The Lemon Meringue Boy

Part 8

The next morning I was awoken by footsteps pounding down the stairs. I heard Mabel's voice, immediately followed by Candy and Grenda's

"Candy, I promise you will get to help clean the lake!"

"Because I called it!"

"Guys, I think someone's making bacon. I smell bacon." As groggy as I was, I was reminded that that day was the day we began the big cleanup. I struggled to pull myself from my makeshift bed.

"MABEL! Be quiet! It's still..." I checked the clock on one of the monitors. "Six thirty?!?!" I bolted up the steps and gave Mabel a shove. 

"Why on earth would you wake me up at six freaking thirty?!?! Its summer!!!" Mabel grinned at me.

"Early bird gets the worm, broseph. We gotta get up early or all the good jobs'll be taken!"

"Are you insane?! Nobody in their right mind will fight over cleaning duties!"

"First of all, you said 'doodys' and that's hilarious. Second of all, nobody in this town is in their right mind!" I suppose she was onto something. I followed her and her friends up the stairs and into the elevator.

 As we ascended to the main floor I also started to smell bacon. And possibly pancakes. And a lot of smoke. We all scrambled into the kitchen to find Soos and Wendy attempting to cook.

"God, we're so glad you're here! Help, before we set the kitchen on fire!" Wendy was covered from head to toe in flower, batter, and bacon grease. Soos didn't look much better.

"Do any of you dudes know how to make pancakes? We wanted to surprise you hambones with a welcome back breakfast, then we learned that neither of us know how to cook. Pointers?" 

We all just stared at the two of them. I licked my finger and smothered a single glowing ember on Soos's "Kiss the Cook" apron. 

Finally, Grenda sighed and walked over to the pan and emptied out all the soiled food. Then she got out the eggs, flour, and everything else she needed and began to beat the batter. After a minute she looked up and shooed us out of the room. 

Ten minutes later, she emerged from the kitchen with the thickest, fluffiest gourmet pancake stacks I had ever seen in my life. They were even garnished with strawberries and topped with butter and bacon. She set them down and dished them out onto each of our plates. Then she drizzled maple syrup across the top as if she were a fancy waitress. We all stared at her, completely stupefied.

"I took lessons with Marius's private cook. Guess it paid off." She shrugged and sat down to dig in to her share. 

As we all began to eat, I began to recall the details of the previous night's dream. I remembered a voice. I remembered the fog. I didn't understand it. Why would I have that nightmare? Why would it be lucid? Why couldn't I control it? How was the voice able to wake me up? Before I was able to come up with any reasonable explanation, Mabel spoke up, and the last fragments of the dream faded from my memory.

"Aren't you all exited for today?" As she spoke, bits of bacon showered from her mouth. Wendy looked at her, confused.

"God, I wish I was you. Its work. Aren't you super bummed? Anyways, I guess it's not all bad. Since I have a driver's license, I get to use the pickup truck. Don't know how to drive a stick shift, but I wanna see how much stuff I can run into before they make me give it back." She chuckled and gave Mabel a high five.

"I call shotgun!!!" she barked, as if anyone was competing for it. We wrapped up our meal and attempted to clean the char and cemented batter off the counters. Then we headed out into town to see the damage.