Outside I am miserable, with the sun beaming down shamelessly, hot wind like bad breath gagging me. I spent the day in sweat because that's what you do in the summertime, but also because that makes this all the sweeter. Coming into the house is like an instant freeze-out. The air conditioner is working overtime to make sure I feel every bit of the temperature difference, 68 degrees feeling more like 32. Half an hour ago naked wouldn't have been bare enough; now I want multiple layers of clothing and the thickest comforter I can find. I want something toasty warm in my belly, so I can flop on the couch and relish this.
There's a pot of boiling chicken on the stove. I can smell it immediately, but until my body cools off it means nothing. Now, primed for a heat altogether different from that outside, I can appreciate the smells wafting from the kitchen. I can actually think about boiling broth--a feat that would have been near-on impossible an hour ago.
She likes to make chicken and dumplings when it's can't-stand-it-hot outside. Other people barbecue and endure the heat with lemonade and coleslaw, but not my mother. She's the kind of woman who eats ice cream in February, when the scoops can stay cool enough that they don't melt before contact. A warm bowl of something homemade is her ultimate summertime trick. When I go to the kitchen, she's chopping up carrots and celery and little bits of dough for the pot. This is what I love most about heat waves--that inside the air is so cool and the food so hot that you feel you're in winter, even though it's hell outside.
In a few hours the chicken and vegetables and dumplings will be hot enough to melt. We'll let them cool off just a bit before we add too much pepper and salt to the hot, piping bowls. We'll all gather in the living room together under pillows and blankets and each other and we'll slurp our soupish-stewish concoction while we watch It's a Wonderful Life or some other winterish movie. These are the last days of summer and soon the winds will change and the nights will be chilly and it will be a different season. We'll say goodbye to the chicken and dumplings until June or so, when the weather is right.