Stirring It Up!

by Diane Muldrow

  So everyone went back to work. It was really Mom who did most of the work, but the girls were a big help. They learned a lot about cooking just by helping her. They roasted the chickens. They made a homemade barbecue sauce to go with the pork chops. They made homemade Caesar salad dressing for the romaine lettuce.

  “It’s gonna be so fun to show up and surprise Justin with all this food,” said Shawn.

  “What is Justin like?” asked Peichi. “I don’t know him.”

  “Ask Amanda,” giggled Molly “Or Shawn. They think he’s supercute!”

  “He’s nice,” said Amanda, turning red.

  “Sure, he’s nice,” said Molly with a shrug. “But I don’t see what’s so great about him. He’s just another boy.”

  “Yeah, what’s so great about boys anyway?” asked Peichi. “I think they’re—obnoxious! They’re loud! They burp! They throw food in the cafeteria! I mean, I guess some of them are okay to be friends with, but I don’t want them to be my boyfriend or anything like that.”

  “Well, anyway, I can’t wait to see Justin’s face when he sees all this,” said Amanda.

  “Yeah!” Peichi said. “His eyeballs are going to pop out of his head!” Everyone laughed.

  “And we’re not even finished yet!” exclaimed Mom. “Now we’ll make a bean salad. That’s good in the summer. Oh! We can make a pasta salad, too. And then I think we’re finished!” She smiled. “Unless you want to whip up some brownies.”

  “Okay!” said all the girls.

  “But let’s make a double batch,” suggested Amanda “One pan will be just for us!”

  chapter 12

  Finally all the food was ready.

  “Peichi, did your mom write down Mrs. McElroy’s cell phone number for me?” asked Mom.

  “Here it is,” said Peichi, pulling a piece of paper out of her pocket.

  “Thanks,” said Mom, reading the note. “Brenda McElroy. Okay...”

  Mom began to dial the phone, and told the girls, “She should be there now. I’ll give her a call to make sure someone is there to answer the door.” The girls all looked at each other and began to giggle nervously. It was almost time to deliver the food to Justin!

  “Hello, is this Brenda McElroy?” asked Mom. “Hi, I’m your neighbor Barbara Moore...I was so sorry to hear about the fire! And I’m glad no one was hurt... You’ll be back in your house in about three weeks? Oh, that’s great! Well, my daughters and some of their friends and I have made up some food to help you through this week! Oh, it was no trouble. We had fun doing it! My girls know Justin—oh, you met them at the store, that’s right...yes, they do like to cook! Okay, we’ll bring it over. See you in about ten minutes. Bye!”

  Mom helped the girls put all the food in sturdy plastic containers and on some colorful ceramic platters that she covered with plastic wrap.

  “I’ve never seen these dishes before, Mom,” said Amanda.

  “I haven’t used them since before you were born,” commented Mom, as she began to carefully place the containers in a box. “I’ve been waiting to sell them in a garage sale. But I’m glad I haven’t gotten around to it, because now the McElroys can have them. I have some old silverware, too, that I used in college! I’ll bet they can use it.”

  Mom went down to the basement to get some boxes and the old silverware. She came up with pink paper napkins too.

  “Those napkins say ‘Happy Birthday,” Amanda said.

  “Oh, Amanda, it doesn’t matter,” retorted Molly. “Mrs. Moore, maybe we could cut some flowers and bring them in a vase,” suggested Shawn. “To decorate their table.”

  “That’s a great idea,” replied Mom. “Why don’t you go into the garden and cut some of my roses and bring them in? I know I have an old vase around here somewhere. It’s ugly, but we could put a bow on it and no one will notice!”

  “A bow?” said Molly, wrinkling her nose. “Well, okay.”

  “Maybe we shouldn’t bring the roses,” said Amanda suddenly.

  “Why?” asked everyone else, including Mom.

  “Because maybe Justin will think—he 11 think that we‘re-I’m-we’re-being, uh, too fussy” said Amanda. “Like, romantic.”

  Everyone began to laugh. Amanda laughed too, but her face was red.

  “Don’t worry, sweetie,” Mom told her. “It’s just the centerpiece for the table! No one will think anything of it! And flowers make such a difference. Think how you would feel if suddenly you were living in a strange new place.” Mom put her hand on Amandas shoulder. “Remember. Manda. we’re doing this for all the McElroys, not only Justin!”

  “Okay,” said Amanda. She smiled at Shawn. “It is a good idea, Shawn.”

  Amanda went with Shawn to cut the best roses while Mom searched for the old vase.

  Everyone laughed when Mom came down from the attic with the vase. It was ugly, with its dull beige color and odd shape.

  “It looks like an onion,” Shawn pointed out. She began to arrange the roses, then stepped back. “This is hard!” she said. “What a mess. Mrs. Moore, can you make it look better?

  In just a few seconds, Mom made the bouquet look pretty. She cut some of the stems so that all of the roses weren’t the same height. “There!” she said. “And now for the finishing touch!” She wrapped a red velvet bow, left over from a Christmas gift, around the vase. “Time to go!” she announced.

  “Just a minute,” said Amanda. She ran upstairs.

  “Uh-oh, Amanda’s going to change her outfit,” said Molly, rolling her eyes. She sighed and sat down at the kitchen table as if to say, This is going to take a while!

  “Hurry Amanda,” called Mom from the bottom of the stairs.

  “She’s probably looking for an evening gown,” snickered Molly, as Mom walked back into the kitchen. Shawn and Peichi laughed.

  Mom playfully tousled Molly’s hair. “Meanwhile, I practically have to beg you to brush your hair once in a while,” she chuckled. “So don’t make fun of your sister.”

  Amanda rushed downstairs. She was wearing her new dark blue denim capris with white stitching around the pockets, a new white top, and sparkly beaded navy blue flip-flops. “I’m ready now,” she announced.

  “Very nice,” said Mom.

  “I love your flip-flops!” Peichi told Amanda. “They’re great! I want a pair of those!”

  “Okay, let’s go!”said Shawn.

  The girls picked up the boxes and carried them to the street, where Mom’s car was parked. Amanda made a face. Mom’s car was so embarrassing. It was a big old Cadillac. Its body was painted a weird color that was trying to look gold. The top was black. Why couldn’t Mom have a white SUV like all the other moms? But Mom loved her big old gold car. She’d inherited it from her favorite aunf, Aunt Hazel. I hope we park far away from Justin’s apartment, thought Amanda. She wondered why the car didn’t ever seem to embarrass Molly.

  After putting the boxes in the roomy trunk, everyone got in the car. Shawn held the vase on her lap in the front seat.

  “This car is great!” said Peichi.

  “Really?” asked Amanda.

  “Yeah! It’s so big! It’s like a boat!”

  It only took a few minutes to drive to 242 Garden Street. “This is it,” said Peichi.

  “Oh, good,” said Mom. “There’s a parking space right in front!” Amanda rolled her eyes. Yeah. that’s just great, Mom, she thought.

  The girls looked up at the pretty brick row house with flower boxes in all the windows. Peichi told them that the McElroys apartment was on the top floor. Everyone got out of the car and took a box out of the trunk.

  “You go first, Mom,” said Amanda. So Mom led the way up the three steps that led to the main door. She buzzed the top apartment.

  “Who is if?” crackled a boy’s voice through a speaker. Was it Justin? The girls giggled.

  “Hello, it’s Barbara Moore,” said Mom. “And company.”

  “Okay,” said the voice. There was a loud buzzing sound that made Amanda
jump, and the door unlocked automatically. Everyone came in the entry and began to walk up the two flights of stairs. Their footsteps echoed. They could hear a door creak open on the top floor.

  “Hello!” called Mom in her “cheerful” voice.

  “Hello!” answered Mrs. McElroy. “Come on up!”

  Stomp, stomp, went everyone’s feet up the stairs. Mrs. McElroy was waiting for them with the door open. “Hi. everybody!” she said. “Wow! Look at all the boxes! And roses, too!” She smiled at Mom and said, “Hi. Barbara. I’m Brenda.”

  “It’s so nice to meet you, Brenda,” said Mom.

  “Come on in, everybody!” said Mrs. McElroy. “Oh. I just can’t believe what you’ve done!” She ushered everyone in the door. “Hello, girls, it’s nice to see you again,” she said warmly to the twins as they passed her.

  “Hi! I’m Amanda.” She gave Mrs. McElroy an extra-big smile, then she looked beyond the door for Justin.

  “Hi. I’m Molly.”

  “Hel-lo! I’m Peichi Cheng!”

  “Oh, you’re Song’s daughter!” said Mrs. McElroy. “We’re so grateful to your mom and dad.”

  “Hi, Mrs. McElroy. I’m Shawn Jordan. It’s nice to meet you.

  “Hi, Shawn, it’s so nice to meet you,” said Mrs. McElroy. She gestured to Justin and Ian, who were standing at the entry to the kitchen. “Here are my boys. This is Justin, and that’s Ian!”

  Justin and Ian waved awkwardly. “Hi,” they both said, as they began to take the boxes from the girls.

  “Wow! This is a lot of food!” said Ian, looking inside the boxes. He looked up at the girls with a grin. “This is really great. Thank you.” Then he quickly shot Justin a stern look that meant, Say somelhing polife, you bonehead!

  “Thanks a lot,” said Justin. He was blushing. So Justin’s shy, thought Amanda. That’s so cute. “Um, we were just waiting for Dad to come home,” Justin added. “Then we were going to go out for dinner. But this looks a lot better!”

  “Wow! Two roasted chickens! Tomato sauce! And look at this,” exclaimed Ian, as he held up a glass baking pan. “What’s the stuff on top?”

  “That’s a cobbler,” Amanda spoke up. “You need to bake it. The stuff on top is the crust. I like it a lot!”

  “You’re not getting any of this, Ian!” Justin told Ian. He took the pan from Ian and looked at it. “This is all mine!” Now Justin didn’t seem so shy anymore.

  “You’ll share it with all of us, buddy,” chuckled Mrs. McElroy. She looked at Mom and said, “But I know he could eat the whole thing by himself!”

  “That’s right,” said Mom. “So—what exactly happened with the fire? Was it a bad fire?”

  “Justin and I were in the kitchen,” replied Ian. “I smelled smoke, and then we saw smoke coming from one of the outlets—”

  “Then there was this sound, like, POP!” interrupted Justin.

  “And then a small flame,” Ian went on. “We called 911 right away.”

  “It turned out that the wiring in the kitchen was very old and in bad shape,” added Mrs. McElroy. She sighed. “It seems like we just moved in, and then we had to move out again! But my husband, Scott, and I are just glad the boys weren’t hurt. They were home at the time. I was on my way home from the office, and Scott was on a business trip.” She smiled at Peichi. “The Chengs have been wonderful,” she added. “Song called us only an hour after the firefighters left. We knew right away that we had a place to go.”

  “Was there much damage?” asked Mom.

  “Not really,” replied Ian.

  “Until the firefighters got there,” added Mrs. McElroy. “There’s some minor water damage from the hoses, of course. And the firefighters had to open up the walls and the ceiling to make sure there were no other fires. So they’ll have to be repaired.”

  “If was kind of cool when the firefighters brought in the water vacs to suck up the water,” said Justin.

  That made Mrs. McElroy roll her eyes. “Boys,” she said jokingly. “Well, thank you again—so much! I know we’ll all enjoy this delicious food.”

  “Yes, thank you very much,” echoed Justin and Ian.

  “You’re welcome!” said the girls all at the same time. That made everybody laugh.

  Then Mrs. McElroy’s eyes welled up with tears. She looked away for a moment, then turned back to Mom and the girls. “We’re a long way from Chicago, where we came from,” she said. “It’s so nice to know that we’ve moved to a community where people really care about each other.”

  “We like Brooklyn,” stated Ian. “It’s like living in a small town, even though it’s so close to Manhattan.”

  Justin nodded. “I like it better than living in the suburbs,” he added.

  “Well, we had fun doing the cooking,” said Amanda, looking at Justin.

  “Yeah! And we did it all today!” said Peichi. “We just kept cooking and cooking!” Everyone laughed again.

  “Please keep the dishes and silverware,” Mom told Mrs. McElroy. “They’re old. You’d be doing me a favor!”

  Mrs. McElroy laughed as she showed everyone to the door. “All right,” she replied. “Thanks again for everything!”

  “Bye.” said Justin and Ian.

  Amanda couldn’t help turning around to see Justin on her way out the door. He waved at her. She waved and turned back around quickly so that he couldn’t see that her face was turning red.

  “Bye!” said Mom and the girls. They headed back down the stairs and got back in the car.

  “We did it!” exclaimed Molly. “Operation Feed the McElroys!” Everyone gave each other high-fives.

  “Did you see how happy they looked?” said Peichi.

  “They sure were surprised,” added Amanda. “I’ve never really helped anyone like that before.”

  “It feels good to do something nice for someone else. And it was fun because they weren’t even expecting it,” said Shawn. “That was the best part!”

  Mom started the car. “Right!” she said. “They thought they were all on their own. I’m glad I took the day off to do that. It does feel good to help. And I’m proud of all of you girls for wanting to help.”

  Mom backed the car out of the tight parking spot. “Okay, Shawn and Peichi, I’ll drive you home now.”

  As Mom headed down Garden Street. Molly gasped. “Look who it is!” she said. “On the sidewalk over there!”

  “Natasha,” said Amanda. “Mom. why are you slowing down?”

  “So you can say hi to her, silly.”

  “Maybe she won’t want to talk to all of us,” said Amanda. Mom stopped the car anyway, but Natasha, who was walking a small dog, was involved in her own thoughts. She didn’t hear the car.

  Shawn and Peichi lowered their windows. “Hi, Natasha!” called Peichi loudly. “Over here!” That made everyone giggle, even Mom.

  Natasha was startled. She turned around, then when she realized who it was, began to slowly walk toward the car. her little terrier following on its leash.

  Natasha bent down to see everyone in the car. “Hi,” she said. She smiled, but it was a brief, sad smile.

  “Hi, Natasha,” said Molly.

  “Hello,” said Mrs. Moore to Natasha. “It’s nice to meet you, Natasha.”

  “Hello. Mrs. Moore.”

  “We just delivered all the food to Justin’s family,” Amanda told Natasha. “We cooked all day today.”

  “Really? That sounds like fun,” said Natasha. “I wish—”

  Just then, everyone heard a woman’s voice call severely, “Natasha! Who are you talking to?” It was Mrs. Ross, standing on the steps of their house, a few doors up the street.

  Natasha stood up, and the girls couldn’t see her face anymore.

  “Just some friends, Mom,” she said.

  “Who?”

  “Just some friends,” Natasha said, louder this time.

  “It’s time to come in,” said her mother.

  Natasha bent down again and looked in the car. “I have to
go,” she said. “It was nice to meet you, Mrs. Moore.”

  “Bye,” said everyone, but Natasha had already turned away and was hurrying toward home.

  chapter 13

  Everyone was quid as Mom began to drive again.

  “Poor Natasha.” said Mom. “She seems so sad.”

  Molly was beginning to have an idea about Natasha. “Mom, do you think that maybe Natasha wanted to cook with us today?” asked Molly. “And her mom just didn’t let her?”

  “Yeah,” added Amanda. “Maybe she doesn’t really hate us after all.”

  “That could be the case,” replied Mom. “Maybe her mother is overprotective and doesn’t let her do much outside of the house. When I was about your age, I had a friend who wasn’t allowed to do much of anything.”

  “Oh,” said Molly. She looked out the window and tried to picture what it would be like if Mom never let her and Amanda and Matthew do anything. Well, at least they could still play with each other. But Natasha didn’t have any brothers or sisters.

  “I hope that you’ll keep inviting her to do things.” said Mom. “Maybe her mom will come around after a while. I think Natasha needs to have some fun! Does she have many friends?”

  The girls thought for a moment. “She had one friend,” Shawn said. “Remember Monica what’s-her-name?”

  “Monica Aguilar,” said Peichi. “She moved to Washington, D.C., last year. So Natasha’s been pretty lonely for a while, I’ll bet.”

  “Why do you think Natasha lied and said those terrible things about Molly and Amanda and me last year? She sure acted like she hated us then,” Shawn asked Mrs. Moore.

  “People sometimes lash out when they’re unhappy” Mrs. Moore replied. “That’s how they deal with their angry feelings. They try to make other people feel as bad as they do...well, here we are.” She stopped at Shawn’s house. “Shawn, tell your dad I said hello.”

  “Thanks, Mrs. Moore,” said Shawn, as she got out of the car. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow. This was fun. Bye!”

  “Bye!” called the girls.

  “Next stop, Peichi’s house,” announced Mom. “Then we’ll pick up Dad and go to Luigi’s restaurant. Let someone else do the cooking!”