GOLDILOCKS' GOURMET SPINACH SOUP 5 tablespoons unsalted butter ¼ pound fresh mushrooms, washed, dried, trimmed, and diced 1 scallion, chopped 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2 cups chicken broth 2 cups milk ½ teaspoon salt (optional) black pepper (preferably freshly ground) ground nutmeg (optional) ¼ pound cream cheese, softened and cut into cubes 1 cup grated Swiss cheese (recommended: Jarlsberg) ¾ pound fresh spinach, washed, trimmed, cooked, and chopped

Melt the butter in a large saucepan. In it slowly saute the mushrooms and scallion until tender. Add flour and stir just until flour is cooked, a couple of minutes. Whisk in first chicken brother and then milk, stirring until thickened. Add salt if desired, pepper, nutmeg if desired, cream cheese, and Swiss cheese; stir until melted. Then stir in spinach. Heat and stir very gently. Season to taste. Serve hot.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Arch turned away. When I opened my mouth to say I was sorry, Julian's honk sounded from outside. "Gotta go. Oh," he said as he ducked to retrieve something else. "One more thing." It was the tone of voice he used when he knew I wasn't going to like it. These things he always saved until the last moment be- fore his school bus came, so we wouldn't have time to argue. Apparently, summer school was no different. I said, "I hope this one more thing will mean I can get all my cooking done today." "Here," he said as he handed me The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe. "All the parents are supposed to read along so you can help with the final project. There's a note inside," he indicated a mimeographed sheet, "that explains the project. The teacher's really nice, she'll talk to you about the different projects, if you want." Julian honked again and Arch whipped out the front door. Behind them, Adele and the general waved from the back of the Range Rover. I opened the sheet Arch had given me. It detailed all my Poe homework: Read two short stories. Discuss them with your child. Develop ideas for projects. You could make a model of a gold bug. Sure. You could make a tape of the beating of a telltale heart. Uh-huh. I wondered if the teacher would like to be a caterer. What was I paying tuition for, anyway? Oh yes. Arch said she was nice. The phone was ringing in the kitchen. It was the Audubon Society. Would I please have the general call about an outing? Was it this Saturday, the eleventh, that he wanted? You bet I'd have him call. I wanted to add, You and General Farquhar have nothing in common, but refrained. Instead, I stabbed the block of frozen soup so that it would heat more quickly. I had an hour before I had to rush off to do the barbecue for George Rumslinger's ranch hands and staff. I put the phone recorder on and did a yoga centering exercise. Arch had a girlfriend and wanted two hundred dollars for a magician's costume. Adele needed lunch for two before I did a picnic for forty. There was going to be another rotten review in the Mountain Journal. I needed to call my lawyer about the name change. I had a birding expedition and picnic to plan, while Edgar Allan Poe homework awaited me. I chewed the inside of my cheek. How much worse could things get? The phone rang and I listened to the message as it I recorded. It was Marla. The funeral for Philip Miller was at two P.M. the next day.