PART TWO: TUESDAY
IN WHICH MY GUARDIAN AND I COOK SOMETHING WITH AILEEN
During
the morning, after breakfast, I brainstormed for things to do with my friends.
A notebook handy, I walked out to the study and found all of them awake,
drinking the coffee I had brought out to them earlier and the older four
browsing the books in Dad’s study. Aileen was still peacefully asleep, and Damhán
looked like he had already done something to get himself on the wrong side of
his oldest brother. He was sulking in Dad’s study chair.
I
stood in the doorway until Breandan noticed me and came over with a smile. “May
we come inside now? Is your family ready?”
I
grinned. “If you can possibly pull yourselves away from my dad’s books…yes,
we’re ready for you. But I came out here for a different reason.”
“And
that reason is?”
“I
want some ideas for random things we could do while you’re here in the third
dimension. I know some of the things you all enjoy, but I want to make sure
you’re having a nice time here.”
Bran
put the book he was reading back on the shelf and smiled at me. “That’s very
thoughtful of you.”
“Thanks,”
I answered. “I couldn’t come up with anything by myself other than giving the
rest of you, except Aileen, haircuts.” My eyes twinkled.
“Don’t
you dare!” Damhán exploded before realizing I was teasing them. He glowered at
me.
Surprisingly,
Ciarán was the one who came to my defense. “Relax, Damhán, any idiot could tell
she was kidding.”
Damhán
turned his glower to his brother, but unclenched the fists by his sides.
“He’s
in a bad mood this morning,” Ciarán continued smoothly. “He’ll get over it,
don’t worry, but it might take a while.”
Breandan
turned the dangerous conversation towards a different path. “Well, I enjoy
cooking, we could cook something.”
“All
of us?” Ciarán asked in disbelief. “Would we even fit in the kitchen?”
“No,
not all of us,” Breandan retorted.
“Just a few of us. Like Aileen and I with Rebekah…for example.”
“Then
what would we do!” Damhán demanded.
“You
could play a board game with my brothers,” I offered.
“Or
explore the woods,” Breandan added.
“I’m
tired of board games, and I don’t want to explore.” Damhán folded his arms
stubbornly.
Inspiration
struck me suddenly. “Damhán,” I said slyly, “my brothers would love to learn how to use a sword. You
could give them some lessons today!”
That
seemed to do the trick. “They like weapons?” he asked, interested at last.
“Oh
yes!” I exclaimed knowingly. “We even have a sword that you could use to teach
them!”
“Alright!”
Damhán was cheered up considerably. “I’ll be doing that then.”
“What
about the rest of us?” Ciarán turned to his other older brothers for help. “Aichear,
Bran, make Breandan let me help him cook! He’s letting Aileen help!”
Bran
backed out of the situation quickly. “Whoa, don’t ask me! As long as we get to
eat whatever Breandan cooks up, I don’t care who he has help him.”
“Aichear?”
The
oldest Mornelly finally looked up from the book he was still reading. “Breandan
and Aileen will help Rebekah cook something, the rest of you can find other
occupations.”
Ciarán’s
shoulders slumped and he darted a dangerous look towards Breandan. If my
guardian saw it, he paid no mind. Aileen, who had been blissfully sleeping
through the whole thing, decided to wake up then and curiously asked her oldest
brother why Ciarán looked so grumpy.
“Just
leave him alone Aileen,” Aichear wisely advised. “Breandan wants you to help
him and Rebekah cook something good for us to eat.”
The
girl clapped her hands gleefully. “Oh, yay! What are we going to cook?”
I
glanced at my guardian. “We don’t know yet,” I admitted.
Aileen
bounced from bed, already in her day clothes, and grabbed my hand. “This is
going to be so fun! Let’s go cook something!”
Hours
later, after pouring over each of our cookbooks carefully, the three of us
decided on a recipe that looked especially tasty.
“Well,
if no one else likes it, Bran will,” Breandan remarked with a grin. “He likes
pretty much everything I cook.”
“I
don’t think anyone couldn’t like
No-bake Reeses Bars!” Aileen declared, licking her lips.
And
personally, I had to agree.
*◊*
“One
cup peanut butter, one cup graham cracker crumbs, half a pound butter, one
pound powdered sugar, one half teaspoon vanilla extract, and one half teaspoon
salt.” I read the ingredients out loud as I pulled them from various parts of
our kitchen. “There, that ought to be all.”
“What
do we do now?” Aileen asked, her elbows resting on our counter.
I
consulted the recipe. “‘Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.’”
“Should
I do that?” Breandan offered.
“That
would be nice. I’ll butter the glass nine-by-thirteen pan. Aileen, you melt the
two cups of chocolate chips in the pan,” I ordered.
We
went to work and soon the mixture began to look more like the picture in the
cookbook. Breandan was very capable of his part of the recipe, so I spent most
of my time making sure Aileen didn’t burn the melting chocolate chips to the
bottom of the pan.
“Alright,
this stuff is ready,” Breandan announced. “What do I do with it?”
I
checked the recipe again. “Spread it evenly on the bottom of the buttered pan,
and then Aileen and I will spread the melted chocolate over the top.”
While
he did that I gave the chocolate one last stir. I grinned at Aileen. “Nice
job!” I congratulated. “The chocolate is absolutely perfect. Silky, smooth, and
a good consistency for spreading!”
Aileen
beamed at the compliment before taking the now empty pan to the sink. I took
the finished dessert to our refrigerator where it would cool down and harden.
“In
about half an hour we should cut it when the chocolate is still soft, but not
too soft,” I said.
Breandan
gave me a satisfied smile. “When this recipe has been tried by us and found
worthy of the Mornelly taste, would you mind terribly if I brought a copy of it
home to the fourth dimension?”
I
grinned. “Not at all! You’ll have to tell me if eating it in the fourth
dimension makes it taste any better!”
He
laughed. “I will!”
I
glanced at the refrigerator and then at Breandan and Aileen. “Well, all we can
do now is wait!”
“Shall
we go see what the others are up too?” Aileen asked.
I
nodded. “I hope Damhán won’t mind giving me
a lesson in swordsmanship! I’ve always wanted to learn.”
“I’ll
keep an eye on the time,” Breandan promised. “Half an hour, right?”
I
nodded again. “Let’s go!”
*◊*
Out
in the field, Damhán was still hard at work with my two brothers, Max and
David. I was surprised that a fight hadn’t erupted yet. Apparently, my brothers
were so eager to learn how to use our sword that they didn’t care how
overbearing Damhán acted.
“Just
watch me and then copy what I do when your turn comes,” Damhán was commanding.
“First, you put your feet like this; about that far apart so you have good
balance and the ability to jump out of the way of your opponents sword. Next
you back away to get your enemy over-confident and then surprise him by
suddenly rushing in without warning. Soon he’ll realize how good you are and
try to use your own tricks back at you. Don’t let him. Keep him guessing with—”
here Damhán noticed us watching him and broke off mid-sentence.
Walking
over, he glanced towards the house. “Did you finish making the thingy?”
I
nodded with a grin. “You’re going to love it!”
“Why
are you out here?”
“Well…”
I eyed the sword. “I was kind of hoping you could give me a lesson too.”
Damhán
grinned. “I’d love too. Are you two wanting lessons as well?” He sent this
question in the direction of his brother and sister.
Breandan
shook his head. “You know I’m every bit as good as you are with that thing. You
certainly couldn’t teach me anything new with it.”
Aileen
sidled up to Breandan. “I think I’ll skip this time.”
Damhán
shrugged, and turned back to me. “Come over here and I’ll start your lesson
right now.”
*◊*
The
afternoon passed pleasantly for most of us. Ciarán was still sulking about not
being able to help cook, but only because he hadn’t gotten his way. My lesson
from Damhán was very fun, and I came away from it with a lot more knowledge
about how to wield a sword and fool an opponent.
Aichear
and Bran were kept busy browsing my dad’s selection of books, and I was
surprised to see that Aichear had already finished reading at least five books
since the morning.
“He’s
the fastest reader of the family,” Breandan explained while we all crowded into
the study to talk after dinner.
“Sarah
is the fastest reader of our family,” I said, “but we all love to read.”
“And
you’re the writer of the family, right?” Bran asked.
“Yep,”
I answered, “and therefore the fastest writer.”
“You’ll
have to show us some of your books. Damhán has tried writing a book about our
life, but he failed.”
“Failed
miserably,” Ciarán added, magically
appearing from out of the shadows where he had been moping.
Damhán
glowered at his brother. “You guys were the ones that ruined my book,” he
protested. “I had a fine beginning and then you took over and said it was all
wrong.”
“It
was,” Ciarán said, folding his arms
and returning his brother’s glower.
Damhán
opened his mouth to give his brother a heated retort, but both Breandan and I
felt it was time to intervene.
“Listen,
guys,” I said at the same time as Breandan. He glanced at me, giving me the
go-ahead to continue by myself.
“Stop
arguing. It won’t do anything except make us all mad at each other. How about
eating that dessert Breandan, Aileen, and I made next?”
At
the word “dessert” everyone perked up and Aichear even put down the book he was
reading. I raced inside and pulled the pan from the refrigerator. I gave it one
look and groaned. Breandan had followed me in to help serve it, and he frowned
at me in a puzzled fashion.
“What’s
wrong?” he asked.
I
motioned to the dessert. “We forgot to cut it after the half-hour,” I answered.
“Now it’s gonna be really hard to make it look nice.”
Breandan
took out a knife from our drawer and studied the pan thoughtfully. “Well, the
good news is that my brothers won’t care how it looks as long as it tastes
good.”
I
raised my eyebrows. “I sure hope it tastes good then.”
My
guardian grinned. “I bet Ciarán will have something to say about it.”
With
a groan, I started cutting the dessert into bars. As I had predicted, the
result looked awful. The hardened chocolate cracked in all the wrong places,
making the bars become all sorts of crazy shapes instead of the neat rectangles
pictured in our cookbook.
However,
once we finally got the bars into semi-organized stacks on a plate and looking
as nice as possible…
“Wow!
This stuff is delicious!” Bran exclaimed, taking another “bar” from the plate
and sinking his teeth into it. “You got the recipe, right Breandan?”
My
guardian nodded, and exchanged a triumphant look with me. “I thought I might be
able to try making it at our home in the fourth dimension,” he said.
“You’d
better do more than try,” Damhán
declared, helping himself to a fifth piece.
“Told
you,” Aileen whispered to me with her eyes shining, “no one can’t like peanut butter and chocolate!”
Even
Ciarán admitted grudgingly, “They are
good.”
But
the highest praise of all came from Aichear. “It’s not bad,” he said, and
reached for a second piece.
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