Things In Your Mind Continued Again

Three hours of baking and choking later, I found myself on the neighbor’s sofa; shaking my head at the disaster our cookies turned out to be.  My mother believed them to be still edible and delivered them to our neighbors, the Zimmerman’s, for them to try.  Thank God I was able to sneak a box of girls scout cookies into my giant purse or else we would have been dead for sure.

“So…” said Mrs. Zimmerman, “You’re the baker in the family, are you?” her concerned eyes met mine.

“Only when the final product turns out well!” I laughed nervously, looking at Joey Zimmerman who was staring at the demon cookie tray.  He then excused himself to the kitchen to put them away for the time being.  I was curious whether ‘away’ meant in the garbage or ‘away’ in the dog dish.  I giggled to myself.

The Zimmerman clan consisted of Nancy who was married Charlie Zimmerman.  Coincidence?  I thought so.  They had a son, Joey; and adopted daughter, Rachel.  Rachel was probably a year or two older than me and Joey looked approximately my own age.

Rachel was very pretty for her age.  Most of the teenagers at my school had a minimum of three zits on their faces at once.  Bleck.  Besides being spotless, her hair was a golden crown of curls.  I looked at the drab lock of my own hair I had been chewing on in my apprehension and resolved to get a perm as soon as I saved up enough money.  Which would probably be never.

Her brother was equally handsome but I decided that I would never date him because I never liked men with large stick-out ears.  It makes me anxious that they might be listening to my thoughts.  Or so I told myself.  He had a similar nose but aside from that fact, Rachel looked as related to him as a horse is to a monkey.  His hair was short, straight, and dark and his skin was tan and freckled in comparison to her pale unblemished skin.  His eyes were dark brown and hers were pale blue.  In fact, the longer I looked at them, the more unalike they seemed.

Their parents were younger than my parents and what few wrinkles lined their faces were gentle and almost non-existent.  They seemed to get along well and never once did they walk out of the room to discuss each other’s behavior.  They didn’t frown at each other or sigh when one of them made a lame joke.  I was instantly jealous of our new neighbor’s capacity of cooperation.

After some plain and uninteresting chatter began among the adults about financial problems, school, and a touch of politics, us kids went off on our own business and sneaked into the kitchen to spy at the alien cookies that I wasn’t even sure I made.  I unveiled the failed monster-piece as I gently lifted up the thin sheet of plastic wrap that was pulled securely around the cookies.

“I hope you’re not allergic to wheat germ.” I said, letting my sarcasm out of the cardboard box of my mind.  I tried up until this moment to restrain any sardonic remark to escape my cluttered mind and out my lips.

“Weird.” Joey said as he picked up a flat brown patty.

“Gross!  Put it down, Joey!”  Rachel had been silently sitting on a bar stool pulled up to the kitchen’s cool marble countertop.  That changed when Joey teasingly held the floppy cookie over his mouth by one edge with his thumb and pointer finger.  The disgusting blob fell into the gaping dark hole that was Joey’s mouth.  He chewed thoughtfully, his eyebrows crinkled, and his nose wrinkled.  I sniffed the horrid circles of glop and almost instantly gagged.  I offered one to Rachel who jumped and almost fell off her seat.

“Well,” Joey said after I cleared away the ruinous cookies, “it’s the thought that counts, I guess…” we both laughed but I knew there was still hope when I remembered there was a box of thin mints in my bag.  I reached for my pink-and-green, paisley, printed purse that was hanging on a chair in the dining room, un-snapped the latch, and watched Rachel and Joey’s eyes grow wide as they eyed their, apparently, favorite kind of cookies.  “Mmm…” he said licking chocolaty crumbs from his chapped lips; probably his only physical imperfection…besides his Dumbo ears.  I giggled to myself at this thought but quietly enough that he didn’t hear me.  “You know, Thin Mints are awesome.” Joey held up a glass of cold milk and grinned ear to ear, “I propose a toast!” he said standing in his chair.

“To good health, perhaps?” I said casting a glance at the trash can that just devoured my mess.

“—No, to Girl Scouts: the real heroes of the day!” Rachel happily licked crumbs off her lips.

“I’ll drink to that!” I said gulping down my cool glass of milk.