyes glassed over at that, I remember it well, as Lacy saddled up in a driver's seat that shaped something like a four foot stepping stool with a black cushion.  The stick shift ran up from the floor like a broom stick so when Lacy held her right hand down to the shift and left foot to the iron clutch, she was in such a position that resembled a bad episode of an early 80's breakdancer. The steering wheel was a big and round as ship's helm – we would not have been surprised one bit if it had come with those old wooden helm handles which she might have swung from right to left and let the dial spin for a left turn.  The truck wobbled at turns, heavier on the side with the Wolf stove and Sub-Zero refrigerator.  "How am I driving," Lacy might shout out at any random moment, chugging down East Washington, swinging the helm and jabbing her left heel at the clutch as if it were a moving insect to crush.  "Very good so far," dad would yell out from the back, both of his hands sealing the pot tight in a virtual bear hug.  Hannah was writing a chap book of poems, of course, trying to seek out the most appropriate image flitting about the streets to fit into a line of pentameter.  "Dad, why are we doing this again?"  Zach held up navigation on the family phone and mimicked the speech of the dull female direction giver.  "In a quarter of a mile, right on John Nolan."  Dad, saving the broth for the Arroz Con Pollo (with eggs!) realized they did not have any money for their make-shift cash register.  Options quickly dwindled to giving out their hard-earned grub for free or they all had to cough up last week's allowance for spare change.  If only the gas tank were empty, Lacy was thinking, if only....for goodness sake!