...ringring...
...ringring...
...ringring...
"Come on, it's not like she goes anywhere..."
Brooke knew that this wasn't just going to be a simple phone call. When it came to Aunt April, there weren't any "simple" conversations. That woman could talk the paint off the wall, and Brooke knew that with how long it had been since the two of them had seen one another, this was going to be one long, long talk. Brooke could have opened with "I'm on fire and I need you to dial 9-1-1" and the dotty southern belle on the other end of the line would have still probably needed a few minutes to nose her way into some preliminary questions.
Hopefully asking about her recipes would expedite the process.
"Hello?"
"Hey Aunt April, it's Brooke!"
"Oh my goodness, hell-o~!!"
For all of her faults, Brooke's aunt really was a sweet woman. When Brooke and Mikayla were little, they used to get so excited to go over to Aunt April and Uncle Henry's house. Not just because of the incredible spread that awaited them every time they walked through the front door (yes, even on trips where they stayed multiple days) but because, when they were kids, getting to play with their cousins had been the highlight of every Christmas and Summer vacation. The Widers and the Wests lived on opposite sides of the state line, which put a wrench in any long-term closeness that Brooke, Mikayla, and their cousins could have hoped to have, but it certainly hadn't dulled the passion with which April answered the phone for one of her two favorite nieces.
"Hey auntie, I just wanted to call—"
"Oh sweetie, I'm so happy to hear from you!" There was an obvious "but" at the end of that sentence that went unsaid, "Let me just put you down for a second..."
The sudden clamor of the ambient sounds of Aunt April's kitchen told Brooke that she had called in the middle of preparing (judging by the time) an early dinner. Or a very large dinner that required a lot of prep time. Either way, she was going to be put on speakerphone to bear witness to it. Hopefully, she could hang up before the main course was served.
"Okay, sorry about that honey, what were you saying?"
"...hey auntie! I just wanted to—"
"Haley, say hi to your cousin! She's on speakerphone!"
"...hi Mikayla."
"It's Brooke, but hi!" the black-haired bellbottom visibly struggled to keep the chipper tone in her voice, "So Aunt April, I just wanted to call and ask if you knew any—"
"Oh, Tara says hi too!" just away from the microphone, Brooke heard her aunt say in a hushed tone, "Tara, say hi!"
"Y-Yeah, hi." Brooke almost felt a blood vessel pop behind her left eye as she continued to try and steer this conversation towards her preferred track, "Anyway, uh... so I'm planning a party, and I wanted to know if you knew any old family recipes? I remember—"
"Awwww, remember when you and your sister would come over when you were little?" Brooke's Aunt might as well have ripped the conversation away from her like a mic at a comedy club, "The four of you were so cute!"
"Y-yes I know." Brooke had to fight hard to keep her tone upbeat, "That's... why I'm calling."
It might have sounded bad, but if Brooke could have gotten these recipes from anyone else, she probably would have. It wasn't that she didn't love her aunt, it was just that she was best taken in small doses. And when Brooke had a 3-hour car ride to prepare herself. While she and Mikayla had always gotten along swimmingly, Brooke had always found her aunt a little annoying. It didn't help that whenever she and their brilliant research scientist mother got together, her brilliant research scientist mother regressed into April 2.0. Clucking and gossiping like old hens about people that they hadn't seen in years, all while the rest of the family either stuffed their faces to avoid conversation or braved the murky waters of Adult Cousin Table Talk.
And boy, could her cousins stuff their faces.
Growing up, Haley and Tara had (somehow) stayed pretty skinny. The Christmas that Haley moved out of her boyfriend's apartment in Charleston, she probably weighed a hundred and twenty pounds, tops. Tara too! Back before the Charleston branch of DynaCorp went under, she had been a total stick. But living back home with their mom had turned them both into total hogs the last time that Brooke had seen them—there were five chins in a three-bedroom household, and both her cousins couldn't so much as bend over without getting out of breath these days. Hell, Mikayla hadn't even recognized Haley when they went over last year. Those two were porking out something fierce!
Whatever recipes Aunt April was feeding them had turned them both into total hogs in just the few years they'd been at home—and Brooke knew that with a little application, she could "help" Mikayla pick those pounds back up in no time... and thensome.
"So I was wondering if you had any of those old family recipes..."
Brooke tried again, fifteen minutes into their conversation as she laid out on the couch. She had gone from pacing in the kitchen to sitting down. The inevitability of the length of this phone call was already starting to weigh on her.
"Yeah, she's pretty smart. Y'know, Tara could probably help you scan your recipe book with her phone and..."
This was like pulling teeth. Just talktalktalk, for half an hour now. All on speakerphone, too. And Haley and Tara were still in the room—she could hear the sounds of them eating, clinking silverware, the occasional call for their mama. Why did everyone over the age of, like, thirty-five think that it was okay to have every conversation on speaker?
"You can send it to my email address! Or share it on like Google Docs or—n-no Aunt April, you don't need to pay for that."
It was going to be a long, long day. But Brooke had no doubt in her mind that she could get the information that she wanted eventually.
"O... Okay Aunt April, if you can get Haley or Tara to scan your recipe book and send it to me, I'll be happy to—of course I'll let you know how it goes... Yes, I'll call if I have any questions. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh, yeah okay. Yeah okay. Love you too. Love you too. Love you byeeeeee—"
Brooke collapsed further into the sofa. Sinking deep into the cushions as her muscles relaxed in triumph. She'd lost track of just how long the two of them had been on the phone, but it was all going to be worth it when she got ahold of those recipes. Mikayla used to gobble those things up when she was a kid—and it wasn't like she had a boatload of self-control now that she was an adult.
Brooke was confident that, with a little nudging and some set-dressing, she'd be able to get her sister to balloon in no time...
"...holy fuck it got dark outside."
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author
