[For Olive]
Some days, much like the rather nice one the girl named Chuck was enjoying outside in the orchard as she studied various ways to make various cheeses, the pie maker found himself unable to do much of anything at all but bake pies.
Or a pie, in this case.
He was severely limited in both ingredients and time in the compound kitchen, and took any chance he could outside of Chuck's breakfast mornings to bake pie. For all that he had the girl, the trusty sidekick (Digby would snort to be thought of that way) and the plucky neighbor, there was still a little boy at the heart of the man, and that little boy missed his mother terribly.
Time was said to heal all wounds, but that was a lie; it just covered them up with a bandaid and hoped for the best.
Ned settled for plain apple pie on this day, and as he scooped the fruit into the waiting pan lined with dough that would turn out to be an excellent crust - not too hard, not too soft, flaky in all the best ways - his thoughts drifted to afternoons spent watching and learning as his mother baked pies.
Perhaps the best thing about being stranded here was that he no longer had to look so far back into his past to recall how it felt to be safe and warm and loved.
Or a pie, in this case.
He was severely limited in both ingredients and time in the compound kitchen, and took any chance he could outside of Chuck's breakfast mornings to bake pie. For all that he had the girl, the trusty sidekick (Digby would snort to be thought of that way) and the plucky neighbor, there was still a little boy at the heart of the man, and that little boy missed his mother terribly.
Time was said to heal all wounds, but that was a lie; it just covered them up with a bandaid and hoped for the best.
Ned settled for plain apple pie on this day, and as he scooped the fruit into the waiting pan lined with dough that would turn out to be an excellent crust - not too hard, not too soft, flaky in all the best ways - his thoughts drifted to afternoons spent watching and learning as his mother baked pies.
Perhaps the best thing about being stranded here was that he no longer had to look so far back into his past to recall how it felt to be safe and warm and loved.