Momma I M So Bored: A Short Story

“Momma I'm so bored.” Most of the time a statement like this would prove to be dangerous and I would end up doing chores, but every once in awhile her response would be different. She would pull out the square, halfway rusted fudge pan and we would start cooking. With the tattered, fudge stained Hershey's recipe on display, I would climb on the countertops and scurry around to gather all the ingredients. As she poured all the different ingredients into the pot she would look from the mountain of sugar to me, “There is hardly anything redeeming in this pot.” She would be smiling though and equally as eager to eat it later. The chocolate would bubble up like hot lava and fill the house with it's rich aroma. Now comes the waiting, when I wanted to find

With every step of the recipe, she would make sure I was watching and learning. Waiting for soft-ball stage took forever especially because of our finicky, old thermometer. Sometimes it worked like a charm, other times my mom taught me how to tell with a glass of ice-water. “You just take a lil bit on a spoon, drop it into the glass.” Taking it out she would roll the bit of chocolate between her fingers, “Just like that it should form a ball..well.. maybe not.” Most of the time it wasn't and I would have to settle back down to wait for it to be ready. Fudge is not a quick and easy recipe, you definitely cannot leave it. It's our tradition though, we put time and effort into that which we love. That tradition is one that my mom and I shared with my friends, Carolyn and Adrienne. They are sisters and I just happen to be smack-dab in the middle of their ages. I am considered another sister in their house, and they think of my mom as a second mom. Our families were friends before we were even born, we have gone through everything together. One of those things has been standing in the kitchen and making fudge