The Masters

Chapter 4- Turner

Chapter 4- Turner

            "Mom! I'm home!" I shouted into the house.  I just dropped Jeff off at his sad little house across Front Street and I was exhausted.  Practice was brutal and every inch of my body ached.  I was completely out of shape from the lack of summer training for football and I was going to be paying for it in the next few weeks.  Tossing my backpack aside near the front door, I padded into the kitchen to find something to eat. 

            "Hi honey," my mom greeted sweetly when I got to the kitchen.  She was slaving away over the stove making dinner and the aromas wafting from the pots were salivating. 

            "What's for dinner?" I asked her, pulling the refrigerator door open.  My mom made the best food and every night was a surprise since she spent her days watching cooking shows on television.  Most people thought we had a kitchen staff or a personal chef who made us food whenever we wanted, twenty-four seven, but my mom enjoyed cooking so much that she refused to let my dad hire someone.  My family actually had enough money to hire an entire staff of cooks, maids, butlers, and what not, but my parents didn't like the idea of having other people living in our house.  My dad grew up with a live in staff, but he always yearned for family time, so when he married my mom they raised me and my three siblings on their own. 

            My family was pretty close, family night was every Wednesday and after my brothers left, it was just my parents, Sadie, and me.  My eldest brother Charlie, who was twenty-two, enlisted into the military at eighteen and after a tour in Afgahnistan, he got married to his wife Lilly and they now live in California. Charlie knew he was subject to founding family duties once my father retired, but for now he wanted to enjoy the freedom.  My second older brother, Daniel, lived in town with his wife, Ashley, and their two year old daughter Emma, whom they had at seventeen.  Daniel and I always got along, but it was Charlie whom I bonded with as he taught me how to restore old cars that were passed down from generation to generation in our family.  However, now that he was gone, I was closest to Sadie.   

            "I'm making this wonderful tofu dish that I saw on TV," she informed me, stirring the concoction in the pot.  "Doesn't it smell fantastic?"

            I looked into the pot and wrinkled my nose at the white chunks swimming through the thick stew-like liquid, but I had to admit that it smelled amazing, even though the white chunks were a bit unappetizing.  "What is it?"

            "It's curry tofu!" she said happily, covering the pot and walking into the pantry.  "Turner, could you go get the mail?" she asked from the pantry as I downed a bottle of water. 

            "Sure mom, I'll be right back," I called out to her as I walked out the kitchen.  Passing the doorway, I noticed Sadie's shoes were missing and turned back around to the kitchen.  "Mom, where's Sadie?"

            "She called earlier and said she was going to hang out with some friends.  Could you call her and ask if she needs a ride back home?" she asked me as she emptied the contents of a few boxes of pasta into a large pot of boiling water. 

            "Sure mom," I told her, pulling my phone out of my pocket.  "Wait, why are you cooking so much?"

            "Daniel is bringing Emma and Ashley over for dinner," she replied happily, stirring the pasta.

            "And you're making that much because..." I trailed off.  There were only six of us including Daniel and his family and she was making enough pasta to feed twelve people.