The Clove Surprise

It was the day before my grandmother’s birthday, which lands on mother’s day this year. Today, May 9th, is the day that me and my two neighbors, Jasper and Maya, both eleven like me, show the world that kids can cook. Well, our families, at any rate. My parents had invited their families over for dinner and dessert, celebrating my grandma, my mother, and Jasper’s mom. Maya’s mom had died only last year, leaving heartbroken Maya and her father to a house by themselves. We don’t usually talk about Maya’s mom too often, so I don’t push the subject as we start getting ready to cook a pie, a batch of brookies, and some of my mom’s famous cupcakes. Those are the desserts for tomorrow night, and everyone is counting on the three of us to make dessert perfection. “I’m here!” calls Jasper from the front door. He lets himself in, and strolls into the kitchen with a big grin on his face. “Late,” says Maya from behind a cookbook, which she is probably trying to memorize so we don’t have any cooking disasters. Which is nonsense because we are all familiar with cooking pies, brookies, and cupcakes. 

  Jasper rolls his eyes as he pulls up a stool for the island. “so, Zoe, what are we starting on?” Jasper looks at me. “hmmm, well I was thinking we start with the brookies, since they’re the easiest. Then we can start working on the pie and the cupcakes. The whole process shouldn’t take any longer than three hours,” I reply, looking at the two of them. Maya puts the book down and nods. “but we should start thawing the crust, shouldn’t we?” she eyes the freezer. We had made the crust yesterday, and since it had taken a lot more time than we had thought, we decided to freeze it until it was ready. Jasper and I nod. We all know how to cook pretty well, but I think Maya knows the most, both because her excellent cook of a mom had taught her, and she had always been the one to notice all the details, like Hannah in Just Add Magic. In fact, it’s pretty funny because Jasper acts more like Darbie than he intends to let on, and I pretty much mirror Kelly. Not just because I have long, waist-length brown hair and brown eyes but also because I love cooking, my grandma, and hanging out with my two besties, who I would do anything for. Jasper, funny and oblivious as he is, is really a chill kid, and really enjoyable to be around, as well as a comical relief at the right moment. And, as much as Maya may be a worrywart and a organization-freak, she always knows how you feel, even if you don’t show it, and she always knows how to comfort you when you need it.

  As I start getting out the ingredients for the brookie recipe, Maya calls out everything we need and Jasper starts writing down what we don’t have. Living in a small, recluded area like where we live, a trip to the corner store is no harder than going on a bike ride. “Okay, Jas, what do we need from the store?” asks Maya as she finishes up the list of ingredients for all the desserts we are making for today. “we need two more sticks of butter, another bag of flour, some more vanilla extract, another carton of eggs, and three blue raspberry slushies,” Jasper reads from his list of needed ingredients. I share a glance with Maya. “what do we need three blue raspberry slushies for?” I ask. “For something for us to drink. Duh,” says Jasper. Maya and I roll our eyes. “By the end of tomorrow, you’ll be so stuffed with sugar that you won’t be allowed any more sugar for the rest of the week,” says Maya, giving him the ‘smart-alec-I-know-better’ look. He sticks his tongue out. “Says who?” he mirrors her look and crosses his arms. “ME.” says Maya, scooting off her stool to help me prep the ingredients. Thirty minutes later, the brookies are in the oven, the pie crust is thawing, and Jasper is begging for slushies again. Then my grandma walks in. “Hello ladies and gentleman,” she smiles. “oooooh, do i smell brookies?” she asks, hovering over the oven. “Well, you’ll have to wait for the menu tomorrow. I heard from a little bird that it’s someone’s special day,” I wink at grandma. She chuckles and then shuffles out of the room to her bedroom on the second floor. The three of us share a smile. “so far, so good,” says Jasper, reaching into the chocolate chip bag for the fourth time today and popping a handful into his mouth. Just as Maya is about to say something to Jasper, probably about how unsanitary it is to shove your hand into a bag of perfectly good chocolate chips, my brother Shane comes into the kitchen. “You spoke too soon,” I whisper to Jasper out  of the corner of my mouth. Shane’s wicked little seven-year-old mouth smirks a wicked little seven-year-old smirk and says “ooh, brookies. I call the first and biggest piece!” he giggles. “If you want a single bite tomorrow night, you’ll keep your dirty little hands off anything we bake,” I snarl. He sticks his tongue out. “Or we’ll tell your grandma!” adds Maya in a sing-songy voice as Shane runs out the front door, going to call on Jasper’s little brother, Jake. “close one,” Jasper sighs, as we all get back to work. “Okay, what now?” I ask Maya fifteen minutes later. She reads aloud from the cookbook our next few ingredients to add to the pie filling. “ground cloves, ground cinnamon, and salt.” Jasper heads to the spice pantry right on the edge of  doesthe counter near my dog Cookie’s food and water bowls. “On it,” He says. but just as he’s reaching to grab the three spices, Shane races back into the kitchen to grab some chocolate chips, knocking Jasper off balance, who is on tiptoe trying to reach the cloves. He jabs the cloves, knocking them onto the counter where the glass vial shatters and the cloves spill into Cookie’s filled food bowl. “oh no!” Jasper groans as he drops to his knees to try and scoop out the powder that is now mixed in well with Cookie’s dog food.  “we..can..still..save..it..” Jasper grunts in between each syllable. “noo, we can’t. That is so disgusting and unsanitary, I can’t let anyone eat that.” says Maya flatly. I reluctantly agree. “We can just go get more at the store. We need a few ingredients anyway,’ I say. By now, the smell of cloves has filled the kitchen and we rush outside to get a breath of fresh, not spice-filled air. “Shane’s gonna pay for the cloves, right, Zo?” asks Jasper as we sit on the porch, no longer shaken up but mostly just angry. I pat his leg. “Yes, of course. I will tell my parents, and they will make him pay for it. It doesn’t cost too much anyway, but I will make sure Shane learns his lesson,” I say, reassuring Jasper that there is no way that it was his fault. “Well, as this throws us off schedule, we might as well get started for the corner store,” says Maya, standing up. Me and Jasper also stand. “you’re right. we can’t waste any more time than we already have,” I say. “Jasper speaks up. “which is exactly why only two of us should go to the store, the other can stay home and continue baking.” I look at Maya. “Well, you probably have the most cooking experience,” I say. “How about your staying home and me and Jasper go to the store. It’ll save a lot of time,” I add. Maya looks reluctantly toward the kitchen and then slowly nods her head. “I could continue cooking so that by the time you get back, we’ll be back on schedule.” So then it was decided, Jasper and I would go to store and pick up the needed ingredients, including the cloves that were now needed, while Maya would stay at my house and make up for our lost time. “Got the list?” I ask Jasper as we go out the door towards the store three blocks away. “yep,” he says, and then shows me the list of butter, eggs, vanilla extract, flour, and the previously erased slushies. “I’ll make Shane pay me back later. The last thing we need is more commotion with him,” I decide out loud. “good plan,” says Jasper, as we come up to the corner store. After an easy search for the four baking ingredients on the list, we stand in the spices section, confused. After we’ve searched for five minutes for the cloves, we still can’t find the little glass bottle of powder. “I give up,” sighed Jasper, sitting down on the aisle. “We’ll never find it.” He looks sullen. I suddenly get an idea. “be right back,” I say, then jog up to the pay counter and call on Mr. Bellacheck, the owner of the store. After I explain our dilemma, Mr. Bellacheck comes around the counter and walks to the spice aisle where Jasper has given up and laid himself out on the floor. He chuckles as Jasper scrambles to straighten himself, and then peers at the spices, just like we had done a few minutes prior. He frowns. “Hmm, I can’t seem to find these ground cloves,” he sighs. Then we all spot a hole where a spice was supposed to be settled. Underneath the shelf, where the price tag was, were the unmistakable words ‘ground cloves’ in tiny print. I sigh, and Mr. Bellacheck starts walking back to the front counter as we follow. “seems to me we’ve run out. Lemme check the back, we might have an extra.” Mr. Bellacheck then walks through a door marked ‘employees only’ on the other side of the counter, and comes back with a dissatisfied face. “sorry, kids, couldn’t find it. But we should have a new stock come in”- He squints at a piece of paper hung up on the wall-”by Monday. Can ya wait that long?” Jasper shakes his head. “we’re making a pie for mother’s day tomorrow. Can’t wait that long, Unfortunately.” We say thanks and walk out of the store with our purchased items. Jasper is slurping a slushie. “What now?” Jasper says as we start towards home. “well, maybe the pie doesn’t NEED the cloves. we could bake without it, couldn’t we?” Jasper looks uncertain. “I don’t know,” he says. “It’s unwise to bake a recipe without an ingredient, especially if you don’t know how important that ingredient is. We should play it safe, we could ask around and see if any of the neighbors have some we could use. I think I remember Maya saying we only need one teaspoon or so,” He finishes. “Good idea,” I say, and we walk in silence the two minutes until we have stopped in front of my house. Once we have gotten inside, we explain the problem to Maya, who has been working tirelessly, the cupcakes and pie just waiting for the final ingredients we have gotten from the store. As we finally put the cupcakes in the oven, we all agree to ask around for cloves, staring with their houses, both Maya and Jasper come out of their own houses, shaking their heads in disappointment. We then ask around, but everyone we come upon has run out. “Well, we’ve asked everyone,” sighs Maya in exhaustion. “No. Not everyone. Ms. Juniper up the street is our last person.” Jasper says it with fake confidence. We all know he isn’t brave enough to knock at Ms. Juniper’s place. No one is. She is a very creepy woman, and her house is almost creepier, hidden partly by trees and overgrown bushes. She has been thought of as a witch, as the rumors have it. No one goes to her house to trick-or-treat on Halloween, but there is a tradition between a few of the teenage boys to Tee-pee her house instead. She lives in solitary, and the only time she goes out is to go grocery shopping. “Ohhh, noo. I heard she once murdered her cat because it made too much noise,” I say. “I heard that the reason she never leaves her house is because she keeps a prisoner and must make sure they don’t escape,” says Maya, trembling a little. “I heard that she hasn’t spoken a single word for over fifty years, says Jasper, whispering at this point. We huddle together on my porch. “No way are we going there,” says Maya. “just no way.” Jasper looks at her. “But what if we don’t have any other choice! I mean, everyone knows we are making a pie, and we can’t just put their hopes out because we don’t have any cloves! That’s just silly! Here, we’ll leave a note saying we are going to Ms. Juniper’s, also saying what time we left and if we were gone for more than half an hour, someone bring the police and investigate the place!” Jasper stood up. I stand too. “Agreed, we can’t give up on the pie because we don’t have all the ingredients, and this is our only choice. Our only chance to make mother’s day and grandma’s birthday as wonderful as possible. I’m in.” I say bravely. We both look at Maya. She sighs, then stands up too. “I guess you’re right. But if anything bad happens to me, I will never forgive you for dragging me into this.” She eyes us, and I guess neither of us choose to point out the fact that she is dragging herself into this. “Deal,” Me and Jasper say at the very same time. 

  Ten minutes later, note written and placed fragile on the counter, we’re off. At the edge of Ms. Juniper’s property, Jasper says what none of us want to say. “This is our last chance to turn back. Anyone out?” Maya looks like she wants to back out, but she remains silent. We slowly creep towards the front of Ms. Juniper’s house, where we can hear the sweet sound of a piano being played, and silently fight over who knocks on the door. I finally stand up and do it, then take a few steps back and wait. We all huddle together, expecting something bad to happen. The piano stops. Nothing happens. “She's not home,” whispers Maya, but I don’t need telling twice. As I’m about to back up and turn around, the door creaks open. A pair of eyes stare at us, the three of us frozen in fright. Once the door is fully open, a lady in her mid-sixties’ stares at us. A bird, crow maybe, stares at us from her shoulder. We all stare in shocked silence. Then she finally speaks. “what do you want?” she croaks, taking a half step forward. Maya, who I totally expected to be cowarding by now, calmy replies “We are baking a pie for mother’s day tomorrow, and we found we are out of ground cloves. Might you have any we could use for the pie? We only need one teaspoon for the recipe.” she talks fast, and when she is done, she waits patiently for a reply. The woman is silent for a moment, then she speaks. “I, uh, might have some in my kitchen. Wait here please.” she disappears, and only a few moments later reappears with a glass bottle in her hands. “I don’t have too much, but you may take what I have.” She handed over the vial to Jasper, who whispered a thank-you. Then Maya noticed something, and softly sighed. “my, that is the most beautiful piano I have ever saw in my life,” she said, looking over Ms. Juniper’s form in the doorway. She stared at Maya. “Thank you.” She seemed as if about to say more, but silenced herself. After maybe fifteen seconds, she kept going “It was my mother’s. She gave it to me shortly before her passing when I was thirteen. Having no father, I have been an orphan since, living here alone in this marvelous house. I had a husband, but he passed, shortly before I gave birth to twin girls, who live with their families now. They are all grown up,” Ms. Juniper said, all at once.v She looked longingly at the three of us, as if we were her lost children. “I’m so sorry,” I said, hushed. “It’s alright. You just look right like one of my twins, and I couldn’t help but notice it. I don’t get visitors often. Would you like to come in?” Ms. Juniper seemed to be warming up to us. “We would love to, but we must get back to our kitchen to finish preparing dessert for tomorrow’s dinner,” said Jasper. I suddenly got an idea. “Ms. Juniper, would you like to spend mother’s day tomorrow with us? Our families are coming together to celebrate motherhood, as well as my grandma as it is her birthday tomorrow,” I said, on a sudden inspiration. Ms. Juniper for a moment looked excited, and asked where we lived. I gave the details of our adress, telling her that we were close neighbors. She looked happy for a bit, then got moody again. “I’m sorry, children, but I just don’t know. You see, I haven’t been in the presence of people in a very long time. I don’t know if it is too soon to be interacting with others again.” she looked crestfallen. Me and the others seemed disappointed, too. “Well, if you change your mind, don’t hesitate to join us,” says Maya. Then we said goodbye, and headed home.

 “peculiar,” I say, as we walk down the street back home. “Indeed,” says Jasper. “I do hope she joins us, she really is the opposite of what I’d imagined. She really is just lonely after all those years,” said Maya thoughtfully. 

  The rest of the day went by in a flash. we finished the pie and cupcakes, cleaned up the kitchen, and before we knew it, the next day had arrived, everything had been set up, and we were sitting down, getting ready to say grace. Maya and Jasper peeked out the window one final time, hoping to see Ms. Juniper arrived, but there was no sign of her. We finally accepted that she wasn’t going to come, and everyone sat at the table, clasping hands to say grace. Then, there was a knock at the door, almost too faint to recognize. The three of us shot up, raced to the door, and found Ms. Juniper standing there, dressed in a pretty gray dress with a white pearl necklace and the slightest touch of makeup on her face and her straggle of gray wavy strands in a bun neatly on top of her head. She looked gorgeous. We immediately let her in, and formally introduced her to everyone at the table. She sat down in a table setting we had prepared for her, and beamed. “Thank you so much for inviting me,” she said, looking at the three of us. “of course,” I said, and we smiled. Dinner went well, the house filled with the love and laughter of family. Dessert was the best part, and no one enjoyed the pie more than Ms. Juniper herself. For after all, it had been the accidental mishap of that bottle of ground cloves that had brought together neighbors and restored an old woman’s soul.

   The End.