فصل 27

CHAPTER 27

Half-Baked Afternoon

Keisha invites Albert and me over to her house for a surprise. When I arrive, Albert is already there and Keisha is wearing a baker’s hat and apron.

So, when do we eat? Albert asks.

No free ride here, Albert. We have to cook first, Keisha says, putting a cookbook on the table.

Albert seems disappointed.

You’ll be able to eat. Don’t worry. And in the meantime, think of this as a science experiment. So it’s two of your most favorite things, Albert.

I am pretty happy until she opens the cookbook and slides it over to me. You’re in charge.

Of what?

The recipe! What do you think?

What? Is she kidding?

And Albert, you can be in charge of rolling the dough. Going to try cookie dough today to see if the letters cook at a similar rate to cake.

I’m freaking out over having to be in charge of the book. I’d rather be in charge of teaching cats to play hockey.

And my mind spins into that mind movie. When I start laughing, Keisha asks me what I’m doing. I have to shrug. Push the picture of a goalie cat with skates and a mouth guard out of my head.

Ally? Keisha pokes me.

Yeah?

I asked, what’s the first thing?

Albert appears next to me. I’d rather do the book. You want to trade, Ally? You can roll out the dough.

Sure, Albert. If that’s what you’d rather do, I don’t mind switching.

Albert begins reading the ingredients while I roll out the cookie dough. It’s sticky and hard to roll. Keisha points to a package of flour. Hey, sprinkle some of that on.

I manage to get the dough rolled out, but I have my doubts about all of this. I look at the alphabet cookie cutters she uses to make letters. What do you want me to spell?

Well, the letters are kind of big for cupcakes, so it can only be three-letter words. Spell whatever you want.

I spell cow because it’s the first word I think of. Then we stand the letters up in the bottom of each cupcake mold and cover them with batter.

Once Keisha slides the first batch into the oven, Albert asks, Can I have some milk?

Keisha shrugs. Sure, she says, taking a glass and filling it.

Albert gulps it all down and asks, May I possibly have some more? We switched to water at home. I really miss milk.

She hands him the gallon. Help yourself.

He sits with the milk and wraps his arm around it like he’s protecting it.

I laugh. You’re not getting that back, Keisha, I hope you know.

I have a question, Albert says after licking the milk from his lips. If you spell ‘cow’ inside a cupcake, can a vegetarian eat it?

Boy, Keisha says. You really take everything seriously, don’t you?

Hey! I turn to the oven. Is it supposed to be smoking like that?

Keisha pulls on a mitt. When she opens the door, smoke fills the kitchen. The cupcakes have oozed all over the tops of the pans and fallen on the bottom of the oven. It’s a mess.

She groans. Oh, man!

You should wait until the oven cools before you wipe it, Albert says.

Keisha turns to him. Yeah. Thanks, Albert.

You’re welcome, he says, and she rolls her eyes.

She’s disappointed that cookie dough will not work for letters. She and Albert figure out that the cookie dough expanded more than we thought it would and that’s why it made such a mess.

But I just keep thinking that whenever I write something, it turns into a big mess.