chapter 11 keepsakes of Kat

Cleaning the baseboards, the toilets and the tubs wasn't something I planned to do. But I woke up exhausted from being up all night cleaning and I had exercised all other messes and only managed to bring myself back up to level 11 and that meant that my HP was easier to get but the house was clean so now I didn't know what to do.

Thus I decided to deep clean the baseboards and the tub and the toilets. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

+40hp

+40hp

+40hp

This brought my HP to 500.

But the egg consumed 1000 every 4 hours so I needed a few more things to clean. I dusted the ceiling fans.

+10hp

Come on! Why so low!

The egg wanted to be held the whole time too. It was so demanding and with the house spotless (a miracle in itself), I realized I had a new problem: there was nothing left to clean.

But first let me tell you about how hard it was to do those simple tasks because for whatever reason I complicate everything I do.

Armed with a bucket of soapy water I made quick work of the baseboards. At least that was my goal but you never really know what is on them, shoe scuffs or crayon, or dust, but either way nothing gets it all off. I am determined to make them sparkle. Who am I kidding; I was already sweating.

I have a magic eraser and those magically disappear after only five minutes of scrubbing so it doesn't really help. I'll start with a rag.

I got on all fours and begin scrubbing and quickly come across the dust and then the crayon. Maybe I need the magic eraser already. I sighed. One thing that a magic eraser doesn't take off is pen.

My kids color with anything they can find so of course there's pen.

Ok so now the shoe scuffs. We don't wear shoes in the house much so there isn't many of those except on the stairs.

What are you doing, Mom?" Anwan asked as I entered her bedroom.

"Cleaning the baseboards," I replied, already sweating.

"Why?"

"Because they're dirty."

She frowned, clearly unimpressed with my explanation. "Nobody looks at those."

"Well, I do," I muttered, scrubbing harder.

"I don't know how I would take the egg to work with me to feed it and hold it and that is also a problem." I admitted to her.

"It had been fine until it consumed the electricity so perhaps it hadn't been forming until then. I was worried about what Loki said about it not hatching so long as it didn't burn but what about electricity? So now I have to feed it before I go to work." I explained.

"By cleaning the baseboards?" She asked like that sounded silly.

"By getting HP." I said.

She shrugged and went back to her book.

"Well if I couldn't make cake without bringing the egg to work I would find other ways to prepare for the apocalypse." I said as I left her room.

—————————

"What if you write a report about something?" Like learn something new about survival?" Michael said when Anwan told him about me cleaning my heart out. "There isn't anything else you can clean unless you start a cleaning business." He pointed out.

I thought that was a good idea so I sat down and researched something. Hmmm what to learn about?

I decided salt dough.

Me and Anwan could make a survival plan for the apocalypse. Like making a mars diarama in elementary school. I imagined us making a whole bunker out of paper cups and the dough although I wondered if the earth would be where we lived post apocalypse or if that was prepared already by Loki. How was I supposed to know?

For salt dough it is 250 ml of water, 500 g salt , and 1000g flour so a ratio of twice as much salt as water and twice as much flour as salt.

I'd never made it before but I know that you can bake it or let it air dry. The idea is to knead it until it is elastic enough first.

Anwan liked the idea.

We ended up making dough with one and a half cups of water, 2 cups of salt and 4 cups of flour and it was hard to get right but I did it!

Then we all pressed our hands into it like it was sand and made handprints to hang on the wall. We forgot about the apocalypse for a little while and I enjoyed my time with the kids.

When Michael came home we had him make a handprint as well. It was a good experience and the kids rolled out the extra dough for about an hour afterwards. The boys didn't even try to eat it. Probably it would be salty too.

Of course I made an imprint for Kat too. Which Michael judged me for.

But it seemed…fair. It was now a part of this chaotic family. Though I got zapped in the process. It will thank me later.

When Michael walked in and saw the egg's perfectly round imprint in the dough, in its spiky glory which looked like I had taken a toothpick and tried to stab the dough like a serial killer, he froze, stared at it, and then stared at me like I'd officially lost my mind.

"Seriously?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What?" I said defensively. "It's part of the family now!"

"It's an egg, Evelyn. Besides it doesn't even look like an egg made that imprint. It's like gibberish in picture format."

I folded my arms. Electricity surrounding me and my hair standing on end. I looked like a maniac not to be messed with and somehow unharmed so he backed down.

He rubbed his bridge of his nose, clearly trying to find the patience to deal with me. "So now we're making keepsakes for the apocalypse egg?"

"Yes," I replied firmly, smoothing the edges of the egg's imprint in the dough. "If we're all going to survive whatever Loki has planned, we might as well embrace the weirdness."

Michael stared at the dough for a long moment, then finally said, "You know what? Fine. But when it hatches, I'm not explaining to anyone why we have egg art hanging on the wall."

I shrugged. "If it hatches, it'll probably appreciate the gesture. You know, as a baby dragon. Or whatever."