Even Alpha's make mistakes
‚Scott, what is that smell?' Melissa McCall shouted through the house. Either she was imagining things or the clear smell of something burning was slowly drifting to her room.
'Nothing mom! Don't worry about it!' Came the hurried answer. Which in Scott's mom's book meant she definitely needed to worry about it. With a sigh she climbed out of bed and slipped into her comfortable house shoes. There went her day off. It had been nice of her son tell her not to worry about anything, to lay back and read a nice book, but clearly, he couldn't survive two hours without her.
'Scott, what on earth are you doing?' She called from afar. She wasn't cruel. She would give him a chance to get rid of whatever the hell he was burning before she got there. Plausible deniability, or something along those lines. Melissa didn't think her son was doing anything extremely dangerous but when she made her way down the stairs her maternal instincts started to kick in. Black smoke was coming from the direction of the kitchen.
The microwave? The toaster? The oven? Please don't let it be the oven, she sent a silent prayer to the heavens. Christmas was in two weeks' time and they could barely afford the food on their table. Buying a new oven wouldn't be an option until she got her new paycheck. And even then, other things would have to take priority. It would be ages before she could bake anything again. Stop it, she mentally scolded herself. You don't know what has happened yet. Her pace quickened and she strode into the kitchen, covering her mouth with a cloth she had snatched up on the way.
'Scott!'
'Mom!' He shouted back from somewhere in the smoke.
'Open a window for the love of…' A coughing fit interrupted her. She almost blindly stumbled to the window and ripped it open. Whatever her son was making it was creating so much smoke she could barely believe it.
'Where is it?' She yelled at him.
'In the oven!' He coughed back.
'Open it and take it out!' She instructed, trying to sound authoritarian while almost choking on black smoke. Damn raising a child was tough work.
Once Scott managed to do as he was told a giant cloud escaped the oven, slowly leaving the kitchen through the window. If someone saw this and called the firefighters Melissa would single handedly… She suppressed her rising anger and rubbed her throbbing temples.
'Sorry mom!' Her son came towards her through the still hazy kitchen. 'I didn't mean for it to go wrong…'
'What on earth were you making?' She asked, suspicious. He laid a baking tray in front of her and she had to lean closer to inspect the charcoal black little lumps. Realization dawned upon her face and she looked up into those adorable brown eyes that were already pleading with her.
'Were you trying to make cookies?'
His defeated sigh told her everything and she couldn't help but smile.
'Honey, that is very sweet of you.'
'I don't even know what went wrong!' He burst out, angry. 'I did everything the way it said in the recipe.'
'Did you set the oven to 5? You know we don't have a gas oven but an electric one? The settings are different.'
Bulls eye. It was a mistake Melissa herself had made when first using the oven. The lesson had been learned the hard way. Though it had been nowhere near as spectacular as Scott's failure. She had to laugh as he pouted and hugged him but shoved him away almost instantly.
'Dear God. Go get a shower. You reek of burnt cookies. Get your clothes to the washing machine too!' He shouted after him when he set off.
By now the air was clear again and Melissa gave the clock a fleeting glance before rolling up her sleeves.
'What are mothers for?' She murmured to herself before going to the cupboard and setting out everything necessary for a new batch of delicious chocolate chip cookies. In about two hours the entrancing smell of homemade cookies drifted through the air. In the end Scott had helped and they had ended up sitting down to watch a movie together. Now he was happily devouring his mom's treats, a little boy again.
Happy second Advent indeed, Melissa smiled.