Chapter 26
MITCHELL
“But I don’t wanna go today!” Neal wailed. “I gots to name my kitty and helps her and Molly gets used to being on a spaceship. I cans help you with Morris too!”
I chewed my bottom lip. While getting new pets wasn’t a particularly good reason to keep him home today, yesterday had been a pretty big upheaval thanks to the move and his reaction to Jolar being away when it happened.
“Okay,” I said, caving like one of those houses made of playing cards I used to try to build as a kid.”Tell you what. We just moved here to our new house so it’s been a big change for us all.”
“Uh huh,” he agreed with me, nodding vigorously.
“And I was barely used to our old house, so I’m feeling this is extra new too.”
“Yeah! And I got a new room too! I’m not used to it!”
I smiled at him conspiratorially. “How about you stay home, and we’ll do some stuff together in it so it feels more like ours?
We can bake a cake, make pizza, and watch a movie.Then we can take Molly for a walk in the park, and afterwards, you can play in your room while you finish deciding on what to name your kitty. ”
“Lilo and Stitch!”
“But of course,” I replied brightly though inwardly I cringed. It was a great movie but once a day, every day, was a bit much for me.
“And sketti for dinner when Daddy gets home, with cheesy garlic bread!”
“Sure, we can do that.”
“Yay!” He danced around happily.
I smiled as he raced back to his room to get out of his pajamas after all. I sure hoped Jolar wouldn’t be mad at me for letting him stay home today. Something told me he’d understand, though.
“Hey, Xero,” I called out as I poured myself a coffee from the drip coffee maker built into the kitchen cabinetry. “Please let the school know Neal’s staying home today as we’re still settling in after the move. He’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Message sent.”
“Thanks, Xero. Um, I think since we’re kinda celebrating our move, Jolar’s promotion, and getting the furbabies, the cake should be different than a regular old yellow cake or even an ordinary chocolate one. It needs to be easy to make though.”
“An article from a 1967 Good Housekeeping article suggests lemon pound cake for relaxed notable events or entertaining. Would you like the recipe?”
“Yes, please.”
The outside of the refrigerator immediately displayed the requested recipe, and I walked over to read it. It did seem easy to make and to clean up, using only one bowl and single loaf pan.
“Breakfast first,” I told myself as Neal came rushing in.
“Can we has cheesy eggs?”
“Scrambled eggs with cheese?” I asked, wanting to make sure I understood what he wanted.
“Uh huh. Daddy mixes them all up and puts in orange cheese. Onion too but gots to be the kind that’s powder in the jar because regular onions are yucky.”
“I’ll make some toast too.”
“With jam!”
I looked around for where the spices might have been put away, quickly spotting a tall, skinny pull out pantry cupboard. Bingo! Jolar had onion salt, how had I not noticed this? I needed to do more cooking from scratch like he did, I decided. Well, if it was a day I wasn’t too busy.
Not to mention you need to learn to cook a few more things, I reminded myself. My grandmother had done all the cooking, not liking anyone doing anything in her kitchen except making the occasional sandwich or fetching drinks. That gave me an idea.
“Um, Xero, could you come up with some meals for dinner that Neal might like that are easy to make? And include the recipes. Nothing processed, please. I want to try to cook some stuff he and Jolar might enjoy.”
“Would you like me to send them to your tablet and order the ingredients and any equipment you don’t already have?”
Equipment? “Nothing needing fancy equipment. I need really simple recipes.”
“I was thinking about obtaining a crockpot and a stand mixer for you, as well as a basic food processor.”
“Oh, um, yes. Those sound like excellent ideas.”
I laughed at myself mentally as I whisked the eggs.
I’d imagined a pasta maker and a fondue pot and shit like that.
I should have known better. I heated up the frying pan after first adding the oil, careful to remember how the settings on the crazy Mylos version of a stove worked.
While it heated, I seasoned the egg mixture.
Remembering that I’d spotted some turkey bacon in the fridge, I took out a second pan and turned on the element below it before fetching the bacon I now desperately wanted to go with my eggs.
“Yay! Bacon!” Neal cried out, spotting it in my hands. Unfortunately, I’d also attracted the attention of Molly and both cats, who began circling around me.
“Neal, could you get their food out of the cupboard next to you and give them some?”
“Okay, Papa. Where are their bowls?”
I mentally cursed at myself. The automatic feeders were still in their boxes. “Um, I think there are a couple of food bowls in the dishwasher.”
“Okay, Papa!” he dutifully went to look as I poured the eggs into the pan and began scrambling them. “There’s only two, Papa.”
Screw it. I opened a nearby cupboard and handed him one of our regular food bowls. “Use this for right now.”
Neal took it from me and the critters all raced after him as he placed the bowls next to the water fountain we’d set up last night and filled them with dry food.
“I did it!” he shouted, lugging back the boxes of food.
“Thank you, sweetheart.”
He giggled. “Daddy’s your sweetheart!”
“You’re also my sweetheart.”
“That’s silly.”
“There’s nothing silly about how much Papa loves you.” I quickly put the toast into the toaster before plating up the eggs.
“I loves you too, Papa. And I loves Daddy and I loves Molly and I loves the kitties. Are they all my sweethearts?”
I laughed. “I suppose they could be.”
“I has lots of sweethearts,” he decided.
I beamed. Having so many to love and be loved back by was never a bad thing. I was glad he could feel all of it around him. Neal was going to be just fine.