Silvery-Edged Black Cloud

Well, Kevin and I were leaving. Martin was staying behind with Alison to help her get her memory back. Kevin finally learns to trust Martin. I’m so proud! Note my sarcasm, because I nearly dragged Kevin’s ass back up to Fallen.

“Where’s Mommy?” Mary asks as we land.

“She’s with grandma and daddy trying to get her memory back,” I say, kneeling down in front of her and Alec. They both hug me suddenly, making me nearly fall backward from shock as they started crying. Gosh. I don’t know what to do! Last time they cried they were in diapers! All I had to do was either change their diaper or feed them a bottle! What do I do when their mom can’t remember who they are, and their dad will be staying with her until she gets her memory back? I don’t know what to do! Would you?!

“I want Mommy and Daddy!” Alec cries, tears pouring out of her eyes.

“Shh, it’s okay,” I say, unable to think of anything else, “Are you guys hungry?”

“Ahuh,” they say, wiping at their dark blue eyes, just like Martin’s. “Can you cook us pancakes?!”

Typical five year olds. You can distract them with any thing. “Okay. What do you want on them?”

“CHOCOLATE!” They yell, grinning hugely, looking like Martin once again.

“Alright.” I pull them toward my house, where I had just the right ingredients to make them chocolate pancakes. “Alright, two —”

“SIX!”

“Six chocolate pancakes coming up,” I say, rolling my eyes.

“Need some help?” Kevin asks uncomfortably at my doorway.

“Sure.”

♠ ♣ ♠

“Why did I let you help?” I ask myself looking around my kitchen as Mary and Alec continue giggling.

Let me catch you up: Kevin tried to help me make six pancakes for Mary and Alec. Here’s where the twist comes in: Kevin can’t cook. At all. So, there’s pancake batter, flour, chocolate, mable-syrub, milk, eggs, and a lot of other foods that I have no idea why Kevin thought we needed them. I was even covered it in! Along with Kevin, Mary, and Alec.

“Kevin, have you ever cooked?”

“Umm … no,” he says sheepishly, wiping at whatever was on his face, “I didn’t think it was that hard!”

“Are you boiling a shoe?” I ask angrily, picking out the hot shoe from the boiling bot of water on my stove.

“Hmm … I guess I am. I don’t remember putting a shoe in there, though.”

“With the way you cook, I wouldn’t be surprised if you made this.” I drop it back in the pot, looking around at my kitchen once again. There wasn’t an inch that wasn’t covered! “How did you manage to get my entire kitchen clean?”

“Hey! Alec was the one who started flinging food!” Kevin says, pointing at her like a five year old. Alec sticks her tongue out at him, making Mary do the same. “You did!”

“Kevin, they’re five.” I roll my eyes at him, hands on hips as I started tapping my foot like a disapproving mother. “What gave you the idea to let them cook anything?”

“I dunno. I didn’t know how much chocolate they wanted!”

“They’d take an entire city’s chocolate if you let them! And then we’d be stuck with hyper witch-y five year olds!”

“I didn’t know!”

“Well, obviously! Even a monkey could cook better than this!”

“Could not! Do monkeys have thumbs? No!”

“YES THEY DO!!! AND THEY HAVE ACTUAL HUMAN DNA!!!”

“Oh, really?”

“Oh my gosh.” I roll my eyes at him, shaking my head disapprovingly as I look around again. This is going to be a nightmare to clean.

“Oh, hey Mel— wow. What happened here?” Jesse asks, looking around my kitchen with Scarlett.

“It looks like a tornado with food hit this place!” Scarlett says, as she sees the four of us covered in food.

“Worse,” I say, pointing my thumb at him, “Kevin.”

“Wow,” Jesse says, rolling his eyes at his uncle. “Even I can cook better than you.”

“Yeah right.” Kevin rolls his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Is this a shoe?” Scarlett holds up the shoe from the boiling pot on the stove.

“We can only hope.”

“Ew!” Scarlett drops the shoe back into the boiling water, looking around my kitchen once again. “What were you trying to do, Kevin?”

“Cook pancakes,” he grumbles, finally seeming to realize just how horrible his cooking was. About time.

“Well, I think I clean this up.” Jesse looks around, shrugging once he sees me giving him an odd look. “Half Warlock.”

“Oh.” Yeah, that’s news. I was there when he was born. Kind of. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“You’ll see,” Scarlett says, coming back in with a bucket full of soap. She puts it under the sink, pouring the water out at full force. The water touched the bucket just long enough to fill it up, before it started moving around my kitchen, cleaning nearly every spot that Kevin seemed to have managed to get food — at least I hope it’s food — onto. I am never having Kevin cook again. Ever.

♠ ♣ ♠

Very soon the exploding mess in my kitchen was clean. Kevin was sent away to change his clothes and get the mess off of him — but, really just because I was going to speed-cook Mary and Alec some pancakes. The man cannot cook!

Pretty soon — like after Scarlett got Mary and Alec into clean clothes and Jesse washed what he could off of them — the pancakes were done. I took a speed-shower, already putting all the filthy clothes into the washer. Hopefully the food — I’m not really sure that what Kevin made is legally called food — will come out.

“How are you guys doing?” I ask, toweling my hair in my clean jeans and t-shirt. “Do you need anything else?”

“Nah, I think we’re good for now. Thanks, Mel,” Jesse says, grinning at me with that infamous grin that made him so much like Alison. “We’ll let you know if we need anything.”

“Alright, just don’t let Kevin come into this kitchen,” I say half-jokingly, half-serious. “I don’t wanna relive the pancake-massacre.”

“My cooking isn’t that bad!” Kevin says, leaning against the doorway.

“I’m not sure that what you did is even legal, Kevin. You boiled a shoe!” I roll my eyes, grimacing at that not-too-long-ago memory. “I’ve still got gunk in my hair!”

“You’re overreacting.”

“Oh, really now?” I pull the towel off my head, revealing my golden blonde hair. “That stuff got rid of the dye! Ceci said that they were supposed to last me six months, at least!”

“So? Your hair looks better like that.” I glare at him, a million reasons why I even did that to my hair flooding my mind. They were just at the tip of my tongue, but as if I’d say any of them.

“Well, I liked it.” I stomp away from him, not willing to hear whatever he said. Kevin’s so annoying!