Antediluvian: of or relating to the period before the flood described in the Bible
“In the beginning, there was pork chops.” Barry said. He waved his hands in the air as if a magician showing off the best part of the trick. Sitting on the kitchen table in front of him was a package of pork chops.
Arry said, “What, not bacon? Why go straight for the bone in stuff?”
“Pork chops are professional grade cooking. Bacon is what people can do on a microwave or a pan, but they don’t even have to watch it.”
Arry had a round face that looked a bit like a cross between orphan Annie and an emoji when she smiled. She was smiling now, all teeth and crazy ideas. She said, “Are you calling yourself a professional? Are you saying that you, Mr. I’m seventeen and never used a microwave, is suddenly top chef?”
Once, Arry had told Barry his face turned red when she made fun of him. This was incredibly hard to believe since Barry was black. When she said it he felt his face go hot and he wondered if she was right. He was wondering that right now. “Do you want me to cook or not?”
“Maybe you could deconstruct the pork chop. Cook it as if we were in the antediluvian era, you know, just us and a fire we stumbled upon after the lightning hit and managed to surround it with rocks.”
“Maybe you could make a few less jokes and actually take the time to witness genius act work.”
Arry stuck her tongue out and said, “That would require genius.”
“Watch and learn, pretty girl.”
He started with a simple sear. He’d seen it done with steak and figured the process could work the same with pork. There was the thing about how long pork had to be cooked and how to keep it from drying out, but he would deal with all of that during the oven stage. The sear was the thing now. If he could just show her the sear, maybe she’d give him the other smile, the one that made him want to tolerate her throwing around words like Antediluvian.