All Of Us - Part 1: Summer

Chapter 37 - Flying potatoes

- Evangeline -

"Ugh... Eva, we're on veggie duty," complains Aline. I look up from my breakfast bread roll and nod cluelessly, carefully avoiding to mention that I don't have the slightest idea of what "veggie duty" is. She bites with all teeth into her own roll, and mumbles, spraying crumbs everywhere: "I hate this chore. It sucks."

"Well, we could have gotten worse. I heard Thet complaining about bathroom duty a couple of days ago." Her eyes go wide and her voice drops down to a whisper. "Don't say those words aloud."

"What are you saying ? It can't be that bad."

She flashes me the "seriously ?" face. "Yeah, we'll talk 'bout it again once yah actually did it, girl." She finishes her bread and rises. "Ready ?" she asks, gesturing towards the kitchen with an offhand jab of her thumb. I nod again and get to my feet to dutifully follow her through the mess hall, greeting a few people on the way with a smile.

I've never been inside the kitchen before. It's much smaller than the one at the castle, it goes without saying, but it still is cosy. Clusters of pots and pans line the walls, torchlight bouncing off their gleaming surfaces. Tables are strewn across the room with various instruments lain on them: rolling pins, knives, whisks. There's a clear lack of food. I was told that most of it was kept in the pantry - I'm guessing that that door over there leads to it. In a corner of the room, dishes pile on top of each other in a very threatening pile, whilst a small fire crackles to the side of me, a large pot of water boiling on top of it.

"That's tea," Aline explains from the table at which she is seated. "The rebel on kitchen duty brews some every morning." I lean over and look at the beverage. Just the smell is enough to raise the sleepiness from my eyes. "How strong is this exactly ?" I wonder aloud. "Too strong," she immediately replies. "Only crazy people who can't sleep drink that stuff." She pats a spot on the bench next to her. I obligingly climb over to her and eye the very large -maybe too large- heap of...um... what I suppose Aline meant as veggies. I keep staring at the mound on the table while Aline takes a knife and proceeds to wield it in a particular manner that seems completely futile. Until the object in her hand - from the mound - somehow changes color. I study the movement more carefully this time, yet it is still impossible to get. Up and down and sideways and sideways again-

"Hey, why yah standing there moonin' at me ? Come and start peeling !"

I gingerly pick up another knife and seize one of the things. I try to repeat what Aline did, but as soon as I attempt to, the blade plunges through the object, slicing it in half.

Aline glances over and bursts out into giggles.

"That ain't how yah peel a potato !"

I frown at her.

"A... potato ?"

Almost immediately, her gush of giggles dies out and she stares at me quizzically: "Yeah, it's a potato."

She doesn't make fun of me, nor even ask about my life at the Castle, how I did not have such apparently basic knowledge. She just stays by my side.

Sliding over to me, Aline takes my fingers in her hand and slowly peels the... potato. Up, down, twice to the side... It isn't that complicated, actually.

"You got it ?" she asks, a neat little pile of shavings underneath the yellowish potato. I nod, seemingly convincingly, because she goes back to her side of the table and grabs another one.

So... Not that difficult at all. Right ?

I encourage myself as I grab another one off the heap. I grit my teeth, and put my knife at an angle, hoping it won't slice clean through it again. Lucky enough, no, but a chunk of potato comes off with the shaving. Which doesn't look at all like what Aline did. Setting my jaw, I persevere.