[ussbansheec] Cookies
- From: "Moria Grace" <bansheec@xxxxxxx>
- To: <ussbansheec@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2005 18:01:09 -0400
"Cookies"
Anna, Moria, and James
As soon as she was bathed and dressed Moria torn out of her bedroom and
thundered down the stairs. The school's annual bake sale was Monday afternoon
and Mummy had said that she, James, and Vix could help. Skidding to a stop in
the kitchen Moria looked around and blinked. Where was everyone? Didn't they
know time was cookies? At the top of her little five year old lungs Moria
yelled, "MUMMY!"
Anna beamed as she finished getting the ingredients out of the cupboard and
straightened up. "Yes, precious?"
Moria jumped. "Mummy don't do that!"
"Don't do what, precious?"
Running over to her mother Moria titled her head to the side. "Not be there and
then be there. It made my heart thump."
"Thumping is what your heart is supposed to do," Anna grinned. "Now, where do
we begin?"
Looking at all the stuff that her mother had pulled out of the cupboard, Moria
started to bounce on the balls of her feet. "With snickerdoodles!"
"Oh now that sounds wonderful!" Anna agreed. "Can you remember what ingredients
we need?"
Moria looked up with her eyes and stuck her tongue out so that it covered her
upper lip; her thinking face. "Flowers and eggs." She said with her tongue
still out. "Sugar and cinnnaminomin"
"Very good," Anna beamed as she set everything on the top properly. "Now, where
are your siblings?"
Still bouncing, Moria climbed up onto one of the stools. "Vix's upstairs and
James is still locked in the towel closet."
"Who locked him in the towel closet?" Anna asked carefully.
"PJ." Moria answered as she picked up a wooden spoon and started to use it to
beat on the glass bowl.
"Now why don't I believe that?" Anna mused.
Moria smiled sweetly as she looked up at her mother, head titled to the other
side now. "I don't know, Mummy. Maybe your tired?" She nodded. "Yeah you must
be tired."
"Uh-huh, and I was born yesterday," Anna frowned. "I'd go and let your brother
out of the cupboard, if I were you, unless you don't want to bake with me
today."
Moria didn't want to be sent to her room and not bake cookies, and she would go
let James out, but something her mother said confused her. "But I thought your
birthday was when the weather got warm again."
Anna raised one eyebrow at her daughter and folded her arms, smothering the
giggles within her and looking as stern as she could. "I guess I should start
packing this stuff away since we're not baking," she warned.
"Ok, ok." Moria sighed as she got down off the stool. Grown-ups rarely if ever
made any sense anyway. With a lot less bounce in her step she headed back up
stairs and down the hall to the small closet door but paused before turning the
lock. "Mummy said I have to let you out but you have to promise you won't be
mean."
A muffled mumphing came from inside. James glared at the door, scared tears in
his eyes, which he scrubbed away.
Reaching out Moria unlocked the door and then took off down the hall. "Ok it's
unlocked." She yelled from the top of the stairs and then took off running down
those as well.
Without even looking at where his sister was running, he belted for his own
bedroom and slammed the door. Throwing himself on his bed, he pulled his blue
bunny toward himself and curled himself around it, already crying again.
Standing at the bottom of the stairs, Moria waited for her brother to come
after her but he didn't come. Shrugging she walked back into the kitchen and
climbed back up on her stool.
"Where's James?" Anna asked, already putting ingredients in the bowl of the
mixer.
Moria shrugged again as she picked up the wooden spoon. "I lefted him out."
"We don't need a spoon yet, precious," Anna told her as she switched on the
mixer. "How about you turn on the oven?" Handing the little girl her cookbook,
she pointed out the temperature. "What do we need?"
Chewing on her lip, Moria looked down at the page and placed her finger where
her mother had pointed. "P.. pr.. pre heat o ven... oven to 375F." She read out
loud and then smiled. Looking up at her mother she asked, "Right?"
"Perfect," Anna beamed. Pointing at the dial on the oven, she said, "Turn it as
far as it needs to be, precious."
Climbing down Moria went over to the oven and looked at the dial. She turned
her head all the way to the right and then to the left, then she ran her finger
around the dial and blinked. "We can't use our oven, Mummy."
"Why not, precious?"
Turning to look up at her mother she pointed to the dial. "There isn't a 375F
on it, only a 375."
"Do you know what the F stands for?" Anna asked with amusement.
Moria shook her head. "Jackie Bauer in the fourth grade said it meant her Mummy
was going to hit her with a stick."
Anna blinked then decided that she really didn't want to know. "It means
Fahrenheit, it's a measure of temperature. Each of the numbers on the dial are
measured in Fahrenheit. The F isn't needed."
"Oh." Moria replied and then turned back to the oven to set the dial. Once that
was done she climbed back onto her stool and looked down at the cookbook. There
were more letters that were just letters. "What about the c. and the tsp.
Mummy? What do they mean?"
"The c is for Celsius, it's an alternative measurement of temperature. The tsp
means teaspoon. You know what that is, don't you, precious?"
Moria picked up a silver measuring spoon and read the handle. "One teaspoon."
She said out loud as she held it up.
"Perfect!" Anna beamed. "Now, on the recipe, what do we need to do next?"
"Mix one sideways line two cups of sugar short en ing and cinnnaminominomin."
Moria read.
"Okay," Anna laughed. "Let's try that again." Peering over the little girl's
shoulder, she read it out again, "Mix one and a half cups of sugar, shortening
and cinnamon together. Want to get out the measuring cups?"
Moria blinked. "And a half?" She asked as she got down to get the cups. "Is
that what the line means?"
"The one line two, yes," Anna said.
After very carefully bringing over the glass measuring cups and placing them on
the counter top next to the mixer, Moria asked, "Is that a fration cause 'Randa
said that those are hard only she didn't say hard she said a not nice word."
"Fractions are easy if you know the secret," Anna chuckled.
"I think someone didn't tell 'Randa the secret." Moria giggled. "Can I know the
secret when I'm big and doing fractions like 'Randa?"
"Of course. All McEntires learn the secret," Anna said. "Okay, measure out what
we need and place them all in the mixer."
Moria very carefully measured out and added everything into the mixing bowl
with help from time to time from her mother. "He was teasing me." She said
suddenly as she waited for her mother to use the mixer.
"What did he say?" Anna asked, turning the dial to set the mixer to its highest
setting.
"That you and Daddy found me in a box and that you only had four babies not
five." Moria replied as she watched the mixer, her head slighting rotating in
the same direction.
"What a nasty little boy," Anna growled. "Did you tell the teacher what he
said?"
Moria shook her head. "That's why I locked him the cupboard upstairs."
"You mean James?" Anna gaped at her. Bloody marvelous, another example of the
cruel creature she'd produced. "I'll deal with him later. What do we need to do
now?" she said, pointing back at the book.
"It says to chill," Moria blinked and pointed to a word she didn't know and
then repeated it after her mother had helped her sound it out. "dough. Roll
into balls the size of walnuts." She read carefully. She was so proud of being
one of a hand full of kids in her kindergarten class that could read pretty
well. "I called his picture stupid."
"Which picture, precious?" Anna asked as she took the dough and wrapped it in
clingfilm.
Moria picked bits of dough out of the mixing bowl and ate it. "Mrs. Miller said
to draw a picture of our favorite animal and James drew a picture of a shuttle."
That's not an animal, Anna thought but simply looked at her daughter. "So you
decided to call it stupid," she said flatly.
Chewing her lip Moria nodded without looking up. "He said he liked shuttles
better and that it was a horsey class so it counted."
Folding her arms, Anna sighed. "You believe that your brother is stupid?"
Moria didn't like it when her mother crossed her arms and gave her that look.
She didn't like how it made her feel or how her tummy felt sick. "No." She said
softly. "But he didn't draw the picture right."
"How so?"
"He didn't draw an animal and he made the shuttle to big on the paper." Moria
answered, still not looking up.
"Not drawing an animal is daft, not stupid. And as for the style," Anna sighed
again, feeling a migraine coming. "Could you have done better?"
Moria shrugged. "Never drawed a shuttle before." Climbing down once again she
dashed out of the room and then came back a few minutes later. Holding out a
piece of folded paper she offered it to her mother.
Unfolding the paper as if it were precious, Anna beamed at the koala bear. "Oh
now that's wonderful. So why were you so mean about his?"
Moria blushed a deep red.
"Tell me, precious," Anna said.
Moria shook her head as tears welled in her eyes. "You'll get mad."
"Please tell me," Anna asked again.
"Some.. some of the other kids were laughing and teasing me and it made my
cheeks burn and my eyes sting so when James came over I said his picture was
stupid so that they would laugh at him and not me cause he's not a girl and
doesn't cry when they pick on him." She answered in one long endless whisper.
"Oh precious," Anna sighed. "I'm not mad at you about this, just a little
disappointed. Maybe you should have told James that."
"I was gonna say sorry." Moria sniffled as she wiped her cheeks and nose on her
shirt. "But then he told me you weren't my Mummy and Daddy wasn't my Daddy and
that Vixxy and PJ weren't my sisters and that he and Joshie weren't my brothers
and he made my eyes sting and my chest hurt so I locked him in the closest."
"And you don't think he was sorry for being mean?" Anna asked.
Moria shook her head, refusing to look up at her mother.
"Perhaps you should go and ask him while I finish up here," she said.
Moria nodded and headed for the door but turned back a moment. "Your not mad?
I'm not in trouble?"
"I'm not mad, and you're not in trouble. Just go and talk to James."
Sighing in relief Moria left the kitchen and headed back up stairs. All the
bounce now gone from her step. When she reached her brother's door she walked
in and saw him laying on his bed. "Mummy said I had to come talk to you."
"Go away," James mumphed as he rolled over so his back was to her.
"But Mummy said I had to talk to you." Moria repeated as she kicked at a dirty
sock on the floor.
"What do you want?" he humphed.
Moria sighed and then chewed her lip. "I'm sorry."
Finally rolling over, James tried to glare at her but when he saw she was
really sorry he shrugged. "S'ok. I'm sorry too."
"Mummy said I should tell you why I was mean." Moria told him, this time toeing
his shoe. She sighed again. "Thomas and George were teasing me cause you didn't
draw what Mrs. Miller said too so I was mean so they would tease you and not me
cause your better."
"Better at what?" James asked, already plotting what he was going to do to
George and Thomas.
She had to think of how to say it. Sometimes she wished she were more like her
Mummy and could talk better about things. "Not being a baby?"
"But they were mean to you," he frowned at her. "Why didn't you just tell me?
I'd have kicked them, or something."
Moria shrugged. "Then Mummy would have turned that weird red color like she did
when Mrs. Miller told her that you put applesauce in Carrie Sue's hair."
"And you wouldn't have locked me in a cupboard, in the dark, when I couldn't
get out," James shuddered. <you - and yes, I'm sure>
Moria blushed again. "I'm sorry about that too."
"That mean I can kick their heads in?" James offered, a nasty little grin
growing on his face.
"Mummy will be really mad if you got caught." Moria warned. "We could always
glue their butts to their chairs during art class."
James let out a cackle that would put most cartoon bad guys to shame. "Now that
would be funny."
"Mrs. Miller keeps super glue in her desk." Moria told him with a bright smile.
"Oh and me and Mummy made snickerdoodles."
"Mmmmmm," James drooled.
"Race ya." Moria beamed before turning and running, not giving her brother a
fair start.
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