"Alright," Kirsten's voice is small as she begins her story; she is looking at her son though the veil of hair that has fallen across her face and into her eyes.
"Well when Seth was five years old, he must have been five because it was the first mothers day after we moved back to Newport from Berkeley, Seth decided that he was going to make me breakfast." A smile spread across her face at the thought of her then five year old son, Seth was so small when he was young too, he was always the smallest in his class it had surprised both Sandy and Kirsten when he was one of the first if not the first to hit puberty, attempting to make her breakfast.
"This is going somewhere good." Ryan interjected a huge smile on his face while Seth attempted to hit him, missing miserably and whacking his hand hard against the side of the coffee table instead.
Ryan loved to hear stories about Seth when he was little; he often wondered if anybody had bothered to store away in their mind memories of him as a young child.
"As you can imagine, Seth, who was hoping, I assume, that I was still asleep so he could surprise me, was making a ridiculous amount of noise, but I just lay in bed and pretended that I was still asleep, because I thought that Sandy must have been down there with him and I didn't want to ruin his surprise, anyway about five minutes later I heard the fire alarm going off and Seth screaming at the top of his lungs."
"I can imagine." Sandy laughed resulting in Seth hitting him across the back of the head.
"You weren't there?" Ryan asked.
"Nope, I'm sure Kirsten will get to where I was in a minute." Sandy replied still laughing.
"So I run downstairs, I was panicking; all I can think is that my little boy is on fire." Kirsten said her eyes getting wide at the memory.
"She had come downstairs in such a hurry that she had forgotten to get a robe or anything, I remember that, all she was wearing was a Berkeley sweatshirt and her underpants." Seth interrupted.
"How come you're allowed to say underpants? Kirsten asked.
"Because it is better than panties." Seth replied sticking his tongue out.
"True." Sandy agreed.
"Who was telling the story here?" Ryan asked anxious to hear the rest of Kirsten story and struggling to imagine her as anything other than the cool, calm, collected woman he has come to know in the last year and a half.
"I was." Kirsten looked up at him smiling. "So I get down to the kitchen and the toaster had jammed down burning the toast Seth had tried to make and he was standing in the middle of the room, totally fine but screaming his head off, I was so relieved I burst into tears, which only frightened Seth more, he ran outside screaming 'I'm sorry mommy.' Over and over, the kitchen was a disaster zone, there was flour and sugar and cereal all over the floor, I was standing there laughing and crying for about five minutes before I went outside to find Seth."
"She still hadn't put any clothes on by the way." Seth said making gagging noises.
"Thankyou Seth for your insight," Kirsten laughed. "I went outside and found Seth hiding behind a pot plant that was in our driveway back then, I was still crying, he was still yelling 'I'm sorry mommy." So I picked him up and told him that everything as going to be OK and that I hadn't meant to cry, I was just glad he was OK."
"Then I came back." Sandy said looking guilty.
"Yeah, Sandy came back and he was looking really confused and frightened." Kirsten was giggling like a schoolgirl as she said that, Ryan loved this side of her, he didn't get to see it all that often, the side of her that was totally unguarded.
"I had left them in bed like an hour before, now they were both outside wearing next to no clothing, crying hysterically, I think I had a right to look confused and frightened to say the least." Sandy injected, mock seriously.
"I was yelling at him, I was trying to hit him with my free hand, I wanted to know where the hell he had been and he was all nonchalant after realizing we were OK so he just goes 'Honey I was surfing, like I do every morning.' I was so angry at him then, I made him clean up the kitchen and get us breakfast while Seth and I went up to my room to open up the presents Sandy and Seth had brought me, then I banned him from surfing for a month." Kirsten smiled as she said the last sentence.
"It turns out and I don't even know if Sandy knows this, well I had assumed that Sandy knew about Seth's little plan and had just decided to go surfing anyway but Seth told me last year that he had set his alarm clock for five minutes after Sandy left, Sandy had no idea, neither of us had any idea that Seth could even tell the time." Kirsten leaned against Sandy again as she finished her story.
"That wasn't that bad." Seth smiled while pretending to wipe sweat from his brow.
"Now it is Sandy's turn, I think you need to pass me that popcorn there Seth." Ryan said laughing.
Seth didn't miss when he attempted to hit Ryan this time.