Meet the Chef: Tim Cunningham of Cafette

You always go back to your roots. Don’t forget from whence you came.

Read the original here:
Meet the Chef: Tim Cunningham of Cafette

Is This The Beginnings Of A Good Story?

The _______ means it is switching characters. The two characters are the Dad (Calvin) and the Daughter (Alli)
Water, water, water
That was all I could hear,smell, feel, and taste.
The stinging sensation of the icy cold saltwater was crushing into my nose, my ears, my mouth, and my eyes.
My arms were flailing out everywhere, trying in a desperate attempt to free myself from the riptide that was crushing, spinning me out of control.
“Help!” I tried to scream. Now I was gagging from the water in my throat.
“Keep Swimming!” I told myself. “You can do this, Alli!”
“Dad!” I yelped.
Eyes burning and mouth gagging, I gave in and let the water carry me downward.
______________________________________…
I laughed quietly at the note written to me by my eldest daughter, Lillian.
**************************************…
Dad,
Well, well, well, this little girl is off to Europe while my oh-so-talented father is sitting on his butt reading this book I sent him!
I miss you all very much here, and I hope your paintings become a big hit! If you’re not a millionaire by the time I get back, then I don’t know what I’ll do!
People in France are very..different. They drink wine for every meal here, the streets are smaller and many people walk instead of using cars. Also, dinner is very, very late, but no worries! I snack so much on all the street food that it doesn’t matter much!
Well. I hope you like this book, and that it isn’t one of those book that end up on your “reading table”, which for some reason, the books on the table are never touched…
Au revoir,
Lilly
**************************************…
I looked up at my painting. It was of the beach Alli and I was at for the day. My wife, Katie, was at the hotel. We had all just driven to Frazie’s Beach in Florida all the way from Tuscan, Arizona! We had made little stops until Alli had wailed, “Dad! I REALLY got to go!” which we then stopped at the nearest gas station to use the public restrooms. Other than restroom breaks, we used the food from our cooler, Katie and I sand along to the 80’s station, and Alli listened to the Ipod she had gotten for Christmas.
The trip took three days. Occasionally, Katie would get nauseated from her pregnancy, but she thankfully hasn’t gotten sick yet.
I looked back at Alli. She wasn’t there.
I was out of my lawn chair in a second.
“Alli?” I panicked.
I went down and up the beach, into the water, as far out as I could go. I was crying, I was laughing hysterically, I was screaming, I had lost it.
“Hey, you!” The lifeguard shouted. “ Don’t go out that far!”
He started rushing toward me as I screamed, “My daughter!” and fainted in the water.
______________________________________…
Crash!
I heard the soothing sound of the waves crashing gently against the sand.
“This must be heaven.” I pondered.
I wondered why, if this was heaven, there was so much pain. My head hurt like crazy, and my eyes and throat felt swollen. I felt the back of my head, and there was a bandage on it. I realized I could move my fingers, so I slowly moved each part of my body until I knew, for sure, that I could walk.
Then it hit me.
The riptide.
The beach.
Drowning.
Dad.
I sat up abruptly and it was a little too much for my aching head. I slowly lied back down with the comforting thought that I would only sleep a little while..
______________________________________…
“Calvin!” I heard my wife’s panicked voice beside me. “You’re crying!”
I realized I was crying.
“Kates, Alli…she…water…I wasn’t….attention…painting…!” I stuttered.
“Honey, just go back to sleep.” Came Kate’s soothing voice.
“No!” I shouted. I sat up and looked around me. I had an IV connected to my right arm and a bandage on the back of my head. “What?” I trailed off.
Kate explained that when I learned of Alli’s death, the truth hit me so hard, that I fainted.
“I was so afraid I had lost both of you!” Kate finished.
At this point, Kate walked over to me and burst into tears. We were both crying when the doctor came in and said that after a few tests, we could go back to the suite.
“But you are strictly to be on bed rest for 48 hours, because of your heart condition.” He informed us.
“My heart?”
“Yes, your heartbeat dramatically dropped very low when you got here.” He said. “ Oh, and no caffeine for about a week or the results could lead to a heart attack.”
Kate’s eyes were swollen by the time we got back to our hotel, Patrick’s Suites.
“Your mother called while you were in the infirmary.” Kate motioned for me to get the key out of the back seat. “She insisted on paying for our stay here, and she said she’s coming down from Maine within a few days.”
It was dark, as were our moods, and Kate slipped on her black nightgown, and I, black sweat