My Brother's Best Friend

Memory Twelve

The only other time I can ever remember Joseph attempting to cook was the year when I was eight and he was eleven. It was Mother's Day and we wanted to cook mom something for breakfast. Joseph had woken me up super early that day and we both quietly crept down the steps and into the kitchen to make eggs an toast for her.

"Sky that's not how you crack an egg!" i remember Joseph saying to me as i banged the egg that wouldn't seem to break for anything against the edge of the counter. It eventually broken an the wet insides oozed into my hand.

"Yuck!" I said. Joseph huffed. "Just let me do it and you put the bread in the toaster." I put two slices of bread into the toaster and stood there bored as Joseph put the eggs into a skillet. "Are you sure you know what you're doing Jo? We could go get dad you know." I say.

"I know what I'm doing!" he insists concentrating on making the eggs. I roll my eyes.

"I'm bored Jo! When are we gonna be done?" I whined.

Joseph glares at me but he didn't say anything. He picked up a dish towel and sniffed the air. "What's that smell--- SKY! You burned the toast didn't you?!" He tosses the towel and rushes over to examine the damage. "Ugh! Now we're gonna have to throw them away and make new ones!" he complained. I'm not listening though because behind Joseph there were flames. The towel he'd thrown caught on fire. I immediately started to panic. My first thought was to run but I knew from the videos we saw at school that that wasn't a good idea. Joseph just gasped. "Sky, get me some water NOW!" I fill a big cup with water an hurry to hand it to him. He poured the entire cup of water on the flames but they don't go out. I screamed as i imagined our house burning down. My dad ran down the steps in his pjs.

"What is that smell?" I heard him saying before he came into the kitchen and saw flames. "What happened?!" he yells before rushing down the hall and returning with a fire extinguisher.

After the fire was out, Joseph was yelled at and punished for the entire day even though it was an accident that was kind of my fault. Joseph had been trying to do something nice for once in his life and it ended up ruining Mother's Day. No wonder he never attempted to cook again...