Page 120 of Seven Letters

‘It’s great for her to have something else to think about for a whole day. It’ll be great. She’ll enjoy it.’

‘We’ll do our best,’ Adam said, feeling less sure than he sounded. Today would be all about acting, and he had to turn in a masterclass.

Rob followed Adam to the kitchen and got the coffee going while Adam dumped flour, milk and eggs into a bowl and began to stir it with a fork.

‘No, Daddy,’ Izzy shouted from the kitchen door. ‘You need the whisky thing.’

‘What whisky thing?’

‘It’s what Mummy uses for making pancakes. It’s silver and has lots of lines on it and it mixes stuff.’

‘Do you know where it is?’

‘No, but it should be in one of these drawers, where Mummy keeps her cooking things.’

Adam opened and closed drawers but saw no ‘whisky thing’.

‘It must be here – we have to find it. Otherwise the pancakes will be all lumpy.’ Izzy’s voice was getting louder. ‘Mummy says you can’t do it with a fork because it doesn’t get the lumps out.’

Rob and Adam both opened drawers and riffled through them but couldn’t find it.

‘It doesn’t matter, princess,’ Rob said. ‘For today we’ll do it with a fork. Your dad’s very fast at mixing – look.’ Adam whisked furiously with the fork. ‘That’ll definitely get the lumps out, just like Sarah does.’

Izzy looked into the bowl. ‘It looks disgusting. It’s all lumpy. It’s not right.’ Her lip began to wobble.

‘Sometimes things don’t look great, but they taste fine,’ Adam said, tipping the bowl into the frying pan.

‘You put too much in,’ Izzy said impatiently.

He swirled the pan around as the mixture ran to the sides,leaving the lumps of flour stuck in the middle. It was a disaster. The heat was too high and the mixture began to burn.

‘Damn,’ Adam muttered, and pulled the pan from the heat.

‘Yuck.’

‘Never mind, we’ll try another. Let’s give Rob a turn at being chef.’ Adam tried to keep up a façade of cheerfulness. He lowered the heat, scraped the first pancake into the bin and handed the pan to Rob. Same result.

‘They’re disgusting, Daddy. You two are the worst pancake-makers ever.’

‘You might be right. How about cereal?’

‘No, it’s a special day. I don’t want stinky cereal.’

‘Well, then, toast with butter and jam?’

‘Boring.’

‘Eggs,’ Rob said. ‘I’ll do some scrambled eggs on toast, delicious.’

‘I don’t want stupid eggs.’

Adam looked at his brother in desperation. ‘I think we might have some sausages. Would you eat a sausage sandwich?’

‘Maybe.’

‘Let me have a look.’ Adam opened the fridge. Milk, cheese, beer, yoghurts, but no sausages. ‘Right, well, it seems we’re out of sausages. Sorry. I need to go shopping.’

‘Mummy always went shopping on Mondays and Fridays.’

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