A Meal to Remember

     Russ had done so much for him, taking him in when he was in rough shape and had nowhere to go. Russ had offered Skip and Wes, his Doglefox, incredible kindness and patience, even though they weren’t the easiest to live with. They had really turned Russ’ quiet and ordered life upside down. Yet, Russ had welcomed them with open arms. Now, Skip wanted to do something for Russ in return.

     The next day, he began to put his plan into action. Russ had to wake him the next morning but instead of making the Kyrii urge him repeatedly to get up, he rolled sleepily out of bed the first time. He moved slowly but he was up and out the door with Russ without nearly as much fuss as usual. Russ gave him a curious look but didn’t question his unusual behaviour. When they got to work, Skip actually applied himself to the task at hand, instead of slipping away to sleep on the job.

     But early that afternoon, Skip made his move.

     “Russ, I’m calling it a day and heading home,” Skip said.

     The Kyrii dropped the sack of sweet potatoes he had been carrying and frowned at the Ixi. “Is everything alright?”

     “Uh, yes, er, I’m not feeling well,” Skip said, realising he hadn’t given himself an excuse to leave.

     Russ arced a brow. “Burlap Pets can get sick?”

     “Well, uh, I sprained my foot!” Skip grabbed his ankle and gave Russ a pained look.

     “Do you need to rest for a while to see if that’ll help? I know you’ve been working harder than usual today. I don’t want you to overdo it,” Russ said with some concern.

     “No, I was just thinking it would be best for me to go home,” Skip said.

     Russ hesitated. “Oh, alright. Do you need me to help you back?”

     “No!” Skip protested quickly and then chuckled nervously as Russ gave him a startled look. “I mean, I’m fine, Russ, really. I can make it back on my own.”

     “Well, if you’re sure. I’ll see you later tonight then. But if you have any problems, call me and I’ll get there as soon as I can, okay?”

     “Thanks, Russ. I’ll see ya later!”

     That awkward conversation over, Skip limped away, not realising that he was limping on the other foot than the one he had originally said was sprained. As soon as he was out of sight of Russ, he broke into a brisk walk, knowing he would have to hurry to get back to the farmhouse. Normally, he would slow down and enjoy the scenery of Meridell in the fall, but not today. If he was going to put his real plan into action, he couldn’t dawdle as he wanted. Even so, he couldn’t quite quash the buoyant feeling that rose within him both at leaving work early and for what he had planned for Russ.

     Once back at the farmhouse, Skip headed straight for the kitchen. As a Burlap Ixi, he didn’t need to eat so had no need to cook, either. But, he knew that this was vital for other Pets. It's why he hated to see his best friend go hungry day after day simply because he didn’t have the energy to spare for it. He couldn’t bear the thought of letting that continue, not if there was something he could do about it!

     So, that’s what he was going to do. He had seen Russ cook countless times. How hard could it be? He grabbed the recipe box on the counter and began to flip through them. Wes hopped up and put his big paws on the counter, as if wanting to look, too.

     “Now to find something we can cook,” Skip said.

     There were recipes for all sorts of things from pot pie to chili beans to dumplings. Looking at the ingredient lists and the steps involved to prepare some of these dishes, Skip was a little daunted.

     “Braise the meat? Caramelise the onions? What does that even mean?” Skip asked aloud, exchanging a look with Wes, who wagged his tail and panted happily up at him.

     After a few more moments, Skip paused and gave a thoughtful hum. “This might work. It takes over an hour to make, but most of that is baking time in the oven and there are only three steps for the whole thing.”

     Wes barked in affirmative and hopped down from the counter as Skip began collecting the ingredients. This being a country kitchen, it was fully stocked with all fresh ingredients, harvested from the surrounding farmland. Seeing the counter now covered in ingredients was a little daunting. Would this really turn into a meal? Skip wondered. But, he was determined to do this for Russ. He wasn’t gonna quit now!

     So, Skip rolled up his red checked sleeves, washed his hands and got cooking. He took care of the preparatory steps of heating the oven and greasing the baking pan before moving on to the real work. He chopped an onion and turned just in time to see Wes take a bite from the ground meat!

     “No!” Skip lunged for the naughty Doglefox but it was too late. A hefty chunk of ground meat had disappeared down Wes’ throat. The Ixi sighed in resignation and took a look at the damage. There was still enough of the meat left to work with, at least. Though, he had also just dropped half of the chopped onion on the ground in his haste to stop Wes.

     For his part, Wes was clearly not sorry at all about the whole mess. He stared up at Skip with his typical happy expression, tongue lolling out of his mouth and tail wagging.

     Skip shook his head but couldn’t help but laugh. “I can’t even be mad at you, you naughty Petpet!”

     The Ixi quickly dumped the fallen onion and then mixed the salvaged ground meat with the milk, bread crumbs, an egg, salt and pepper that the recipe called for. That done, he popped the entire mixture into the greased pan. Then, he mixed together ketchup, brown sugar and mustard and poured that on top of the meat. At last, he popped the now prepared dish into the oven to bake.

     “This cooking stuff is harder than Russ makes it look!” Skip exclaimed with a slight huff. “And we’re not even done, yet!”

     The meatloaf had to stay in the oven for an hour but that didn’t make a meal all by itself. Checking the recipe box, Skip had decided to make macaroni and cheese and biscuits to go along with it.

     “At least these are both quicker to make. They should all be done around the same time as the meatloaf,” Skip said.

     He set to work boiling the pasta and then began to shred the cheese.

     “Shredding cheese is harder than it looks,” Skip said with an exaggerated huff as he ran the block over the grater for the hundredth time. Though, he had to admit it was satisfying to see the pile of shredded cheese grow on the cutting board as he worked.

     Wes gave him a hopeful look, drool dripping from his jaws.

     “Oh, okay! One bite can’t hurt,” Skip said, giving Wes the last chunk of cheese that was too small to shred.

     Wes caught it with an expert snap of his jaws and gulped it down, tail whacking the cupboards in his delight.

     Skip chuckled and began the next steps of using the cheese to make a sauce to cover the pasta with. He finished with the sauce just as the pasta came to a boil. Draining the pasta, he quickly stirred in the cheese sauce before also putting that dish into the oven. Checking the clock, he saw the meatloaf still had half an hour to go.

     “That gives me just enough time to make the biscuits!” Skip exclaimed with a nod.

     Mixing the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt together was easy. It was the next step that gave Skip pause.

     “Cut the butter into the flour?” Skip read aloud from the recipe card.

     The Ixi tapped his hoof against the counter in thought. Russ had made biscuits before, but Skip had apparently not paid attention to this part. With a shrug, he grabbed a knife and cut the butter into chunks before adding it to the flour. The next few steps after that were kinda fun as he got to work the dough on the counter. Now this part he remembered, as Russ had let him cut the biscuits before.

     Moving quickly now, he tried removing the mac and cheese from the oven with a towel and gasped in surprise as the towel caught fire. He dropped it on the ground and stomped it out before tossing the scorched towel in the sink. Thankfully, the mac and cheese was none the worse for wear and he used a pair of oven mitts this time to handle the hot dish.

     “That was a close call!” Skip exclaimed before hurrying to get the biscuits into the oven.

     The last few minutes passed in a blur as Skip hurried to get the meal ready to eat on the table. With one last glance at the clock, he looked over at Wes with a grin. “Now all that’s left is to wait for Russ to get back!”

     ~ ~ ~

      Russ opened the door to the farmhouse, weariness dragging at his shoulders after a long day at work. His stomach growled but he yearned for sleep more. Another night going hu- The red Kyrii stopped abruptly as he recognised the aroma of a homecooked meal.

      “Skip, did someone bring food over?” Russ asked as he headed for the kitchen, only to be met with another surprise.

      A hot plate of meatloaf, mac and cheese and biscuits was on the kitchen table.

      Skip stood proudly beside the table. “Surprise!”

      “Skip, what is this?” Russ asked.

      “I know how hard you’ve been working, Russ and I don’t like seeing you go without meals so I thought I’d make one for you.”

      “You did this?”

      Skip nodded. “Yup!”

      Russ smiled then. “So that’s why you wanted to leave work early.”

      “Yeah,” Skip said with a shrug.

      “Well, it sure smells good,” Russ admitted, taking a seat at the table.

      “I worked really hard on it!”

      “I can see that.”

      Russ began to eat. He found the meatloaf a little dry, the mac and cheese too gooey and the biscuits doughy. He had also seen the mountain of dishes in the sink, the counter splattered with various sticky substances and - of all things! - a scorched towel, but he knew better than to look a gift Whinny in the mouth. All of it could wait until morning to be dealt with. He was immensely touched to know that Skip had gone to all that trouble just for him.

      Russ ate most of what was served on his plate, giving the scraps to the garbage disposal that was Wes. Almost before the scraps hit the bowl, the Doglefox had inhaled them and licked the bowl clean for good measure. With that taken care of, Russ returned his attention to Skip.

      “Skip, thank you for doing all this for me. As a Burlap Pet, I know you have no need or desire to cook but you did it anyway. No one has ever gone out of their way for me like that before,” Russ said. “I want you to know just how much that means to me.”

      “I’d do anything for you, Russ. You’re so good at taking care of everybody else, you deserve to be taken care of, too,” Skip said.

      Russ suddenly felt choked with emotion and cleared his throat. “Well, thanks again, Skip. It’ll be nice to go to bed with a full stomach for once.”

      “You’re welcome. Have a good night, Russ.”

      “Good night, Skip.”

      Russ left the kitchen then, smiling softly to himself, not knowing that Skip was still at the kitchen table doing the same. It really was nice to have someone to not only care about him, but also for him. For all its faults, he knew it was a meal he would remember for a long time yet.

     The End.