Sadie smiled, her front teeth missing. Victoria couldn't believe their baby was growing up fast. Joy had enrolled her in kindergarten and she was to start in September. Sadie was a beautiful child, light brown hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. Her full name was Sadie Lynn Scroggs-Chase, and she was their daughter.
Victoria found herself being more of a mother than she was to her other three kids. Sadie was close to her just as much as she was to Joy.
'Vickie, I love you,' Sadie says, her bright blue eyes twinkling. Victoria smiles warmly, nuzzling her daughter close to her.
'I love you too, and so does Mommy.'
Sadie called Joy 'Mommy' and she called Victoria 'Vickie'. It was easier to her to do so.
The little girl looks up at Victoria, and takes her hand.
'Come, let's go play again…please Vickie, please?'
She pleads Victoria, who cannot resist her.
'Oh, alright. But…Mommy's making dinner so we can't play too long. She's making your favorite again.'
'Spaghetti?'
Victoria smiles sweetly at her daughter. 'Yes, sweetheart. She's even made meatballs.' The young child smiled, as those were her favorites too. Victoria returned the smile, pressing Sadie into a hug.
She could recall the days that Joy could hardly cook. But today, her cooking was passable, thanks to Elka's tutoring. Joy enjoyed cooking now, which amazed Victoria. They shared duties in the kitchen, usually Victoria would clean up, and Joy would do the cooking. Or even vice versa. Victoria had to admit that she enjoyed cooking too, and sometimes they'd cook together.
Victoria looks over, watching Sadie. She watches as she neatly puts back together the dollhouse, arranging the dolls and furniture neatly back into their original places. Walking over, she picks up the dolls and sits down next to Sadie, and the two of them begin playing. Joy peers from the kitchen, a smile on her face. She enjoyed watching Victoria bond with their daughter. It brought out a side of Victoria that probably her other much older children hardly ever saw. She saw that Victoria had the potential to be a great mother.
Stirring the bubbling pot of sauce gently, she looks down at her cooking, and then looks up again, as she hears Victoria and Sadie giggle. She grins, and asks, 'What is so funny?'
Sadie looks over at Joy, and says, 'Victoria used her funny voices again.'
Joy looks at Victoria who added to Sadie's comment, 'I was just using my theatre voice.'
She smiles at Joy, waiting for her response.
Joy smiles, and says, 'Oh, I see. You were pretending to be Honor St. Raven again, weren't you?'
Sadie looks at both her mothers, and asks, 'Who's Honor St. Raven?'
Victoria smiles, and calmly explains, 'She is who I played in a soap opera when I was still heavily into acting.'
Sadie's eyes sparkled with pure excitement. 'You were an actress, Vickie?'
Victoria grins, quite surprised by her daughter's reaction. 'I was and still am. But sadly, roles have been really hard to come by, so I've found work in local television. Satisfies me for now, but I do miss being an actress full time.'
Sadie crawls into Victoria's lap, smiling.
'Tell me a story, please, Vickie?'
Victoria holds Sadie, beaming. 'Oh, all right. I guess story time won over dollhouse.'
Sadie giggled and snuggled into her arms. Joy continues stirring, but watches silently as she listens to Victoria act out stories. Somehow, Victoria's acting came in handy when it came to story time for young children. She smiles as Victoria acts out a story, watches as Sadie giggles and responds at different points in the story. When the meal was almost ready, she calls out to Victoria, 'Victoria, honey…dinner is almost ready, why don't you and Sadie help set the table?'
Victoria looks at Sadie, and smiles, 'Come on Sade, let's go set the table. Mommy's got dinner almost ready.'
Sadie grins, and jumps out of Victoria's lap. She holds her hand out, and Victoria takes it, and they walk out together to the kitchen, to get ready for dinner. It was a typical dinner at the Scroggs-Chase home.
Sadie sets the plates and napkins, with Victoria's help. Then Victoria shows her the silverware, and tells her which is which, and lets her set out the forks, and she herself took care of the knives.
Joy brings over the spaghetti, and dishes some onto each plate while Victoria turns the stove off for her.
'Thanks, babe,' she says, as she continues dishing the meal.
'Welcome, 'she says, and then looks at the meal.
'You've really outdone yourself with this one.'
Joy smiled. It was always an accomplishment when she cooked because; she was still fairly new to cooking more often. When they lived with Mel and Elka, Melanie or Elka would do the cooking. Victoria hardly cooked, as she had relied on chefs and going out to fancy restaurants. And then the two of them decided to take a cooking class in Cleveland at the rec center, and then Elka showed them both things she learned, and since then Joy or Victoria felt compelled to cook more often, and since Sadie entered their lives, they loved sharing meals with her too. The microwave dings, and Victoria rushes to help her.
'This must be the bread you picked up at the store today. My, it smells great!'
She sits the plate down next to the bowl of spaghetti, and proceeds to sit down across from Joy, with Sadie in the middle. Joy leans over, helping Sadie learn to twirl her noodles around the fork.
'And, sweetheart, this is how you get the noodles around the fork. Like this,' she digs the fork into her own bowl, and twirls the fork around the noodles, as they wrap tightly around the fork. Victoria smiles as she watches Joy show her.
'You're such a pro, aren't you?'
Joy smiles and looks at their daughter. Sadie picks up the fork with the noodles, and eats. Victoria smiles, and eats a few bites.
'This is really good, dear,' she says, and looks over at Sadie, who was happily twirling more noodles onto her fork.
'Looks like she's getting it honey…' Victoria remarks to Joy, who was eating.
Joy looks up to see Sadie successfully twirling the noodles and eating. She takes a sip of her water, and smiles at the young child.
'Sade, you're a natural!'