I hustled into the kitchen, leaving
Nikki in the living room. From memory I started gathering the things I needed.
“I didn’t come here for cookies,
but for the rest of the story. I presume you are not finished.”
“Nope, that’s it.”
“You have not covered the danger of
the gingerbread. Emotionally, yes, but no danger, as of yet.”
“Oh, that. Well, make yourself
useful, then.” I pushed the canisters of flour and brown sugar her way along
with the measure cups and a big bowl.
Ellie
dabbed at her eyes with the edge of my handkerchief, smiling gratefully as she
continued to chew the cookie in small, reverent bites.
I
was never one for being gentle with my gingerbread, Paul and I frequently
racing to see who could scarf theirs down the fastest. But I decided to be
mature about it. So instead of gobbling the whole thing, I only gobbled the
bottom half, taking both legs and half the body in a giant bite. I grinned like
an idiot as I chewed, up until about the fourth chew, when it hit me.
Ginger,
strong ginger, flooded my mouth like a fire, and that was when I realized the
true danger.
I
rapidly beat on the flight attendant call button, bonging multiple times. Ellie
looked at me, worried, and I pointed at my mouth, tears already starting to
leak out of my eyes.
Amanda
showed up quickly, looking at me.
“Is
he choking?” Ellie asked.
I
shook my head, then managed to get out a desperate plea for help around my
mouthful of gingerbread, “Milk! Need milk!”
“Your imminent danger was that you
didn’t have any milk?” Nikki said, refusing to look at me.
“Hey, Grandma was using grade A
ginger, and at least three times as much as reasonable cookies have. I standby
that as danger.”