Roommates & Soulmates

Ch182: Jace's Pudding

They returned from the grocery store laden down with bags. Jace had offered to pay, but his mother's reply had been firm. This year plum pudding would be her Christmas treat, and he wasn't to pay for it under any circumstances.

"But didn't your plane tickets cost a lot?" Jace argued. His mother was a school teacher and Jace knew she didn't make a lot of money. Besides it was his kitchen they were cooking in.

"Never you mind about that," Celine replied. "Now let's get started on this recipe of yours."

It had been a long time since Jace had watched his mother cook. He had forgotten how relaxing it was.

"Oh ,don't put the eggs in the fridge," Celine called as Jace was about to do just that. "They need to be room temperature." Jace did as he was told, though he couldn't understand how that would make a difference.

Jace watched her cream together butter and sugar, then slowly beat each room temperature egg into the mix one at a time. Next she combined the dry ingredients. There was a confidence about his mother whenever she was in the kitchen. Jace could remember knowing without a shadow of a doubt when he'd been small that nothing she made could ever taste bad.

"Here you can zest the orange," Celine smiled at him, gesturing to the grater and the fruit.

It took him a moment to remember what zesting a fruit was. Jace had helped Celine cook, even less recently than he'd been an observer. Sure, Jace knew how to make a tuna sandwich and mix broccoli into his mac and cheese, but that didn't mean he felt of use in the kitchen when his mother was in it.

Cautiously Jace picked up the grater and the citrus fruit and began scrapping the orange peel off, feeling very much like a fish out of water.

"Yes just like that," Celine told him, looking up from the bowl in front of her into which she was combining all manner of yummy looking things like dates, raisins, plums and currents.

"Perfect. I need one tablespoon of the zest right into the dry ingredients," Celine instructed. "Then it's time to mix everything together."

Despite himself Jace was smiling. He just couldn't be upset or anxious while he watched her fold everything together and put it into the pan. The meditative nature of the activity calmed him just as much now as it has when he was a kid. Jace felt all of a sudden very grateful that she was here.

Celine wrapped it all in tin foil then secured it with a string before placing the whole thing on the stove in a water bath. She then brought the water to a boil.

"There," Celine said, staring at her creation. "Now we just have to let it steam for a couple hours."

"I am so glad I didn't attempt this by myself," Jace said. "It looked even more complicated than the recipe made it out to be."

"I'm glad we got to make it together," Celine replied.

"Um yeah," Jace mumbled. "So what do you wanna do for a couple hours?"

"Sitting on the couch would be nice," she answered with a sigh. She had, after all, been on her feet since she'd arrived. "I'll have to get up to add more water before it's done anyway so I don't wanna go too far, and my feet are so tired."

Silently agreeing to this, Jace walked over to sit down. He wasn't really sure what to say. Before this last year, Jace had never had an awkward silence with his mother in all his life. It was almost more strange than not talking to her all year had been.

"Oh, I almost forgot to ask," Jace said as a topic suddenly came to him. "How did you get in anyway?"

"What do you mean?"