Chapter 4

I released the intercom and turned around to see three pairs of eyes looking up at me.

My daughter broke the silence. "What can we do?"

I could make a couple of cans of tomato soup and a stack of grilled cheese sandwiches with the equivalent of one eye shut and a hand tied behind my back. But when I looked down, there were three little people who were counting on me not to. They wanted me to find something for them to do so that they could help; something to make them feel useful. Jill had them trained. I could un-train them and pay for it with three disappointed, potentially rebellious kids or I could bite the bullet and figure out something they could do that would still allow me to remain sane. Let's face it. The kitchen is probably the most dangerous room in the house. Preparing your average meal offers more opportunities for accidents than most people realize. Burns, cuts, scrapes, having something slip and crash into a foot, you name it. And there's always taking something hot off the stove without thinking and spilling whatever it is all over you before dropping it on your foot. The fact that they would have to be elevated in order to reach areas that had purposely been put out of their reach didn't make things any safer.

Jill scared the hell out of me the day she had the girls grating cheese and told Annette to go ahead and grate her fingers so she could see what it felt like. I don't know what I would have done if Annette had blindly listened to her and done it. Jill must have known Annette better than I because Annette refused and she made it a safety lesson for both girls and got them to agree to look out for each other and themselves. And then she kept an eye on them without making it obvious, having them give cheese to the dogs when it got too small to grate safely.

That one comment taught both girls more respect for that grater than months of lectures and warnings ever would. They weren't afraid of it, in fact, they went on to grate a huge bowl full of cheese. But they respected what it could do and were cautious so it wouldn't do it to them.

Jill once showed me what she called her drawer of weird utensils over at the apartment and commented it was nothing compared to the one in her father's kitchen. I looked around. There were a lot of drawers in this kitchen.

"Laurie, do you know which drawer has all the weird stuff in it?"

"I think you mean that one," she said, pointing at a large one next to the dishwasher.

I pulled it out. If it wasn't the one she meant, it would qualify. There were cutters and grinders and scrapers and just about anything for the kitchen you'd expect to find in a late night infomercial.

The first thing that grabbed my attention was a jar that was open at both ends. A plastic lid screwed on the top. The bottom had a rectangular piece that the bottom of the jar moved back and forth on. This piece was similar to a sled with a cutting blade on the seat. There were slots to hold the jar close to the cutting surface. You unscrewed the plastic top, stuck your cheese, potato, onion or whatever else you wanted to slice, then screwed the cap back on. There was a plunger that you screwed in to keep what you were cutting tight against the cutting surface. Slide back before the blade, half a twist to screw the plunger in, push the whole thing along the cutting surface, cut an even slice, then pull back and repeat. Perfect slices every time, no way to get a finger in there; you could even adjust the thickness of the slice. Perfect.

The next thing I searched for was a basting brush. I found two of them.

I told Laurie to get the loaf of bread and Annette to get a coffee cup. I went to the refrigerator and got cheese, a stick of butter and the milk.

I unwrapped the butter and put it in the coffee cup. I hadn't looked at the cooking section of the kitchen yet so I did now. There was a stove with 6 extra large gas burners plus a griddle. That would be good for the sandwiches. There was an oversize oven under the stove plus a stack of built-ins next to it. The microwave was on top, then there were two ovens. That's right, the kitchen had three ovens plus a microwave.

I put the cup in the microwave for thirty seconds at half power.

There was a stack of glass cutting boards on the end of the counter near the phone and intercom. I got two of them and brought them over to the kitchen table.

"OK, Girls. You get to slice the cheese. Laurie? Have you ever used this?"

"Uh uh."

"OK. Very simple." I took it apart, then got a knife from the holder next to the cutting boards. The microwave dinged and I checked the cup. I set it for another fifteen seconds.

I opened the package of cheese, then cut it in fourths.

"OK. Very simple. You put what you want to cut in here. Then you screw on the lid. Go ahead, Annette."

She started to put in on and the plunger kept her from getting it on.

"Can you help her, Laurie?"

The two of them figured it out.

"OK. Now we slide it into the cutting area like this." I went ahead and did that.

I walked the girls through the slicing process, then turned them loose.

Annette was doing the first pieces so I asked Laurie if she knew how to open the cans of soup.

"I know how but the opener's too high up for me." She pointed at an electric can opener mounted under one of the cabinets.

I opened the soup and tossed the lids in the trash can under the sink. "Now for a saucepan," I muttered.

"Over there," Laurie said, pointing above the stove. There was a set of brass cookware hanging there. There must have been a dozen pieces up where I'd been looking a couple of minutes before. Talk abut feeling dumb.

"Thanks, Laurie."

"K."

"OK, Billy, you're up." I moved one of the chairs against the table sideways, then stood him up on it. "Careful you don't fall."

I got a saucepan and put it on the cutting board I had set up for him. I dumped the two cans of soup into it, then put them on the board. I got the milk and filled one of them halfway. These were the big cans of soup so it was close to a pint of milk.

"Think you can pick that up and pour it in the pan?"

"Yes."

He lifted it up with two hands and carefully poured it in the pan. I had my hand below his, ready to help out if necessary but he was fine.

"Good boy. Put it down. We have three more to do."

He put it back down and I put milk in it. While he was taking care of it, I put milk in the other can. He did that one, I refilled the first one and he took care of that. Four half cans of milk without a drop spilled.

"Good job, Billy!"

He smiled and said, "Good job. Good job."

I took the saucepan over to the stove and put it on low. I got a large spoon and stirred it a couple of times to mix the milk in with the soup.

The melted butter had been sitting in the microwave for a while so I pulled it out and put it on Billy's cutting board. Next was a stack of bread. The bread they had in the bread box was potato bread from Dudley's and was quite a bit thicker than the white bread you get in the grocery store.

"How's the cheese doing, Girls?"

They lifted up the cutter to show a stack of slices. There was hardly any left in the jar.

"Looks good. Why don't you give me what you have so far, then put another piece of cheese in there. You can put it right on top of the one that's almost done."

Annette said, "What about Posie?"

"OK. You can give her that small piece."

I hadn't noticed her; she'd been quiet. Annette took the cheese over to the door to the garage. Posie was lying on the rug just inside the door.

I took the cheese slices and moved them over to our cutting board. I pulled out a piece of bread and covered it with cheese. Another piece went on top, then I put it in front of Billy. I dipped the brush in the butter, then painted a portion of the top slice of bread. "Do the whole thing like that, OK?"

"OK."

I went over to the stove and checked the soup. It was starting to get warm. I swirled the spoon through it a couple of times and turned it off so it wouldn't overcook before the sandwiches were ready.

The combination of the thickness of the potato bread and my son's heavy hand were using up the butter faster than I'd expected. I got a second mug and put two sticks in the microwave, then went back to the table and spread out some bread. I had enough cheese to finish a couple more sandwiches with some left over.