Flames

Messy, part 2

"Mama, you're doing it again." It was bad enough that Roux looked so much like Seth. That she had also inherited his eye roll just seemed unfair.

"Doing what, my love?" Becky glanced at the kitchen counter, full of gingerbread house decorating items: candy, icing, tools. Her attempt at baking gingerbread hadn't worked, so they had to use pre-made pieces, but at least everything else was of their own choosing.

"Videoing with your phone," Roux sighed, slumping in her chair. "You said you'd decorate with me."

Becky felt a pang. With her new over-the-top persona, she was supposed to act like everything she did was the epitome of awesomeness. If she had new gear, then the fashion world was abuzz. If she was appearing on a podcast, then its ratings were through the roof. If she was decorating a gingerbread house with her daughter, it was going to win awards. But that means you actually have to decorate it, she thought, and not worry so much about recording everything. It was such a fine line to tread. She and Seth were trying to keep Roux out of the limelight, but it had seemed like a great thing to record and share. "You're right, sweetheart. I did. Do you want me to stop recording?"

After a moment, Roux shook her head. "You can video it. But you have to do the icing. You promised."

Roux's first choice, of course, was to do the icing herself, but Becky hadn't wanted to deal with that level of mess. Thankfully she had managed to convince Roux that the icing was the boring bit and that it was far more interesting to pick out the candies and decorations. Becky wasn't entirely convinced she was wrong. The candies were more colourful, at least. "I am totally doing the icing," Becky agreed. "Okay. Let me prop up the phone and we'll start." She situated her phone to get a good view of the working area and hoped she didn't get any icing on it. "Okay. First we have to use the icing to glue the walls together—"

"Glue?" Roux stuck out her tongue. "I don't want to eat glue!"

"No, sweetheart. There's no glue in it. It's... watch." Becky squeezed some icing along the edge of one wall and pressed it to another one. "Like that. The icing helps the house stay together."

Roux looked down at her belly. "Will it do that in my stomach too?"

"No. There's a liquid in your stomach that helps break down your food." How much science did kids learn in Kindergarten these days? Becky had no clue. She would have to ask at the next parent information session. Part of her thought this would be a good way to add a cautionary-tale warning about eating too much icing, but then she would have to remember whatever pseudoscience reason she gave, because Roux would definitely remind her of it at the worst possible opportunity. "Let's do the other corners," she said quickly, hoping Roux wouldn't want too much explanation about the wonders of digestion. "Can you hold those two together for me?"

"Like this?" Roux ended up getting her fingers in some icing, but Becky figured that was somewhat intentional. She was still able to connect all four walls, though, so she didn't mind. "What's next, Mama? The roof?"

"Um...." Becky honestly had no clue. It had been years, probably decades, since she had decorated a gingerbread house. She couldn't remember if she had done it with her family; she would have to ask her brother the next time she called him. She very vaguely recalled doing something with Kevin's kids one year, but she thought that was individual cookies, not a house. "Maybe we should ask Dada?" she mused, reaching for the box the pieces had come in. "I know he's not that kind of architect, but... sure, let's do the roof."

It was messy work and both Becky and Roux ended up smudging the gingerbread walls with fingerprints, but they got the roof in place at last. "There! Look what we did, Roux! We should probably do the windows next. This is going to be the best gingerbread house—"