Sarah cooks on Shirley's night out

[sgtjoe]

Tuesday night I arrived home. As the garage door opened and I saw Shirley's car was missing I remembered -- the Party Women's Meeting.

Sarah was supposed to make macaronni and cheese. We would have a reading night -- as we always did on Tuesday's and Thursdays.

As I opened the door into the house, the smoke detector started ringing. Sarah burst from the bathroom and ran for the kitchen. I followed her, laptop still in hand.

A pot on the stove top was smoking, but that was the worst of it.

"Ooh!", Sarah shrieked. She grabbed one of the cordless phones.

"Sarah!", I said. "What are you doing?"

"I'm calling the fire deparment! The fire alarm's screaming! The house is full of smoke! We gotta get out!" She started dialing and I snatched the phone from her.

"Calm down girl. It's just a burnt supper. Turn off the stove. I'll silence the smoke detectors."

With the smoke detectors quiet, the range fan on, and a couple windows open, I took a look in the pan. It looked like macaroni-shaped charcoal.

"Looks like you let it boil dry", I said.

"Boil? I just put the macaroni and the cheese stuff in and let it cook."

"You didn't read the directions?"

"Were there directions?"

"Where's the box, Sarah?" I started laughing. Some things were just to silly to get upset about.

Having reviewed the directions with Sarah I said, "Well, next time you cook something it certain to be better than this. See the bright side? You're guaranteed to improve!" I laughed again.

"You're not mad at me?", she asked.

"No."

"Then you won't do anything about it?"

"Do anything? Since it was an accident that made a big mess, I have the perfect punishment. You can clean it up!"

"OK". She looked relieved.

"Start by putting soap and water in the pan and letting it soak during supper. Do we have something else we can eat?"

We pulled out peanut butter and jelly and made sandwiches.

As Sarah cleared the table, I noticed what she was wearing. A black t-shirt hung almost to the cuffs of her shorts giving the suggestion she was wearing nothing but that shirt. She sure knew how to show off those legs! She was barefoot today too.

I joined Sarah at the sink. "OK, you will need lots of soap and water and this scouring pad. These will do the job, but you'll have to work at it."

I turned toward the living room but heard a mutter. "Damn this stupid pan!"

"Hey!", I said. "Don't start on that." I went back to the sink and turned her chin toward me with one finger. "You made a mistake - an honest mistake, I think. But you're an adult. You can clean up your messes without making yourself and the rest of the household miserable."

She gave me a hard look and didn't answer.

"On the deck!", I barked. "Give me 10!"

She got down and did the pushups, then stood back up.

"Now, are you ready to clean up your mess with a good attitude like a responsible adult?"

"Yeah", she said and turned back to the sink.

[sgtjoe]

Sorry, folks, I hit 'Submit' when I meant to hit 'Save Draft'. This one is not finished!