Linda's Story

An Arcade Ring

As Linda woke up that morning, she was slowly aware of the fact that it wasn't her room. Who was breathing beside her? Why did this place smell like her boyfriend? She rubbed her eye, yawned, and stretched. She opened her eyes, and everything slowly came back to her, "right."

Would her parents be mad that she spent the night at her boyfriend's house- particularly the boyfriend they don't like? Or would they not care that she wasn't there? Would they even notice?

*********

"Linda spent the night?" Erin wondered, astonished, at the breakfast table that morning. All her siblings were downstairs with her, getting their breakfast. Saturdays were Mary's day to sleep in.

"Did you guys have sex?" Joe asked- way too enthusiastically if someone asked Danny- as he dunked his spoon in his cereal.

"What is wrong with you?" Danny asked as he tossed a wadded up napkin at this brother.

"Well did ya?"

"No!"

"Why not?"

"You better shut your mouth before I dump that cereal on your head."

Before Joe could retort, Linda came down in Danny's pajamas. "Morning," she yawned as the siblings murmured their good mornings.

"Coffee's hot," Danny gestured to the pot with his mug.

"Thanks." She looked at the cabinets, "uh..."

" 'Bove the stove."

"Oh." She walked over to the stove, and frowned, wondering how she was going to reach the mugs.

Danny walked over and opened the cabinet for her. "Which one you want?"

"It doesn't matter."

"You can use mine!" Jamie offered, jumping from his chair. He bounded over to his brother and Linda, and pointed up to the shelf.

Danny took down Jamie's mug- solely used for hot chocolate and soup or chili- and handed it to Linda.

She smiled, "thank you." It was a Snoopy mug, with Snoopy as a baseball player and four little Woodstock's standing around him. "Aw, it's cute!"

"Creamer's in the fridge, sugar's next to the toaster. Grab a bowl and some cereal an' have a seat," Danny sat down at the table.

"I'm not much for the cereal... got the stuff to make French toast?"

"Depends. How d' you make it?" Joe stood up and headed to the sink with his empty bowl.

"Toast, milk, syrup, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon. Butter for the pan."

Erin and Danny looked at each other. "Yeah, we got that."

"Do you mind if I make some for us?"

"I'll get the stuff out," Erin said getting up.

*********

Mary was surprised to smell French Toast as she came down the stairs. Who would be making French Toast? Danny could barely turn the stove on by himself, Erin wouldn't want to go to that much trouble on a Saturday morning, Joe didn't know how to make it, and Jamie wasn't aloud around knives and the stove alone. So who was making it?

"Mom! Linda made French Toast!" Jamie exclaimed as Mary walked into the kitchen. That was right- Linda had stayed over night.

"You didn't have to do that, Linda," she smiled at the young lady.

"Oh, it was no trouble, really!" She smiled as she put the dirty pan in the sink. "I made some for you too. It's in the microwave."

"Thank you, dear."