Jem…Chapter 113 by Bailey Summers Copyright © 2013 Bailey Summers All Rights Reserved.

Jem…Chapter 113 Thankfully

Chapter 113

I set the empty sampling bowl in the sink and then get my keyboard and Kim and I are writing notes and playing some of them out and I vocalize along with it as we’re doing the sheet music for *Bring the Rain.*

It’s beyond cool that this is something that Kim has written and this actually opposite *Magical Power Panties* shows her range and stuff and I love the fact it will give her a songwriter’s credit. Well another one.

Do you know the number of song writing female drummers is out there? Me neither but it has to be a really low number. That alone really hide of has me in Kimmie’s corner a lot at least when she’s really trying to do stuff bandwise.

I can see it y’know? I mean it’s not just Rayne that got hurt by Summer and the split up the band was one of the first real things that she had that was real, that wasn’t something that was planned by her folks or that it was something that they thought that she should do or be like and stuff.

And that was gone.

I see Kim and I see a girl that is my age that has actually done almost as little as herself in a real way as I have. Actually all of us except Rayne and while Rayne had done a lot she also had all the good that had come out from her doing that and had it yanked out from under her.

We’re all on the same playing field as girls in a whole lot of ways really.

We actually get the music written and I go and get the laptop that I do that on and we get it copied over to that one and we do up all the sheet music and the lyrics and stuff and we tag the fees to our stuff to come out of our accounts and we legally copyright the song and the music.

The pay stuff is actually to get the agency that handles our covers to accept our song under their protection. It’s sort of a double copyright in a way. And yes we can do both without singing or playing the song yet.

“I want to do this tomorrow at The Pine Tree Supper gig.”

“Really?”

“It has the right sound and stuff and we can do it’s very first version in this lighter format and then we can do another one that’s more ‘I Believe’ styled.”

“That’s so cool.”

“And it’ll be a good show thing too if we have a new bit as a special first time thing just for them it’ll make a better name for us and The Pine Tree with special gigs and stuff.”

“We should make something too.”

“Like the brittle?”

“Yeah but like different.”

I smile and look at her. “Fudge.”

“Huh?”

“We make fudge.”

“I don’t know how to make fudge.”

“It’s easy and we just flavor it with some pumpkin pie filling and cinnamon and nutmeg.”

“Uhm…okay but can we make some basic kind first?”

I look in the larder, there’s lots of sugar and brown sugar there. “Sure.”

She squees.

And I think that woke some of the others in the house up.

I can’t help but to smile.

Then hmmmm…mmmm…fudge.

Fudge for those who aren’t used to it it’s basically creamed sugar. Like creamed with milk and you add corn syrup and stuff.

Like butter fudge… 3 cups of white sugar, 1 cup of milk, ½ cup of cream (My add in that usual is 3and ½ cups of milk, 1 table spoon of vanilla and 2 cups of corn syrup and a ½ cup of butter.
Melt the butter then add the sugar and when that’s gone melted but not browned you add the corn syrup and then the milk and cream and you stir it until it starts to cook down and you have to keep stirring it because the mixture will burn very easily to the bottom of the pan.

Once it gets to a candying boil you take it off the heat and let it cool…this is the tricky part and not…let it cool until it gets the barest of cracks on the surface like the start of ice on a puddle like just barely then you whip it until it stops being glossy. It does that because you’ve put a lot of air into it and then you pour it into a wax paper line pan and put it into the fridge to cool and harden.

Not the freezer it’ll freeze the water in the fudge faster than anything else and will wreck it.

But all of the flavors of fudge are just variations…take away the butter and use peanut butter…peanut butter fudge, the same for chocolate and our pumpkin fudge we use pie filling and spices.

Kim makes Max and his family a pan of peanut butter fudge and chocolate fudge both.

I make several large containers of the pumpkin and get them put away and I make some for Molly and some for dad and the boys but that will be put away in the crisper of the fridge until they eat what’s already made.

Then it’s out to check the turkey again and inject some more of the juices into the bird and then baste the outside some more and soon it will be time to take the top off of the roaster and to turn the heat down and let it get all browned and lovely.

I head inside and check on the laundry quietly and it turns out that I don’t have to with Molly and Carmen being awake and they’re doing more washing but also they’re doing computer stuff and Carmen’s watching movies on her tablet.

I smile and do a lean on the door and finger wave. “Hey…things better?”

Carmen nods. “Yeah…turns out Molly’s all kinds of awesome when you’re having a break down.”

Molly looks up shocked her eyes wide and then she blushes. “No, I…”

I grin and nod. “Hey, you’ve had our back with those videos and the evidence and stuff with Summers backstabbing before you even knew us so yeah figuring out you’re awesome isn’t too hard Molly.”

Molly… “I…” and she blushes.

And Carmen’s looking at her with this really sort of soft look. It’s that look that you see someone give someone they really like when that person isn’t looking.

I smile. “I’m going to get started decorating and stuff okay?”

They both nod and I slip away and head to the new dining room and where dad has mom’s boxes and I start to dig things out.

Mom had this unique stuff I mean there’s the potpourri and then there’s the little knick-knacks all from the dollar store and stuff but they’re so…cliché that it’s still kind of cool.

Fold out paper 3-d things like acorns and apples and stuff like that and then there’s those plastic wet and stick decals that you put on glass and those we have a lot of and I’m putting them on the windows in the house and on the fridge.

And then there’s a couple of posters she has that I unroll that are like kittens playing in leaves and stuff.

She liked going all out with stuff like this and the last thing is taking out the table linens with the table cloth and real napkins and then I’m doing the dishes. Washing them off but doing mom’s good china out from the hutch and cleaning it all off and the silverware and Rayne comes from the TV room to help me and Kim’s helping too and we even clean out the hutch and clean the glass and I give it a polish with some furniture polish.

It hasn’t been used in way too long and I let Kim set the table and she’s doing a serious job of it like she’d have done if she was home except she’s humming as she’s working and I go and inject the turkey one last time then take off the lid for the roaster and let it really start to get some color on it.

The slow cooker stuff’s actually done so I move it aside to cool and the bread and pies and all the baking is out and we now start all the veg dishes so everything is going to be done.

I get some of the regular plates and some paper towel and that will be the coasters for the dished that will have hot food to help save the table and then we’re getting busy and I holler upstairs and them outside. “We’ll be ready in an hour!”

There’s actually small rush as everyone that’s not been helping and stuff goes and gets ready to get all cleaned up and I’m making everything as neat as possible with plate of sliced bread and real butter and the rolls and get out all of the gravy boats and the other food warmed in the oven.

The turkey is now inside and on the table…I clip away all the trussing and I make a bed of lettuce and decorate it with another of mom’s tricks.

Place the bird on the platter and the lettuce but take some cupcake papers the waxed ones are best and use like three or four of them so they’re thick enough to hold up and that’s where you put all the pickles and beets and mustard beans and all of those little things. The paper sucks up the juices that seep out and you can put all those extras out and not use dishes and you can decorate around them.

I make little nests around them from finely shredded red cabbage and some cherry tomatoes and segments of oranges. It actually looks good and dad can carve the turkey.
The gravy I have going and cooking down and I buzz up the veggies that I had in the roaster and then add them back into it before I add my roux and I want it to get thick enough and just thick enough that it coats the back end of my spoon and then I strain it. Any thicker and it will glop up as it cools. I taste it and even I’ve smiling and nodding. This was actually better turkey gravy that the last I made, I think pre-making the roux and having the herbs and stuff in there with it was definitely the way to go.

The very last thing I get done as the girls are setting things out is the mashed potatoes.

Mashed isn’t whipped.

The only real secret is use a high starch potato, a baking potato is the best for making mashed potatoes and steaming them instead of boiling them is best and then it’s salted butter and a little cream and the potato masher and you want them just with those two extras enough to help it mash you or rather I want big fluffy mashed potatoes.

Molly sets up her tablet and we have some dinner music playing which is really nice with this mix of Louis Armstrong, Otis Redding, Leonard Cohen, Dido, Travelling Willbury’s, The Beatles…Carmen has gotten cleaned up and stuff and she sort of looks a lot like Zoe Saldana the actress but well a teenager with a little longer hair and lighter skin but definitely beautiful. She’s in yoga pants and an oversized sweatshirt for the Montreal Canadians hockey team.

Tunes just seem to make the mood especially a nice classic mix like this.

Really good tunes… Dad comes in shaved and showered in deck shoes and bare feet jeans and a simple t-shirt and he kisses us on the cheeks and he is singing along with Aaron Neville’s *Bird on a Wire.*
I like Cohen’s too but this one is my favorite versions of that.

Mike comes down looking freshly showered and Brooklyn too and they’re both smiling that big smile of together and a little extra too. I smile at Brooklyn and she gives me a warm one back. I love the fact that she looks genuinely happy right now.

Billy and Davey both come in and Billy looks good too with a shower and a shave and a denim shirt on and he looks right now more the cowboy type than some hardcore biker well other than him wearing his “cut” (That’s his biker vest.) and he has this pure pleasure smile on his face and he actually is looking at the food and rubbing his hands together. Davey’s the shocker with him wearing nice dress pants and a dress shirt and actually wearing a tie…he’s the only one actually doing that and he looks good cleaned up.

And the last one in is Uncle Mitch who’s actually wearing just old jeans and an RCMP t-shirt, I think that’s like one of the ones that they wear like working out and stuff with the police navy blue and the gold insignia decal on it.

None of us are really religious but Dad asks. “Anyone want to say grace?”

I look at everyone and I nod. “I’ll do it.”

I take Rayne’s hand and she takes Kim’s and so on and I… “God…I’d like to thank you for this second chance. I’d like to thank you for bringing us all together and into each other’s lives and giving us the strength to hang on until we could all get together so no one ends up falling all alone anymore.”
“I’d like to…” I just look up and… “Thanks Mom…Happy Thanksgiving.”

And I’m crying a little and some of the others are dabbing at their eyes and Daddy…he’s so Daddy right now he’s looking up too and his eyes are closed a little bit and there’s a bit of this smile there and he coughs then and we sort of break up the hand holding but he wipes at his eyes and we’re going through some paper towels without even touching the food yet.

There’s a few deep breaths all around and then Dad’s carving the turkey and then we’re passing things and then there’s lots of talking and praise for all of the food and not all of it goes to me. It’s really cool seeing Kim get such a lift from this too.

It’s really cool seeing all of us…all of them just…we all kind of have broken families and we’ve all sort of come together here and everyone’s just feeling that so much.

It was worth every bit of missed sleep and all the time and all the prep work and stuff just to see this. I’ll admit I eat a little heavy and Rayne actually doesn’t police her food and Kim is eating a little bit of everything and the guys….Well they’re guys with homemade food and food that they’ve been saving room for all day.

Kim has seconds even if it’s just turkey and some gravy. I think that she likes turkey a lot which is kind of awesome really given she’s Japanese. I know it’s really white middle class of me but it’s just cool to see how excited she is over this compared to the rest of us.

I’m pleased with the turkey but it’s a little over done. Moist because I kept using the injection baster but it’s actually over done really. I wanted to make sure that the stuffing was done and everything but next time I’ll good it with the dish and maybe just put something aromatic in it instead like pear halves and some thyme.

Billy had three helping of my dressing since you I guess have a really hard time getting summer-savory out west. I’ll have to get some and send it out to Jenna.

When everyone’s done eating the meal and that takes a while I look at them. “Desserts”

There’s grins and smiles all around and I get us and Rayne helps me clear the table of the food and Kim goes and she starts to bring in the desserts and stuff and Rayne runs another pot of coffee and I use the mixer and make a big bowl of whipped cream for whoever wants any.

It’s pretty cool how happy they make everyone. Dad has a huge slice of the mincemeat first and then pumpkin and it’s a good thing I made so much because between Mitch and Billy the mincemeat pie is done. The pumpkin ones go next with everyone having at least a little slice and then Rayne has a big slice of the lemon…I think she likes it and Kim does too and Mike and Carmen and Brooklyn and Davey do serious damage to the coconut cream.

I blush because after Davey finishes his wedge and had some coffee he comes over and kisses me on the cheek and he takes the pie plate with what’s left and he sits back down and he proceeds to eat it…..and holy moley I think we’re actually seeing a smile on his face

And then we’re done…or done for now and I have to make myself get up and move and clear the table…Dad takes the plates from me and stuff I have and smiles. “We’ll do the rest you and the girls go and relax and stuff and us guys will do the clean-up.”

I give him a hug. “Deal.”

It’s pretty cool the look of…huh? On the faces of Carmen and Molly as the guys pretty much shoo us out of there and take over the cleaning up. It’s so very cool to see how happy that it seems to make Brooklyn and Rayne that they are doing that for us.

We head into the TV room and all sort of settle in the couches there and the chairs and we turn on the TV and search through the things on satellite until decide on something to watch all together and Rayne had the remote so we actually end up watching *Lillo and Stitch* together.

Happy sigh…and I fall asleep in Rayne’s arms pillowed on her chest with blankets and everything just…Awesome.