"Guess it's just going to be you and me today, Helen!" Frances smiled and wrapped an arm around her daughter. Fred and Freddy had gone on a hunting and fishing trip together.
"On your and Papa's anniversary…" Helen stated solemnly.
"Yes…but that's alright…." Frances smiled.
"Mama,….can we make something in the kitchen?" The now 11 year old asked. She was already so excited! Helen always loved to help her mother in the kitchen. "For your anniversary!"
"Why sure!" Frances smiled. "What are you thinking of making?"
"I don't know….I wanna experiment!" Helen giggled.
"Well, okay." She laughed with her daughter. "Let's see what we have in the kitchen."
"Can we make….a dessert?"
"Sure!" Frances smiled and they walked into the pantry and Helen started looking for ingredients. She found some apples and bananas and also found a few jars of maraschino cherries, cubed pineapple, mandarin oranges.
"Oh, so you're making some kind of fruit salad? That will be good Helen!"
"I think its sounds yummy! All my favorite fruits!" Helen grinned. "Can I use the whipped topping you made too? I think that would make it taste even yummier!"
"Of course." Frances smiled and the two of them started slicing the apples and cut them up in chunks, peeled and sliced the bananas, and opened the jars of cherries, pineapple, and mandarin oranges. They mixed all of the fruit together and added the whipped cream to it.
Frances took a little bite of their little creation they made and instantly loved it! "This is wonderful!...It's so good…I just might take the whole bowl and eat it myself!" She laughed.
"Mama!" Helen laughed and put her hands on her little hips.
"Here then!" Frances chuckled. "Have a little taste." She said, scooping a spoonful of the fruit salad.
Helen took the spoon and ate a little, then took a few more spoonfuls.
"Well? What do you think?" Frances chuckled. "Does the little cook like her own creation?"
"It needs something more…" Helen thought out loud, her blonde eyebrows scrunched together as she pondered on what next to put in it. Helen went back into the pantry to look for something. "Walnuts!" She said, and grabbed a container of them from off the second shelf.
"Great idea, Helen!" They then mixed the walnuts into the bowl of fruit salad.
"Perfect!" The eleven year old exclaimed after tasting it. "Here Mama, you taste it again." Giving her mother a spoon and watched her taste a little. "How is it? Good?"
"Eh…." Frances said.
"Eh?" Helen asked. She thought that was strange, considering a second ago, her mother loved it! The walnuts wouldn't make TOO much of a difference! Would they?
"Just kidding!" Frances laughed, and grabbed the bowl of fruit salad and took off into the next room!
"Mama!" Helen laughed and ran out of the kitchen and into her mother's sewing room. "Mama, give it back! Mama, please?" She laughed. "Mama!"
"You want it?" Frances chuckled.
"Yes!"
"You really want it?"
"Yes please!" Helen laughed.
"Are you sure?"
"Mama!" Helen exclaimed.
"Okay!" Frances giggled and slapped a spoonful of fruit salad on her daughter's face.
Helen opened her mouth and closed it….she saw her mother was still giggling at her. "Mama!" She laughed. "I didn't want it like that!"
Frances kept laughing and wrapped her daughter in a hug. "I'm sorry."
"Thank you!" Helen smiled.
"I'm sorry….I missed a spot!" And she covered Helen's other cheek with their sweet concoction.
"Mama!" Helen laughed. "You're silly!" Yet, she thought, what goes around, comes around, so she took a spoonful and flung it at her mother's face. Hit her right near her nose and on her mouth!
"I guess I deserved that, didn't I?" Frances chuckled and licked her lips a little. "C'mon. Let's go get cleaned up and then we can enjoy what's left." She laughed and they went into the kitchen and got a wet washcloth and cleaned their faces from the sweet dessert they made.
"What's this we have here?" Fred laughed as he and Freddy walked through the back door, returning from their little trek.
"Mama and I got in a fruit salad fight! But we cleaned up." Helen said.
"Y'all did, huh?" Fred grinned, and leaned in and kissed his wife on the lips. "Now that's how I like my kisses…Sweet." Fred smiled, and gave her a few more kisses on the lips.
"Lip-lock!" Freddy, who was now 13, piped up and grinned at them.
"Freddy!" His mother exclaimed and looked at him. "Goodness, I won't ask!" She finally said. "Just, don't say that again!" Frances said, blushing a little.
"Um,…pretty good fruit salad, too!" He chuckled a little. " Who's recipe?"
"Mine, Papa!" Helen beamed. "I made it! Mama helped!"
"Y'all did, huh?" Fred smiled, and held his daughter by her little shoulders. "Gimme a bowl! I'll have to try some."
"Okay, Papa!" Helen grinned, and fixed him up a bowl. "Want some too, Freddy?"
"Sure…" He said and slid into his seat at the table.
"What do you think of it, Papa?" Helen asked.
"Wunderbar...Dies ist sehr gute!" Fred spoke in German. Meaning, "Wonderful...This is very good!"
"Thank you, Papa!" She beamed. "How to do like it, Freddy?"
Freddy said nothing, and just kept eating….and eating. He even had a second large bowl of it!
"I'd say he likes it." Frances chuckled.
"I would too…" Fred laughed. "So what's the name of it, Helen?"
Helen thought for a moment to try and think of a name to call her sweet dessert. "Helen's salad!"
"That's logical!" Frances chuckled. "It's a fruit salad….and you're the one who made it."
"It's all I could think of." Helen shrugged her shoulders.
"It's a good name for it." Fred smiled at his daughter.
"So, did you two get something on your little trip?" Frances asked.
"Nope." Fred answered her.
"Oh, I'm sorry honey….don't worry, you'll get something the next time out…" She smiled, wrapping her arms around his waist.
"Can we go show her, Papa?" Freddy asked excitedly.
"What did you guys get me?" Frances grinned at her husband.
"As you might be able to tell….we didn't even go hunting today." He grinned a little, whispering to her. "We went to pick up an anniversary present. Part of it is out in the yard."
"Part of it?" She asked.
"C'mon outside." Fred grinned and grabbed her hand and headed out the front door to the slope by the barn. Already in the ground was some kind of bush.
"What is this?"
"It's a snowball bush, Mama." Freddy said, walking over to them. "Papa and I planted it instead of goin' hunting and fishing today."
"I see that." Frances smiled. "It's beautiful….thank you." She said touching one of the bright white blooms on the bush. The flowers so soft and delicate. She hugged her 13 year old boy, held his face in her hands and kissed his cheek. "Thank you for such a wonderful present….Love you."
"Love you too, Mama." Freddy smiled a crooked grin and went back inside.
"Come here…." Frances turned to her husband and embraced him. "I love you too….The snowball bush is just beautiful. Thank you." She smiled and kissed him.
"Happy Anniversary…." Fred grinned. "Been a wonderful 13 years…." He smiled.
"I hope to have many more." Frances smiled.
"So do I." Fred grinned and kissed her forehead. "Love ya." He whispered in her ear. "Still as pretty as the day I met you."
Frances laughed. "I highly doubt that!...This tiny figure has vanished! I've gotten pudgy…."
"Oh hush." Fred smirked.
"I have!...Now you…you haven't changed much." Frances grinned. "Those ears of yours! Still stuck close to your head! Like they're glued there." She giggled.
"Yeah, my ears." Fred chuckled.
"I like your ears." She giggled and cupped the side of his face.
"Well, anyway…." He chuckled and rolled his gray-blue eyes. "I bought two bushes….one for you, and one for me. How does that sound?"
"Nice." She smiled.
"This one is yours….that way, whenever I see it when I'm working out here….I'll think of you." Fred smiled whispering in her ear. "Freddy and I will put in the other one between your lilac bush and the tree. They're good use for hedges."
"They're beautiful too." Frances smiled wrapping an arm around his waist.
"They bloom year round….The green leaves turn a reddish tinge in the fall, and berries appear."
"Guess it's a good wildlife attracter."
"Oh yeah…" Fred said, rubbing her back as they walked up the steps to go back into the house. "Deer and the birds will be all over it come fall."
"Good….I could sit in my rocking chair and watch those deer all day if I could. Until they run up into the hill."
"Well, Freddy and I are gonna put in that other snowball bush." Fred said as Frances sat down in her rocking chair in the sewing room. She liked to relax there, and look out the window. "See you later." He said and leaned down and kissed her.
(
"Nice of you Papa….giving Mama the snowball bush." Freddy said, sinking his shovel into the ground and started digging so they could plant the snowball bush.
"Thanks…." Fred said, working on preparing the bush so they could implant it. "Bet you'll do things like it for your wife someday…"
"Wife?" Freddy blurted out. "I'm only 13! I never thought about it."
"Any girls you like? Have a little crush on, son?" Fred grinned and turned to him.
"Nah!"
"That Duggan girl's cute." Fred said.
"Irene?" Freddy exclaimed. "No she ain't! She's kinda ugly."
"That wasn't nice…."
"She don't need to know that, Papa!"
"Freddy…" Fred glared at his son. "I think you like her….you tease her enough." He chuckled.
"I jumped out from behind a tree and scared her."
"See what I'm saying?" Fred chuckled.
"I don't like her!" Freddy insisted. "I just like messing with her!"
"Whatever you say, Freddy." He chuckled and they worked together to plant the new snowball bush.
A/N: Ah….Helen's salad! Love that stuff! We make it on special occasions! Same recipe except, minus the apples. It's super yummy! :)
The snowball bushes! I remember the one that was between the lilac bush and the tree out in the backyard. My Dad ran it over with a lawn mower! Mom said to trim the snowball bush and get rid of the tree…but Dad trimmed the tree and got rid of the snowball bush! Ugh! Men! Lol!...Mom said there was the other one by the garage, I remember that one, but it's in a haze!...Both of the bushes were Fred's, I believe….Weird, huh? Lol.
Hehe! Fred's ears!….True physical feature! Runs in the family. Big ears, stuck close to the head. Lol. Thought it cute to put that in there. :)
