Kitchen Cares

"Sheri-Rae! Close the back door!"

Splat! I swatted at the mosquito as I pulled the white, wooden, screen door closed. It never latched properly.

I had smelled the chocolate as I ran home down the alley from Jean's house. The street lights had popped on, and that was my curfew. I heard the night train whistle in the distance.

I turned toward the counter and hoped for cookies. Standing on my tiptoes, I lifted the porcelain owl's head, it's "eyebrows" and lower feathers painted red with bright nail polish. I imagine the original had peeled off, and Mom's solution was a quick and easy one.

MMMmmmm! Yes, chocolate chip cookies. I pushed the pine chair over to the edge of the cupboard to stand on. I pulled a white tupperware glass and a corning plate from the cupboard, placed them in front of the owl. I bent over the cookie jar and topped my plate with six cookies.

Hopping off the chair, I stepped to the refrigerator on the other side of the back door. I pulled the handle of the door and grabbed a bottle of milk, readjusting the bottom crisper drawer filled with minnows for tomorrow night's fishing. I poured a full glass and set the bottle on the counter.

"Put the milk away!" Mom called from the living room. I heard the start of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" on the TV.

After putting away the milk, I looked up to the clock -- it's background painted teal to match the kitchen walls. Nine-thirty said the white numbers.

I grabbed my plate and glass and walked around to my spot at the table. I closed the pantry door, and pulled out my chair.

Wouldn't it be nice if every kid could have home-made chocolate chip cookies made by Mom?

And in my kitchen today is the same table, with the leg of my side of the table rubbed off from the constant shoving of the chair, in and out, to get into the one-person pantry or to open the oven door.

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Prompt Source:
Monday Morning by Jo Knowles

Describe your childhood kitchen memory.
Describe: detail, senses, story


Take a snapshot of the memory.
Describe the room, the sights, sounds, smells.
How will you describe it -- spacial? around? through?


What's the focus? Who's there? How will we "see" it through your words? 
What happened before the snapshot? In the snapshot? After the snapshot?
Zoom in on the focus. Who? What? Sights, sounds, smells...


Be there now and write!