Chapter 9

"Hi, Dad," Justine walked in and tossed her bag aside. "Spaghetti smells good. There's a bake sale next week. Ms. Palenz said she would help me with some cookies."

"That sounds like fun. So we'd better go shopping first to get everything we need."

"Good idea, Dad." Justine pulled a paper out of her pocket. "Ms. Palenz made me a list."

Patrick laughed.

"We're going to package them at school so we can sell them in trays, but we'll also sell single ones at lunch time."

"That sounds like a good plan."

Early Saturday morning Justine banged on Patrick's door.

"We've got to get going."

"It's too early."

"The store is open twenty-four hours."

Patrick got dressed quickly and opened the door.

"That's not what I meant."

"I know," Justine grinned at him and handed him a travel mug. "Let's go."

It was amazing the variety of things that you could put in cookies. No peanuts though, because one of the kids in kindergarten was allergic, but they had everything else from chocolate chips to coconuts, dried fruit and even maraschino cherries.

They took it all home and Justine called Ms. Palenz. Once again the house filled with the fragrance of baking. Patrick sat and pretended to read while he listened in on their conversation. Ms. Palenz told stories of her trips that had Justine in giggles most of the time. Every once in a while Justine would bring him a cookie to 'test.'

By mid-afternoon they were done and all the cookies were carefully stacked in plastic tubs that Lee had brought with her. She refused the offer of another supper saying that she was heading out with a friend that night. Justine came and sat beside Patrick on the arm of the chair.

"That was a blast."

"Good."

"It's good to do things that Mom did, but sometimes it's nice to do new things too."

"True," Patrick smiled, "so, how about we do another new thing and I'll take you out for dinner."

"For real?" Justine said, "I mean a real restaurant with waiters and everything?"

"There's a place near where I work that you would like."

"Let me go get changed." Justine ran upstairs. Patrick looked at himself and thought that he could probably do with a higher class of clothes himself.

Justine apparently decided that her first time in a "real" restaurant called for a mix of her church clothes and a shirt that Patrick had never seen on her before. It was a bit large, but since she wore it like a jacket, it worked.

"It's a shirt I found in your closet," Justine said. "Do you mind?"

"It looks good on you."

They drove to the restaurant and Patrick walked her to the table. The waiter paid special attention to Justine making her laugh by pretending to pour her wine.

"I'll have a steak, because it's more grown up."

"Since I don't need to prove how old I am, I'll have the salmon."

While they were waiting for their meal, Justine steepled her fingers.

"So how was work this week?"

"I finished up a few projects, but I got in trouble because I did more than I was supposed to do."

"We get extra credit for doing more work."

"Work is more complicated. The bosses were worried that the wrong person doing something might let a secret out and cause problems."

"I thought secrets were bad."

"Some are, like if someone does something wrong and wants to keep it secret. Some are more a matter of timing, like a surprise party."

"Oh, and they think you might have spoiled the surprise?" Justine said.

"Something like that."

"So what did they do to you?"

"They talked to me, then gave me a whole bunch of new work."

"Wow, and I thought Ms. Hall was tough!"

"It's how the world works. If we never made any mistakes nobody would do anything but sit around the pool and drink margaritas."

"What's a margarita?"

"It's an adult drink, with um, adult stuff in it."

"You mean alcohol," Justine made a face. "We learned about that in school. It makes people stupid."

"Fair assessment, but some people enjoy it."

"They enjoy being stupid?"

"Well, some," Patrick said, "but most just like to relax a bit."

Their meals arrived and Justine tucked into her steak. Patrick was astonished that she not only finished the steak but had room for dessert.

She fell asleep on the way home and Patrick had to wake her up to go inside.

"Thanks, Dad," she murmured before sleepwalking into her room.

On Sunday, she looked through the recipe cards for how to cook steak.

"I can't find a recipe for steak," she said as she sat on the arm of Patrick's chair.

"I don't know that they have much in the way of recipes for steak," he said. "Mostly people just cook it, and add spices and stuff to make it taste better. Maybe look on the internet."

"They have recipes on the internet?"

"All kinds." Patrick laughed as she ran to the computer and started typing into it.

"Wow, when you're right, you're right," she said. "We could eat for years and never eat the same thing twice."

"Except spaghetti," Patrick said.

"Well, duh!"

Instead of steak they had satay chicken on skewers.

"Chicken that sticks to the roof of your mouth," Patrick said after they finished dinner. "Tastes good though."

"Not bad," she said, "I can't decide if I want more spice or less."

They had ice cream to finish up. Then Justine organized the cookies to go to school before she went to bed.

"Will you drive me tomorrow? I don't want to take all this stuff on the bus."

"Sure thing."

***

Patrick helped Justine carry the tubs of cookies into the school then headed off to work.