Thanks to Irish-Piano-fingers for the eye update! It's nice to be notified when I make a mistake!
Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar the Last Airbender or a Countess Below Stairs.
Important: I accidently called Mr. Tiller, Mr. Sidle in chapter four. It's Mr. Tiller, not Mr. Sidle in London with Katara. Opps!
Ch. 6
It was a hot Sunday in Early August, the date Zuko and Iroh were traveling home. Iroh refused to not let the servants have the day off, so Katara was pretty much alone in the huge house. No one had business in town to attend to, so she did not have a ride to Mass. But she was keeping herself busy. Dear Mrs. White said she could stay back and cook, but Katara said she could take care of it, since Mrs. White greatly wanted to visit her mother.
So Katara sat over a barrel peeling potatoes for placki kartoflane, the side dish of her menu, which included karp faszerowany pieczony (stuffed crabs) as the main course. And she hoped it would be special, since she had to wake up at four to get the freshest crabs from the fish market. And on the way home from the fish market, she stopped at Mrs. Patterson's to buy mushrooms, for her mushroom borscht. The dessert, her favorite as a little girl, would be makowiec, topped with homemade icing and filled with walnuts, raisins, poppy seeds, and all sorts of tasty ingredients.
She was excited. It was going to be a splendid dinner. Kanna made her Nalenski, Crepes with apple filling, the last time she visited, but a good complete Polish meal was something she had not enjoyed in a long time. So, Katara worked through the morning and into the afternoon, humming Wieniawski's concertos and enjoying the beautiful day. The clouds in the sky were big and puffy, the type you can watch and make shapes out of. The sun was hot, but a nice breeze set off its warmness. You could feel the coming of fall.
When she finished her potatoes, Katara started rolling the dough for her Makowiec, a delicious sweet bread usually made in the Christmas season. Knuckles to palm, Katara kneaded the dough, its color becoming more consistent. Setting it aside and covering it with a cloth, Katara allowed the dough to double in size, preparing it for the baking it would soon receive.
"Ooh! That smells good," Suki said prancing into the kitchen, "I don't suppose you have time for a break. I would love to have someone to eat my bread and cheese sandwich with."
"Of course, I just set aside my dough," Katara replied cheerily, "Are we going for a picnic? I would love some fresh air."
Suki smiled brightly in response, her eyes and face alight with the beautiful glow always present in her aura. "I was thinking by the lake," She replied with a mischievous smile.
The two girls holding a basket between them walked across the lawn and towards the forest, the lake just beyond a veil of trees. The greenery shone brilliantly under the blue sky and Katara could only imagine how wonderful the lake sparkled in the sun. And when they walked through the smoky trees, Katara's eyes popped with delight at the clear shimmery water looking peaceful and serene, no worries to trouble its day.
"I think this is a good place to sit," Suki said as she dropped to the ground, "A nice patch of clean grass."
Katara sat next to her, enjoying the beauty of the fairytale-like alcove, tucked away unless you knew how to find it.
"So we have Gouda and day old French bread," Suki said rummaging through the wicker basket she sneaked from the kitchen supplies, "Geez mom, you could have put in a little more food…but I do like smoked Gouda."
"Did you see your mom? She made that lunch for us then?" Katara said, curious about her friend's family.
"Yes, I went home to visit this morning. She could have packed a little more though, but I guess times are tough without my dad around and two daughters to feed," Suki said sighing, but her attitude not deflating, "He died in the war you know…but so did a lot of other people."
"Yeah, I know how that is," Katara replied staring straight ahead, her mind focused on prior memories, sad ones. "Both my parents were killed. Now it's just my brother, Gran-Gran, and me."
"Well…let's get to a happier subject," Suki said jumping up, "Last one into the lake has to wash the dishes tonight."
Katara followed Suki as they barreled towards the lake. Without a second thought, Katara flung herself into the cool water, feeling wonderful as she plummeted towards the bottom. Pushing off from the rocky floor, Katara broke through the surface and gulped in a fresh breath of air. Sopping wet she turned to Suki with a bright smile on her face.
"It's brilliant isn't it," Suki said returning the smile, "I just love it here."
Silently, the two girls floated in the cool water, Katara feeling comfortable, at home. It was magical, a feeling of being in an enchanted woods where Snow White and her Dwarves would appear at in any moment. A blackbird swooped near the water, its talons scrapping against the surface, but it wasn't there for long. It billowed its wings and flew off into the endless depth of blue sky, a dry ocean that only birds could explore.
Lily Pads gently swayed in the wind's light breeze, they're leafs tickling Katara's skin. Laying in the water her eyes closed and mouth shut, Katara could hear a faint hum in the wind, not a sighing, but a song; a ballad to the beautiful day and an elegy to the creatures not there to see it. Katara hummed with it, her voice soft, not loud enough for anyone to hear but her. Lost in her enchanted world, Katara awoke to reality with a start.
"My bread's going to puff out and my crabs need to go in the oven," Katara exclaimed to Suki, racing towards the shore.
"Okay, just don't have a stroke," Suki said in her usually light-hearted manner, "Make sure you save some for me, I can't take anymore moldy bread and stale cheese."
"Sure," Katara said happily, "How about I give you some extra Borscht to take home."
Suki flashed her white teeth and floated leisurely to the shore. Katara sopping wet, ran towards the house.
Zuko, still not fully healed, stepped stiffly from the Rolls Royce. And the long car ride did not make his aching back, in fact his whole body ached, feel better. What he wanted was a nice cup of hot coffee, he liked coffee better than tea but his uncle was in denial about it, and a hot meal.
The chauffer let them out in the front of the house, since he had to drive to the back for the car to be parked in the garage. The gardener or any of the servants were not bustling around the house since it was their day off, but Zuko did see something very interesting. A girl, and he knew precisely who it was, was running soaking wet through the yard towards the back of the house. Her clothes were drenched and would take awhile to warm on the hearth. A surprisingly cool wind picked up and blew into the loose fold of his clothes. It was going to be an early fall and a cold winter.
Zuko half walked, hobbled, and limped to the library. He pulled out a piece of paper half hidden between two books and started writing. Soon he was completely lost in the world he was writing, something he frequently liked to do, but no one knew about it but him, not even Uncle. Writing was his secret escape, his way to express what he was feeling since conveying emotion with words was not a talent he seemed to possess. Some considered him taciturn and unfriendly or even harsh, but it was just that he didn't have a knack for meeting new people and retaining relationships with them.
His Uncle always tried to help him by inviting boys his age to play cricket or by dressing him up for a dinner party, but as he got older his Uncle stopped trying so hard, figuring he would eventually change, which didn't really happen. Zuko was a normal person, but he just never seemed to fit in. He liked football (soccer), reading, occasionally playing the piano, seeing plays and movies, even going to the park, but when he did these things, they never seemed to involve other people.
So Zuko wrote line by line on the paper, scratching out words he didn't feel quite fit or adding new ones as needed. His Uncle was probably sitting out in the garden drawing flowers before they died of an early frost or quietly meditating in the fresh air, but Zuko sat inside in a stuffy library unaware of everything except the sentence he was concentrating on forming into a cryptic line of words.
It was Sunday, so no servants tittered about the room or could accidently walk in on him. The only one he'd seen was Katara doing Lord knows what. He was curious but not being exactly a people person, it would take some careful wording for him to ask her.
"Zuko," Iroh said softly, opening the door and peering in, "There you are. Dinner is ready."
"Did you make something?" Zuko asked, knowing Mrs. White was probably visiting her mother, who just developed the flu.
"No," Iroh replied, "Katara did. She's made us a traditional Polish meal and it smells delicious, so hurry up before it gets cold, I'm starving."
Zuko nodded, setting his ink brush to the side and clearing up the mass of papers before him. He walked to the dining room, straightening his collar and patting down his unruly hair. Katara stood by the table moving dishes and silverware, preparing everything for the meal about to take place.
"Will you be joining us?" Iroh asked smiling at the pretty woman.
"I don't think so," Katara replied nervously, "I'm just here to set out the plates."
"No you must," Iroh argued, "You had to have spent all day making this and I want you to enjoy it with us. It was your day off and you've spent it all working."
"I haven't been working all day…" Katara said blushing, thinking about her trips to the lake. Iroh just stood obstinately holding a chair out for her and she had no choice but to except. Zuko sat across from her, a look of concentration on his face as if he was trying to work out a hard geometry problem.
"Did you have a pleasant ride back?" Katara asked taking a potato pancake and ladling some soup into a bowl.
"The weather was perfect for traveling," Iroh said with a grin on his ever happy face, "I had the window down the whole time."
Katara smiled back and took a bite of her crab, enjoying the taste of her wonderful Poland immensely. Today was a very good day and she did not consider making food she loved work. It felt odd sitting with the man who paid her and if anyone walked in on them, they would probably be offended, but she didn't mind too much. Iroh was friendly and kind and it was hard to feel uncomfortable around such a nice man.
"This is wonderful!" Iroh exclaimed with a mouthful of crab, "Very tender and the flavor is like nothing I've ever had!" Katara just smiled even wider and went back to eating her borscht. Zuko was quietly eating a spoonful of soup, but Katara could tell he liked it since his bowl was already half gone.
The last time she had had a Polish dinner with people she cared about was the day before her father left them. Katara of course had Kanna and Sokka, but when they fled Poland the only food they consumed was British food prepared by Mr. Clistone's cook. And it was all very tasty but nothing she really loved, except the corn beef and cabbage, which involved a whole other story including Sokka and a meat grinder.
"Did you have a good day?" Zuko asked camly, "Did you go anywhere outside? The weather was beautiful."
"It was," Katara said a little anxiously, deciding whether to lie or not. She chose the truth. "Suki and I went on a picnic."
"That must have been pleasant," Zuko said in an overly friendly manner. He didn't mean to come off so exuberant, but then again he never really had the chance to be so enthusiastic. The last time he had been eager about something was at a Rolls Royce car show before he was shipped off to war. He got excited in his own way. The trees turning from green to red or the sun showing itself after a rainstorm were little things that made him happy. But to be absolutely thrilled about something had not happened since his mom was around.
"Where did you go for your picnic?" Zuko asked in an offhand manner.
"In a clear area of the woods," Katara replied piercing a potato pancake, "You know by the lake." Zuko just smiled. So that explains the sopping wet run towards the house.
"The lake is warm this time of year because of the sun," Zuko said casually, "And the weather's been so nice lately so I'm sure it would be good place to go swimming."
Katara just nodded. She had been hoping no one would see her…and one of the people she must act completely appropriate in front of sees her in a position not suitable for a master and maid.
"Yeah, I'm sure it is."
The dinner ended well. Iroh loved the dessert and Zuko couldn't quite conceal his pleasure with the sticky sweet bread. It turned out exactly as Katara hoped it would.
"It was very nice," Zuko said with a small smile as he walked towards his room.
End of chapter!! REVIEW!!
Was anyone else mad about the Katang and Maiko ending! I was pretty upset.