Pandries and Pandemonium
Carina raced to the canyon entrance with Jim as they had every day after school for the last month. Carina loved being with Jim, but she wasn't keen on going home either. Her seeming incapability of getting through to or acknowledged by her parents had worsened recently, resulting in her spending more time at Jim's house than her own. Jim didn't fully understand what was going on, but he didn't mind spending all his time with Carina. Once again they were riding double on their solar surfer, making their way carefully through the canyons and avoiding the restricted areas—even though that was the more exciting route. When they returned home Sarah barraged them with the usual questions about school, until Jim interrupted with his dinner request.
"Mom…" Jim put on his best begging face. "Can we have fried pandries? Please?" Putting down the dough she was kneading, Sarah turned to her son with a mock-surprised expression. "We've had fried pandries for dinner every night this week," her face twitching into a smile despite her best efforts. "But, you see Mom…" Jim wheedled as he put an arm around Carina's shoulders, "…they're Carina's favorite food. And she is a guest too, sooo…" he trailed off with a wide grin. Carina snorted and elbowed him. "If I'm a "guest" then why did you make me help you wash the dishes, sweep the floor, take out the garbage, build that—" she stopped abruptly and coughed, hoping that Sarah hadn't noticed her reference to Jim's latest, secret invention. Jim stomped on her foot all the while smiling innocently at his mother, who had an eyebrow raised and was looking at them suspiciously.
"So, can we have fried pandries Mom?" Sarah laughed and waved the children out of the kitchen. "How's this? You clean up your room and I'll make fried pandries again today." Jim and Carina squealed with excitement and bounded up the stairs to Jim's room. Chuckling, Sarah picked up the dough again and turned to the stove where eight large pandries were already sizzling away.
It only took about three minutes before an explosion and two sets of screams had Sarah hurriedly turning off the stove and sprinting up the stairs. Flinging open the door she stared inside, coughing and waving away the black smoke that was billowing out. "Jim", cough, "Carina, are you alright?" "We're okay!" both children called out from what Sarah realized was the bed. "What happened?" As the smoke cleared, Sarah saw that nearly everything was covered in soot and there was a plate-sized red disk lying in the middle of the wooden floor. "I told him not to do it" came Carina's voice. There was a scuffling sound, followed by a loud "Ow! Jim!" "You're the one who messed it up!" Jim countered. "Was not!" "Was too!" "Was not!" "Was t—"
"Okay, okay!" Sarah broke in. She sighed and peered under the bed at the two soot-covered children. They looked back at her with their best innocent smiles. Sarah rolled her eyes. "Just come out and tell me what happened." Jim crawled out first. "Well…" Jim stopped with an "ooff" as Carina used him to help herself stand up. "Jim was…" Said boy elbowed her again, and Carina retaliated by stamping on his foot. Both of them kept their too-big smiles plastered to their faces. "It's just a new invention! We only wanted to see if it would work!" both children blurted out. With a groan, Sarah headed back towards the kitchen. "Never mind, I don't even want to know. Just get this room cleaned up!"
