Post by fluffyrenegade on Oct 16, 2015 3:08:24 GMT
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTT!
At 7:30am, like clockwork, Tara’s alarm clock went off. Yawning, Tara slapped it.
“Yes, yes, I’m getting up.” She mumbled to no one in particular. Still yawning, she went to her closet and pulled on her fluffy, forest green bathrobe. It was her favorite piece of clothing and was a Christmas present from the boys and their parents. Three years had passed since Tara’s adopted brother and his wife had passed away in the car crash and she had taken on the task of raising her three nephews, adopting them as her own. It was a challenge but it was one that Tara enjoyed and she didn’t regret one second of it. But there were a few times when Tara couldn’t help wonder what exactly she had gotten herself into.
Like the time she had went to the store and while she was gone, the three of them had decided to that they wanted to paint their rooms in the style of Jackson Pollock. Tara had come home to find red, blue and green footprints all over the floor and three very colorful little boys flicking paint on the walls of their room. Or like the time she had taken them to the university library and while she had been talking to a fellow professor, the three of them had gone into the science section and replaced every third book with either a book on Greek art or a recipe book. And then there was the especially memorable time when the ‘Wee Devils’ had decided create rocket fuel using the staff microwave and stolen potassium nitrate from the university lab. Thankfully, nothing had exploded and the Chemistry professor had been too impressed to get angry about the fact that the boys had broken into the lab. Yes, it is definitely a challenge sometimes. Tara thought to herself has she head downstairs towards the kitchen. As she got closer, Tara thought she heard voices coming from the kitchen. Three high-pitched little voices to be exact.
“Harris! You’re doing it wrong! You are going to burn it!” Came Hamish’s voice. He could never resist a chance to get a rise out of Harris.
“I am not! It’s supposed to be a little brown! Auntie Tara likes her eggs well done!” Harris retorted. And Harris could never resist the chance to prove Hamish wrong.
“Um, Harris, I don’t think I made the coffee right. It looks more like mud than coffee.” Said Hubert a little uncertain. Sweet, quiet little Hubert. Of all the boys, he was the least amount of trouble but also the most insecure and perhaps even a bit shy. Tara was slowly trying to build up his confidence but he still preferred to let his brothers do most of the talking for him.
There was a pause before Hamish said, “It tastes okay. At least, it tastes like coffee.”
“How do you know?” asked Harris, suspiciously.
“Auntie Tara let me try some once.”
“How’d it taste?”
“Like mud. So it’s probably okay if it looks like mud.”
“Oh, okay…”
“Oh! Bacon’s done! Toast is done too.”
“Well hurry up and get it on a plate! Auntie Tara is going to be here any minute!”
“Shut up, Harris and don’t tell me what to do!”
“I’ll tell you to do whatever I want! I’m the oldest!”
“By three minutes!”
At this point, Tara felt she should go into the kitchen before and fight broke out and the three of them destroyed her kitchen. Taking a deep breath, Tara stepped into the room and steeled herself for whatever she might discover. What she did find was not as bad as it could have been. There was an open carton of eggs on the counter and a few smashed eggs on the floor by the stove. The toaster was smoking due to a piece of toast burning inside it and spilled coffee grounds were all over the counter and the floor as well. And for some reason, there were three different pans, all different sizes, on the stove. One of which looked like it hadn’t even had anything cooking in it but had just been placed there so that each of the triplets could have fun cooking with a pan and knowing her nephews, that was probably the reason. As for the three boys themselves, they were all standing on chairs and clustered around the counter by the stove where Harris and Hamish were fighting for control over a plate of food and Hubert was staring dubiously into a cup of what Tara assumed was coffee.
“Boys?” Tara asked, making her presence known. Simultaneously, three little heads topped with identical masses of red curls, stopped fighting and slowly turned to look at their aunt.
Well, so much for the surprise element. The triplets had no idea how long their aunt had been watching them as they had been too busy arguing amongst themselves. When they looked at their Aunt Tara, they saw that she was smiling that particular smile that always made them feel a little nervous. It was a smile that could mean anything, from amusement to fury, from happiness to sadness, from irritation and annoyance to gentle teasing. It was a very hard smile to interpret.
Harris, Hamish and Hubert all looked at each other then back at their aunt. They had no idea what to do next. It was Harris who made the first move. Quickly, he took the finished plate from Hamish and carefully got off the chair he had been standing and ran over to his Aunt Tara. Hamish and Hubert quickly followed.
“We made you breakfast, Auntie Tara! Because it’s mother’s day and we thought you would like it!” Harris said, smiling up at her and as he presented her with the breakfast that they had made.
“We made coffee too.” Hubert said as he presented the cup of coffee as well, unsure if she would like it.
Not to be outdone by his brothers, Hamish nodded. “Yeah, we thought it would be nice because you are our mom and our auntie and we thought it would be a good way to show you that we love you!” He said grinning. Harris glared at him, obviously feeling that Hamish was overdoing it just a little.
Tara took the plate and the cup of coffee from her nephews and examined it. Well, they had tried. The eggs were brown on the edges but undercooked in the middle, the toast was burnt and so was the bacon. As for the coffee, well Tara had seen tastier looking mud than what her nephews had made for her. Trying to keep from showing anything too her nephews, she looked down at them.
“Thank you boys. It looks very, a, well…..” She couldn’t do it. Tara burst out laughing. In their nervousness and relief at not being in trouble, the triplets started giggling as well which turned into full-on laughter.
Once the four of them were calmer, Tara directed the boys in cleaning up the kitchen and setting everything in order. After the mess was dealt with, Tara made a proper breakfast for the four of them with the help of her nephews. She made sure to take the time to show them exactly how everything was done, especially how to make a good cup of coffee. She even let them all flip their own eggs, something that made the three little boys very proud. Tara also decided to pull out her juicer and showed the boys how to make freshly squeezed orange juice.
Later when they were all sitting at the kitchen table eating their breakfast, Tara looked across the table at her three nephews. She smiled as she watched Hamish make a bread monster face and begin to tease Harris with it while Hubert snuck some pieces of bacon off both their plates while his brothers weren’t looking. Raising her nephews was definitely a challenge but it was one of the most rewarding and life-changing experiences of Tara’s life. “No, I don’t think I will ever regret it.” Tara thought as she moved to break up the impending fight.
