39 Days

Day Four

It was another day, I didn't go to the market. I'm glad that I didn't because I walked out of my room and past my parents room and spotted my mom. She wasn't sleeping.

"Hi Mom," I said quietly, walking into her room, "why are you up so early today?"

She smiled at me, "I was thinking we could bake a pie today."

I was so happy, I nodded and ran down the stairs to get everything set up. I've been waiting for this day where we would bake a pie together, it's been so long. I grabbed whatever fruits I could find, which happened to be cherries and apples. Her favorite. I gathered the bowls and spoons and all the other ingredients I needed to start.

I watched her take each step down the stairs and shuffle into the kitchen, she sat in a chair at the table.

"Okay, Rose," she said, "I can pour the ingredients in."

"That's perfect, I'll do the mixing."

I happily brought her all the tools and bowls and ingredients and set them out in front of her. I went to a cabinet to find the cookbook where the recipe lived. The page was faded, yellow, and has bits of different baking ingredients on it.

"Okay Mom," I began, "we start with..."

And I read her the recipe until we reached the end of the ingredients.

"I made such a mess!" She said, I laughed and proceeded to toss a sprinkle of flour over her. She laughed and tossed flour back at me and the mess became fun. She was so happy.

"Hand me that spoon so I can actually get to putting it together." I said as seriously as I could, but we both couldn't contain our smiles. I got to mixing as she laid the crust in the pan while she waited for me to finish the filling.

The pie soon went in the oven and we waited. Dad came home and we all sat at the table drooling over the smell of the pie bubbling in the oven. We shared about our days and my dad told us he went to the pumpkin fair where the Green's won the award for biggest pumpkin for the third year in a row. Ian would've been so excited to hear that.

The timer went off and the pie was done, it smelled so sweet and comforting and it smelled like home used to smell when Mom was okay. This was one of the best moments I've had since she became sick. I cut the pie and we all dug in.

"This pie is so good, even better than I remember." My mom said and my dad and I nodded.

"It's amazing, an unexpected surprise." My dad looked at my mom and smiled, they shared a quick moment.

We all ate every last crumb of our pieces of pie and Mom sighed, "Dear could you take my plate? I need to go rest."

My dad said "Of course, Rose help her upstairs."

I stood by her side to help her up each step and helped her to her bed, she embraced me in a hug and kissed the side of my head.

"I love you so much Rosie," she paused, "thank you."

"I love you too mom, sleep well."