When I was little and one of my parents had to go out of town, we’d eat foods and do things that the missing parent wouldn’t enjoy. So that turned it from sad into a bit of a fun treat.

Carrie was going out of town, so I asked Ezra if he could think of a dinner that the rest of us liked but Carrie didn’t. He suggested “seafood”. He wanted shrimp (Carrie doesn’t like shrimp, but Ezra has liked it in the past) and a whole fish, with the head still on it.

“Carrie thinks that’s creepy, because it’s like it’s looking at her. But I don’t think it’s creepy because I know that if I move, the eyes won’t follow me, because the fish isn’t alive, so it can’t move its eyes.”

We had a handful of shrimp which were “yummy”, and a baked whole branzino. The fishmonger (New Deal) scaled and cleaned the fish while we watched. Ezra was hesitant about all the fish blood, but enjoyed being able to see where the fish-meat was coming from. He felt that the meat near the tail tasted the best.