Okay my lovelies, with this prompt, the writing prompts for the week are back on track and tomorrow Tuesday can start with well, Tuesdays prompt. It feels very good to have gotten these back on track. I know it isn’t a major achievement, but it certainly feels like it. And I kind of like where this one was heading. so that is certainly a bonus.
Monday, August 8th: The cookies were burnt.
The cookies were burnt. She stared at them as the sheet rested on top of the stove. The oven door, still open send waves of heat into her legs. She bent and closed the oven door, her eyes never leaving the sheet pan. The cookies she worked so meticulously to mix were ruined. She wasn’t sure how. She read every instruction, followed every line of the recipe. She even weighed out each round drop of dough to form her cookies. She wanted them to look just like the ones from the store.
They didn’t. They didn’t even look like cookies. The rounded shapes flattened out into thin disks, the butter within melting and spreading before burning. The scent of charred chocolate chips was acrid in her nose.
How had this happened?
Sarah slowly turned away from the ruin on the sheet pan and walked over to the recipe still sitting on the counter. She picked up the white index card and read through the instructions as she had before. She looked over the steps. Each of them had been followed in order. She remembered following them. She checked the oven temperature and the time she was to bake them. She remembered setting the timer after sliding the tray into the oven. She took the card back to the oven and compared the numbers written on it to the dial. They were the same. She followed the recipe.
Yet the cookies were burnt. Sarah looked from the tray to the card and then to the oven timer. She blinked and leaned in. There next to the dial was a dark smudge. It was hardly noticeable. As Sarah’s fingers had been coated with flour earlier, she made a mental note of watching what she touched and making certain not to leave white finger prints in her wake. She washed her hands repeatedly throughout the process.
The only thing dark in her cookies was the chocolate chips and those she stirred in with a spoon. When she did touch them they were coated with the rest of the dough. She had no dark fingerprints to leave behind.
But she knew who did.
Knowing that pointing out the sabotage would do no good, Sarah scraped the ruined treats into the bin and took out a second baking sheet. She lay down the parchment paper and measured out another batch. She checked the temperature and placed the sheet within, once again setting the timer. This time she stayed in the kitchen while they baked. As she waited, Sarah tidied and buried her anger deep within, reminding herself that now was not the time to let it loose.
Soon there would be a point where she would be unable to keep her anger within her, but she knew today was not the time. She set the oven fan on to clear out some of the acrid scent of the previously burned batch and the washed the used sheet, preparing it for the third batch she would make.
This time when the cookies came out of the oven, they were perfect. She slid the next tray inside as she set the baked cookies out to cool. Sarah knew that any inattention would leave the door open for another sabotage so she stuck close and watched both cookies and oven like a hawk.
‘I just have to get through today,’ she reminded herself. If today went well then she would be in the clear. ‘No temper, no recriminations, no accusations.’ She reminded herself, the words spinning through her head like a mantra. They calmed her temper somewhat and she felt the anger drain away. She just had to make it through today. As she began to tidy the kitchen, she wondered if the others realized this was the last day. She wondered if they realized this was the end.
Ten til Midnight 