An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
“You okay, Cheryl?”
She stared at me with an expression I couldn’t decipher, but it clearly wasn’t happy. “I’ve had a day, Ezekiel.” My sister laughed in Jimmy Jr.’s arms as she clapped at my name, looking at me to pick her up. I set down the groceries on the countertop before kissing her forehead and shaking my head at her while mouthing ‘food.’ I put what I could away and then went back to cooking.
Cheryl eventually lifted herself to sit normally in her chair, her joints creaking in exhaustion and age. She tilted her head this way and that to let go of a few pops underneath, and then she leaned onto her forearms while hunched over her knees. “Now, what’s this I’m hearin’ ‘bout edibles?”
Jimmy Jr and I froze as we stood there in the kitchen, him dancing around the floor with my sister in his arms and me holding a piece of steak over an oiled skillet.
“Oh,” Jimmy Jr. whispered as soon as he gained his composure, adjusting my sister on his hips. “We weren’t-I mean, we were only discussing…I think you might have misunderstood what we were saying. We weren’t saying edibles-”
“Can it, ginger,” Cheryl demanded. “Ezekial.”
She looked at me, narrowing her eyes before glancing between the two of us. I sheepishly tried to smile my way through this, but she wasn’t having it. She again sighed, in what seemed like a combination of exhaustion and exasperation. She rubbed the bridge of her nose with her forefinger and thumb before sighing again and looking back up at us. “I’ll help ya, but don’t ya dare let yer pa know. I’ll feckin’ kick yer ass.”
I looked at her confused, my brows furrowing in distrust of the situation. It didn’t make sense for Cheryl to want to help me, especially considering she was trying to “clean up” our family image. Plus, she hadn’t baked since she left her family back in the mountains. What exactly was she getting out of this? “What makes ya wanna help me?”
She rolled her eyes, crossing his legs over one another and folding her arms across her chest. “This here’s ‘bout gettin’ that Belcher gal back, ain't it?” She looked between the two of us while Jimmy Jr. nodded his head in response. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she suddenly made full eye contact with me and a soft, sympathetic expression crossed her face. “Count me in. I can't handle another day of you moping ‘round this house ‘cause yer without her.”
