The pot roast was roasting. Jenny was completing her Girl Scout cooking badge by massacring a head of Romaine and mixing it with giant size chunks of carrot and celery stalks. "Salads, made!" rang out from her bull moose lungs as she headed outside to swing. Lovie, the unbeknownst not so little one anymore, whose real name was lost to the naming gods, having never been uttered no more than twice since her birth was setting the table. "Forks on the left, Lovie... No, your other left," chimed in Charlotte who was mashing potatoes and emailing her editor all at the same time.
At first it seemed like a great idea to have the laptop in the kitchen. It held the family calendar, had internet access for a quick recipe look up, and there was constant email communication. No more running up and down the stairs to her office. But now, murmurs of, he wants what, when? filled the kitchen.
"What's up? Who wants?" asked Sarah walking in from school.
"Did you get the late bus or walk?" asked Charlotte without answering the posed question.
Sarah pulled two celery sticks out of the salad and chased them down with a hunk of carrot. "Caught the bus, dinner soon?
"About 15 minutes. Lovie has music lessons and I have a parish council meeting."
"And I'm babysitting till 8."
Charlotte dropped the masher into the pot of potatoes. "Is this Thursday? Shit... I forgot your standing job." Sucking her two lips back behind her teeth, she worked the calendar in her head. "Okay, I'll take Lovie to music. Come back take you babysitting before I head off for my meeting and then daddy will have to take the girls to pick you up. Okay, that'll work. Now set the table."
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