Advent Calendar - 17th December 2008
Fudge
by Leesa Perrie
Set Season 4
Thank you to Jayne Perry for the beta-reading.
Every Christmas, when she was a child, she’d make fudge with the
help of her Grandma. She’d only ever known her maternal
grandmother, her other grandparents having died before she was born,
though Mer remembered their paternal grandfather.
Their parents would pack up their presents, the kids and the car and
head down to Grandma’s place for Christmas, and Jeannie would be
allowed to help make the fudge that would be distributed around the
neighbourhood kids - and, of course, to Mer and herself.
Mer never helped with the cooking, though he always seemed to know just
when to appear to help lick a bowl clean. Remembering now, she
realised that Grandma had always dirtied two bowls when one would have
done. But then Grandma had been both wise and kind, and Jeannie
had cried hard when the old lady had died.
It was years since she’d made fudge. Her parents had never
had the time to make it and wouldn’t trust her to do so on her
own, even when she was a teenager, and in time the passion for it died.
But this year, when Madison had asked to make cookies, Jeannie had
realised that her daughter was growing up, and fast. It was time
to restart the lapsed tradition, and because her brother was visiting,
she made sure to dirty two bowls instead of one. Sure enough, he
magically appeared at the right time, though he did have the grace to
look a little sheepish. Well, just for a brief moment, before the
lure of sweetness proved too much for him.
It made Madison giggle, and she couldn’t help smiling herself at
his predictability, before pulling up a chair and making him share his
bowl with her, despite his attempt to pull it away and his complaints
about germs, and had she washed her hands, and why wasn’t she
sharing Madison’s bowl as well as his; the usual huffs of outrage
- yet he didn’t try all that hard to stop her.
Next year perhaps she would dirty three bowls.
But then again, maybe not, she thought wickedly, scooping out the last
of the mixture with her finger much to Mer’s obvious dismay.
This was much more fun.
The End
