I agreed to take my daughter and her friends to Promises for her birthday. What on Earth had possessed me?
We hit the door and it began:
“Smells like cabin..” Veruca sneered
“ Because it IS you goof.” Laughed one of the others.
“It’s cold!”she whined.
“I’ll start a fire in a minute Ladies. I have to unload all your stuff here….”
“I don’t like fire.” Veruca added pointedly
*sigh* I brought in more bags and stuff than Carnival loads for an extended Alaskan adventure (staff included).
“I’m hungry. When are we ever gonna eat?”
“As soon as I finish.” I whipped up a quickie pizza. Most of it was diced and ready. I simply had to roll dough and give it a “little love”.
Veruca stood over it. “I don’t like that.” She winced and pointed at it as if I’d put spider eggs and mouse poop on it; then spun on me. “Is your water filtered?”
“Pardon?”
“Your water. Is it double filtered?”
“No Sweetie, I dredge it from that black snow next to the tail pipe on the truck out there.” My face was stuck in a smile that if you know me…you see. If you don’t? Imagine tight thin lips and words crisply but brightly uttered through gnashed teeth. The friendliest growl EVER.
“My mom is kidding. Of COURSE it’s filtered.” Maddie glanced and smiled, ushering her friend out of the room. She knew what I was thinking and where Little Miss Veruca Salt was safest.
The night was filled with “I won’t eat” and “I don’t like” and frustrated me to the point of tears. I gave up after baking the coffee cake (which she announced she would NOT eat) and went to bed just past 11. At 4am I heard the owls and smiled to myself. Promises. Ahhhh . Then at 4:05 the girls were standing on the side deck practicing their own owl calls. I rolled over and plugged my ears. I hoped that my insomnia wouldn’t kick in. It did. As I descended the stairs, I saw Veruca jumping from couch to couch crying about ladybugs.
“It’s going to bite me. I feel it. I can’t sleep.”
“I know the feeling.” I gruffed. Slipping into my running shoes, I opened the door. Wind pushed me back but I fought. I needed the quiet. I had to run this off. Whatever THIS was. I went out and began. It was good. Training for October has been good for me in so many ways. I believed it saved Veruca.
Once they summoned the morning, they made boats out of bark, masts from my kabob skewers and toothpicks. They cut up a shirt for the sails (without my permission) and used all my tape. They chewed about 75 pieces of gum to use as a sealant for their boats. Did I mention that this weekend it rained as if Noah were cruising the neighborhood? Hey. They were having fun. I couldn’t let my OCD get in the way of a good time. I fixed dinner.
“What’s THAT?”
Guess who?
“Mac and cheese.”
“No it isn’t.”
“Wellll yes it is.”I felt my smile tighten.
“Doesn’t look like my moms. Does it have spices in it? I can’t eat spices. I can only eat paprika.”
I spied the HOT Hungarian canister on my stove…Better not Babs. I sighed again. After serving, I quarantined myself to the other room only to find their wet clothes in a mashed up pile on the floor. I also discovered boxes of half eaten cookies under my couch INSIDE the recliner. I picked up wrappers to candy bars, gushers and Yogos. I put them in a pile with the clothes and waited. I vacuumed three times only to clean up the cheese and food that little miss picky had “dropped” when she realized it had something in it. She must have thought we had dogs. It's what I told myself anyway. I took the wet mucky wood they tried to drag into the house back out. I pulled the stumps they planted in the ice and then? I smiled. I was done. Cinderella was going to the ball.
“Ladies?”
Veruca was frowning over my pantry. I’d hidden all the good things in canisters labeled : flour and tea etc.
“Want some cookie cake?”I sang.
“You have that?” Veruca asked with blinky excitement.
“Yep. AND ice cream.” What I was about to serve was tastier to me than any sugary substance. I scooped another mouthful of bait…
“YEAH!!!” She jumped up and down appearing happy for the first time.
“Okay. Clean up.” I will confess it was DELICIOUS. I took another bite of decadence.
“What?” Veruca winced and cocked her head as if she’d heard dirty word in church. She clearly did not understand.
“Clean up.” The second bite was as tasty as the first. “Let’s continue this. I like it.” I thought to myself and planted my body directly in front of Veruca.
“Clean up what?” she snorted.
I smiled and did the game show arm waive/display move….“THIIIS! As soon as it’s all set? We’re havin cake and ice cream. Wee HOO!” and I clapped my hands. I know. It probably WAS wrong, but I had absolutely had it.
Maddie smiled, shaking her head. “She’s not kidding guys. Better do it.”
“But I thought we were guests. Guests don’t do things…”
“Ah, but I’m not a maid. I’m a mom. And Moms boss you around and make you do things you don’t want to do. We can argue about it or get it done and have cake.” I began to cut and scoop and obscene amount on a plate.
“That’s mine!” Veruca shouted almost drooling over the warm soft cookie, the smell of melted butter and sugar drenched in cold silky ice cream. Oh yeah. I played it BIIIIG time.
“No Sweetie. It’s MINE I’ve done all my chores. Better hustle.”You know the bite I took barely fit in my mouth. It dribbled out. I giggled and scooped it up with my finger, sucking it off loudly. “MMMMM” hee hee hee.
“She’s not kidding guys.” Maddie kept at it; almost finished herself.
The long/short of it? They did it AND got dessert. They put their dishes away and I heard them whispering as I headed up to bed (just to capture some sanity and quiet)
“Why did she do that? It’s your party and she made you clean up?”
My daughter shrugged. "It’s three against one in the mess department. And as long as I’ve known my mom, she is the strongest ONE I’ve ever seen. Sometimes, you just gotta know you’re just beat. "And in the back of my mind, I was ecstatic to receive Daylight savings time. They’d be home an hour earlier.
An incredibly long weekend. I want to thank those who helped me through (via Internet and hilarious phone calls. Friends indeed); most of all my wonderful daughter who brought me a special breakfast in bed with a small note thanking me for all I’d done and what a wonderful weekend she’d had. She is a beautiful gift and I’m glad I shared three days with Veruca so I could remember that.
