Macaroni and Cheese, Potato Salad and Collard Greens By: Alexandria Carr

Macaroni & Cheese, Potato Salad and Collard Greens
It doesn’t matter what order you put it in. It all goes down the same! I could hear her voice as I stood on the food line waiting to be served. The massive amounts of dead animals, seasoned plants and fancy starch seemed to put a smile on everyone in that dining rooms face. There I stood, with a surly look on my face as everyone passed me by with smiles and gleams in their eyes. From all the joking and the laughter, one would confuse this for a wedding reception instead of a repast.
“What would you like to eat ma’am?’ The server said.
“Gimme some of them collards, some ‘tato salad and macaroni and cheese with my chicken please” blurted the woman in front of me to the server. She had black hair with nice white roots, and beautifully brown skin that aged like the earth, getting better with time. She looked familiar, like an aunt or cousin but my eyes and mind didn’t care to figure out who she was.
I watched as the server plated the food and soon became disgusted. She had no order what so ever! She slapped the spoonful of food onto the plate, messing up the essence of the food. Greens on top of rice, chicken on top of the yams, it was a mess! Her lack of knowledge with plated food made my eyes burn with fury, irritating them more than they already was. I wanted to reach over the table and choke her. Doesn’t she know that the greens go after the rice and yams but before the chicken? The nature of the food had been disrupted and so was my stomach. I stormed off the line furious with how careless one could be in the art of plating food.
I plopped into a seat in the back of the room and watched for countless minutes as the people continued to just throw the food on the plate. Have they no grace? Sitting there the people lined up for food. There was tons of food left in the trays, but only a few were low. I ironically it was her favorite foods that were low on supply. It was the macaroni and cheese, potato salad, and collard greens. At that moment, I could see her face. The smile she had every Sunday we both sat together and ate her favorite foods. The dimple in her cheeks seemed to fall in with every spoonful of the delicate dishes. Then the tears fell from my eyes and crawled down my cheek thus falling to the floor. The lump in my throat started to throb with the thought that she, my grandmother would never get to enjoy the sensation of her favorite foods again.
After a while, the food lines got shorter, and the people gradually left the dining hall, one by one. The only ones left were me, my sisters and my parents. Everyone was gone and it was time for clean-up. My stomach churned with hunger, it sounded like a riot inside there. I knew eventually I would have to give up my food strike and feed my poor stomach.
I stood up and walked over to the food table. The food was mostly gone but to my surprise there were still her favorite foods. Only enough serving for one mouth, and then I figured that though she couldn’t eat the foods anymore herself, I could eat it for her. I grabbed the plate and the spoon. First came the rice, always start off with a starch for good luck. Then I put the yams next to it because if they mix together the combination is really good. Then the collards go with the potato salad following behind. They complement each other well, the same thing with string beans and macaroni salad. They are classics like Romeo and Juliet. Lastly is the macaroni and cheese and then I top it all off with the meat. There it was my masterpiece was created. I smiled.
As I sat down to divulge my tasty food, I glared at my plate. I looked at how perfectly proportioned each dish was. I looked at how the colors flowed and the order they possessed. It was then I heard her voice again. It doesn’t matter what order you put it in. It all goes down the same! Then I realized she wouldn’t have eaten it that way. She had no order in her food, or even any care because to her they all went down the same. In that moment I felt her spirit in me. I took the fork to my plate and I mixed it all together! My hand couldn’t stop moving as I mixed every piece of food together. When I looked down at the heterogeneous mixture everything was combined to one. I picked up my fork and stuck it deep into the mixture picking up a hand full of the mix. And then I put the fork of food into my face, and then I smiled.