Chapter 19: 19. WRH VIII: If only they knew...
Edith was speechless. It was very true. She had not heard of her daughter in years now. And whenever Robert went to visit her, she never inquired about her health. But she cared less. After all her dad was there to care for her and she had Maxwell to care for. It was like they shared the responsibility of the two children among themselves.
Edith shrugged at the thought and dashed towards the kitchen, again, but stopped on a second thought. Maybe Robert was right this time. It was Maxwell's birthday. She might as well leave him to do whatever he wanted. Just for today. Then she would take him to the hospital for a thorough check up the next day. With that silly thought, she spared one last glance at the door and turned to go to the grand hall to supervise the decorations.
Meanwhile in the kitchen...
"I'm so sorry, Mrs Gerry, for what my mom did. You know how she is already. Please don't take this to heart." Maxwell pleaded. He felt bad, not because of what his mother came to do, but the fact that she had successfully managed to spoil the mood for the whole baking thing. He just hoped that they wouldn't insist on letting him go away, so he pushed further.
"Don't worry, I know dad won't let her come in here to disturb us again."
Gerry just stared at him, not knowing what to say to him. In fact, she had really made up her mind to send Maxwell away after his mother. But on a second thought, she decided against it. Who did Edith think she was, anyway? To hell with her condescending bullshit! She will allow the kids to have their own way and be happy all they wanted. After all, today was the last day Miriam was setting foot in this mansion. She was a hundred and one percent sure that the kids would never meet again.
"Its okay, Maxwell. But don't talk back at your mother again. That is so not cool, hmm?"
Maxwell opened his mouth to say something but he closed it quickly, deciding against it. If he had not talked back, he would have been out of the kitchen by now. That was what he wanted to say. At the end, he just nodded with a faint smile.
Then Gerry said, clapping her hands.
"Okay, enough talking. Let's get to work. Miriam, I already made the ingredients ready. Just start with the basic ones and I'll help you with the rest." Gerry said and turned to the other counter to start preping her ingredients. "You can start with all the chocolate recipes you know."
"Okay, mom" Miriam replied and turned to Maxwell with a smile.
As much as Miriam was excited to do this with Maxwell, he looked way too excited. He was rubbing his palms together and grinning foolishly like he had never done something like that before. Miriam had a feeling that he had never cooked anything before. And she guessed right, for Maxwell had never spent more than 30mins in the kitchen before. He could literally count the number of times he had been in the kitchen with one hand. It was either he was getting something for himself, as he was not used to ordering the maids around, or there were no maids on the spot and he was sent by his parents to grab something from the kitchen. His father mostly sent him on such errands, though. And so his happiness was out of the world.
Miriam was a bit fascinated by how happy he was about this simple thing. She thought the rich had it all, happiness, money, fame, you name it. She wasn't expecting him to be so happy about cooking, something she was so fond of and was gradually becoming a part of her life.
Curiousity got the best part of her, and she asked in a low tone. But Gerry could hear them anyway.
"Have you cooked something before? Like anything, at all?"
Maxwell scratched the tip of his nose.
"Honestly, I don't remember I did something like that."
"Really?" Miriam burst into laughter. "If you have ever done that, there's no way you can actually forget like that. Does that mean you've never cooked before?" Miriam said, still laughing hard.
"Hey, stop laughing." Maxwell mock-glared at Miriam and she quickly stifled the rest of her laughter. "Well I haven't cooked bef... wait I think I remember now." Maxwell said and turned to fully look at her, his eyes wide open in glee.
"I think I've cooked before..." Maxwell continued as he looked into space, as if trying to recall the event. "It was during the time mom was having a fever and dad wanted to prepare soup for her. I followed him to the kitchen and I remember he let me stir the pot for some time as he added..." he paused as Miriam burst into an uncontrollable fits of laughter, almost tearing up.
"What?" Maxwell asked, his hand left mid air as he was demonstrating how he was stirring the soup.
"You what?" Miriam couldn't control her laughter. "You were.... Just stirring and...You call that cooking?" Her voice breaking due to excessive laughter and tears. Gerry looked over her shoulders and smiled at the children and focused on cutting her vegetables.
"Oh come on, I did well with it, don't laugh too hard. Makes me feel like it was absolutely nothing." Maxwell defended himself.
"Oh yeah, right. You did very well." Miriam said with a tint of laughter. How can this boy call stirring, cooking?
"Really?" Maxwell asked, not sure if she was being sarcastic or she meant it.
Miriam wanted to laugh, but she held back and said,
"Sure, you did well. Stirring is a major part of cooking, so yeah."
Maxwell couldn't stop the smile that threatened to break on his lips. He was gloating over all this cooking thing.
"So do you remember the ingredients he added to the soup?"
"Um...yeah...I uh...I remember he added water, and... And salt, yeah, salt, and..." Maxwell paused and went into thinking, holding his chin and making a cute face while doing so, and Miriam who had been stifling her laughter all this while couldn't hold back anymore.
"Really, you don't remember anything apart from water and salt?"Miriam said, amids laughter.
"That's all I mentioned? I thought I mentioned 3 items."
They both burst into laughter.
"Hello, can you guys stop laughing and chit-chatting and start work?" Gerry had to step in, or else these kids might just end up talking and laughing till the time was up. "You can do all the talking and laughing later but right now you need to focus, okay?"
"Oops... sorry, mom. We'll start now." Miriam said as she nudged Maxwell with her shoulder to behave.
"Alright, so let's start with chocolate chips cookies and chocolate sugar crisps."
"Okay, so we will need chocolates, right?" Maxwell asked curiously. Miriam whipped her head to his direction and her jaw dropped. Really? Did he have to ask that of all questions? She didn't know whether she should laugh or cry.
Her expression made Maxwell realize how silly his question was, and before Miriam could say anything, he slapped his forehead saying,
"My bad, that was a pretty silly question. Right, yeah, chocolates. That's what we need."
Miriam giggled a little and said,
"Of course, we will need chocolates." Miriam echoed and glared at him, while he chuckled.
Soon, they started working harmoniously, with Maxwell following instructions and observing closely in order not to mess everything up, all the while laughing and nudging each other.
They were acting like they had known each other for years. The vibe was just so strong.
If only they knew how they would crave for each other after this moment, they would have prayed for this day to never happened.
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