Lord knows how long I sat alone in the dark. The only light in the room came from the quickly dying fire. I am sure it was at least half an hour, maybe more before Grandmother came looking for me. I had stopped crying but one look at me and she knew I was madder than she had ever seen me. Without saying a single word she reached down, took hold of my wrist and pulled me to my feet. She then led me out of the study, down the hallway to my bedroom and into my bathroom where she washed my face and neck with a cold washcloth.
After depositing the washcloth into the laundry chute she took hold of my left hand and the two of us walked out of my room and down to the dining room.
Once again Mommy Beth cooked and though Grandmother at first turned her nose up at the plate set before her, she did taste it. You should have seen her face light up.
“What is this astounding sandwich?” Grandmother asked as Mommy Beth sat down with us.
“Sloppy Charlies,” Mommy Beth answered with a prideful smile.
“You mean Sloppy Joes,” Jacquelyn corrected.
Mommy Beth replied with a slightly cheesed off titter, “I most certainly do not. They are Sloppy Charlies.”
Though I didn’t feel much like eating, I took a bite of my sandwich and the wonderful flavors filled my mouth. Try as I might, I could not place the unique flavor of the meet. It for sure wasn’t beef.
Jacquelyn poked at her bun with her finger, “What’s in it?”
I could tell by the sound of Jacquelyn’s voice that she wasn’t too keen on the red stuff that was oozing out of her bun.
Joey was the one to answer with a cute little giggle, “It’s tuna fish!”
“TUNA?!” Jacquelyn shrieked loudly and made a gagging face, “That’s just sick!”
Grandmother adopted a stern expression by forcing the corners of her mouth down.
“Young lady! Please use your inside voice!”
She replaced her sandwich on her plate before continuing to verbally instruct Jacquelyn on the proper way for someone to act.
“You should taste it before deciding whether you like it or not.”
Effectively rebuked, Jacquelyn grudgingly picked up her sandwich and nibbled off a small bite. We all waited with fevered expectation to see if she was going to spit it out or not. After a pensive pause, which seemed to last an eternity, Jacquelyn’s eyes grew wide and she announced, “Hey, this isn’t half bad. Actually, it’s more than that, it’s really good.”
Grandmother’s expression softened, “Now see. After all that fuss and it turns out you do like it.”
Grandmother smiled as she complimented Mommy Beth with, “My dear, I will have to insist that you share the recipe with Micah.”
Mommy Beth wiped a drip of mustard from Joey’s chin as she said, “Well it couldn’t be easier. You dump a can of Hormel Sloppy Joe mix into a sauce pan along with six cans of drained tuna fish and heat it up.”
“Fascinating!” Grandmother commented as she took another bite of her sandwich.
“This is delicious Mommy.” I said revealing the partially chewed contents of my mouth.
Grandmother leaned over and tried to poke me with her boney finger, except I had instinctively flinched away thinking she was trying to tickle me or something. I don’t know why I thought that because that wasn’t something Grandmother was inclined to do.
“Swallow before speaking please.” She said.
Grandmother made a thoughtful sound as she savored another bite. “Is this something you came up with?” she asked.
Mommy Beth humbly told the story, “A couple years ago there was a mix up with Phil’s military pay and we had to go over two months without a paycheck. Our cupboards were getting in every respect bare. I had a can of Sloppy Joe sauce and several cans of Tuna fish. With a momentary hesitation I decided to give it a try.” Mommy Beth smiled, “And well, it turned out to be so good that they ask me to make it almost every week since.”
Grandmother sat what was left of her sandwich down before saying, “Even the name is catchy. Sloppy Charlies.” She said it several times before asking, “I get the Sloppy part, but why Charlies?”
Daddy Phil was the one to explain that it was named after the StarKist Tuna fish mascot.”
“It sounds perfect!” Grandmother said, “We should look at getting these sandwiches into our restaurants.”
“Really?” Daddy Phil said nearly choking on his water.
Grandmother seemed to be beaming with excitement as she said, “I think we might have something here that could be a popular lunchwich.”
“Oh my!” Mommy Beth exclaimed, “Do you really think so?”
“What’s a lunchwich?” Joey asked loudly.
Grandmother smiled, “Inside voice please.”
“Sorry,” He said and asked again in a softer tone, “What is a lunchwich?”
“Thank you.” Grandmother said as she smiled across the table at Joey. “That is an expression we use here in Maine to refer to a sandwich typically served during lunch.”
“Is there a dinnerwich?” Jacquelyn asked.
Before Grandmother could reply Joey piped off with, “Or a breakfastwich?”
She smiled with amusement and said, “No, I’m afraid not but we do have snackwiches. However, those are typically only finger foods served at parties or small gatherings.
With that Grandmother scooted her chair away from the table and excused herself momentarily by saying, “Let me make a quick phone call.”
While she was gone everyone was buzzing with the idea that Mommy Beth’s sandwich was going to become famous in Lewiston, Maine.
She returned with an unreservedly aberrant smile splitting her face horizontally.
“If you are willing to, tomorrow morning we’ll go meet with the gentleman that is in charge of what is served at our restaurants.”
Mommy Beth and Daddy Phil were keen on this idea and for the remainder of our meal it was all that everyone talked about. Well mostly anyway. Joey wanted to know more about snackwiches and Grandmother was all too happy to explain it to him.