Found Family

A young woman bends over the stove, stirring a huge pot of food. There's several rows of pie pans on the table behind her, empty crusts waiting to be filled. A bowl contains more crust waiting to top the pies. She glances at the simmering pot again, wiping the flour off her hands with a towel. She brushes her bangs back from her face, the flour left on her fingers mixing with her light brown hair and the faded purple dye she'd added to the tips of it. She glanced out the window and smiled. People would be arriving any minute. She frowned, glancing at the clock. Some of them should have already been here. The door banged open and she smiled. Ah, there they were.

Two more young women and a young man all trooped into room, dropping their things by the door and near furniture. 

"Hi Mom," the young man said, coming over to give her a hug. "Food looks good."

"Hi," she squeezed him tight and then let him go. "When Cody gets here, I need you two to go get some things from the cellar for me."

"Just send me with him," one of the girls came over and gave her a hug. "I'm just as capable as Cody."

"Fair point," the mother sighed and then laughed. "Alright, then. I need some apples."

"I'll go with them," the second girl followed them out the door.

"Thank you dear," the girl laughed and shooed them all out the door. "Hurry please, I need them for dessert. I need to get these pies all in."

"Yes mother," the first girl called back behind her. 

More people came in through the door. "Hello little sister," one only barely older man came in with another one. He gave her a hug and she rested her head on his chest for a moment. "How are you faring?"

"Pretty good," she looked up at him and smiled. "I do need help though."

"Anything for you, Rebecca," he smiled and helped her ladle the soup off the stove into the pie crusts. 

The other young man had already pushed up his sleeves and was at the sink, washing up dishes. Rebecca snuck up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. He threw a disgruntled look over his shoulder at her and she laughed. "Thanks for the help. How's it going?"

"I'm less dead today," he shrugged.

She took a step back and appraised him. "You look a little less dead today."

"Mom!" Three young men burst in the door and one attacked her, pulling her into a tight hug. The other two waited their turn like sane human beings.

"Boy children," she laughed. "Clean up and then go check on your siblings and make sure the apples are coming."

They rolled their eyes at her and then obeyed. 

"They're a little more accepting of chores then they were last week," the man at the sink commented.

"I'm feeding them, Chris," Rebecca said dryly. "They will respect my rules cause they want the food."

"Ah," he nodded. 

"What do you want me to do with these pies, Becky?" the man with the ladle asked. 

"Help me cover them and get them in the oven," she said, turning back to the task at hand. "And then I need help cutting apples, if you don't mind, Hector."

"Not a problem," he nodded. "How was your day, Becky?"

"It was good!" she smiled. "I got a lot done."

"Writing?"

"On the desk," she nodded. Both men glanced over at the desk to see a thick stack of pages sitting neatly in the middle of the desk.

"Becky," one word was all Chris needed.

"They're single-sided?" she said helpfully.

"Still," Chris shook his head at her. "You need to calm down. Stop worrying so much."

"I'm not worrying!" she protested. 

"Uh-huh," he grunted, unimpressed.

The young people all burst on the room all at once, carrying many baskets of apples. The rest of Rebecca's scolding was lost in the mayhem of giving people work today. From the outside, the family almost looked normal, with parents and siblings. But when you looked a little closer, you realized that the young lady being called Mom was one of the youngest people in the room, and the young man being called Dad was, for all intents and purposes, her brother. The age gap didn't make sense, but the functionality did. Becky quietly circled the room, laughing and watching people, making sure that no one was getting hurt while food was cooked and sharp knives were wielded. Quiet words made sure that conversations stayed on an even keel, and she laughed along as all of her boys did their utmost to concern her, Chris included. With Hector around, however, it was accepted that the chaos would be a little less than the norm.

The long table was set and full. Rebecca sat in the middle, Chris across from her, the both of them participating in all of the conversations at once and trying to keep an ear out for trouble. Rebecca's girls were scattered, although they would occasionally glance at each other, or make comments to each other all the time. At one point, Chris commented something and Rebecca just glanced at Nicole, who obligingly smacked him in the back of the head. Rebecca smiled at the look Chris gave her, completely unrepentant. Despite the chaos, or perhaps because of it, there was love at the table, and smiles on every face even as they groaned at something someone said. It was homey and comforting. Rebecca felt herself relaxing, and as all of her people left the table and just sat in the living room, swapping stories and talking, she curled up on the floor between Chris and Hector's chairs, near the fire. They had her stack of papers and were reading them and passing them between themselves. She knew they would probably go on a walk later to discuss the contents. Both boys had opinions and cared too much to simply let her get away with writing all day and not say a word.

The chaos wore down as the night got later and the fire died. People started getting tired and she started kicking people upstairs to bed, though they grumbled as they went. She could hear them talking above her head and carrying on upstairs, but she shrugged. There was only so much an adoptive mom could do when her children were older than her. Finally it was down to just her and her brothers, and she took one of the seats her girls had vacated. They had both given her hugs and Julia had given her a stern reminder to go to bed soon. Rebecca had just smiled. 

She stared at the fire and waited for them to say something, but they were quiet. She finally looked at them and Chris smiled. She bit her lip and huffed a laugh. Her smile was embarrassed. 

"You need to worry less," Chris reiterated. "It comes out on paper."

"I realize that," Rebecca folded her hands around her knee too keep them from fidgeting. "So?"

"So...I'm going to hijack the children in the morning and you're gonna sleep in," Chris said. "And then you're gonna go on a walk and get some writing done or some reading done and act like a normal human being so that you don't worry."

"See that doesn't work though," she sighed. "I'm not sure I trust you to take care of them either."

"I-want to take offense at that," Chris said slowly.

"But you won't cause you know I'm right," Rebecca shrugged. 

Another shrug from Chris, "Doesn't mean that I won't take offence to that."

Hector looked at the pair of them with a strange expression on his face, and shook his head slowly. "Okay, well. I think the both of you need sleep. Especially you," he looked pointedly at his sister. "So, lil' sis, it's time for bed."

"I love that you call me out when in fact he gets less sleep then I," Rebecca grumbled, standing up slowly.

"Ah yes, but I will grumble at him later," he shrugged. 

"Right, because neither of you can seem to rest until I am taken care of," she rolled her eyes and picked up the papers, gathering them from the scattered chaos beside Chris's chair.

They were silent and she looked at them pointedly. They laughed. She put the papers away and put them on the desk, closing it up and locking it. Then she went to the kitchen and started tidying up, putting away the dishes that had been left to dry. The boys watched her, and Chris sighed. 

They followed her into the area, and Hector got the jump on her, stealing the rag in her hand and wiping down the counters. Chris just leaned on a counter and watched quietly. When she'd run out of creative reasons to not go to bed, Rebecca went back to the fire and was going to stoke that too. Chris stopped her and took the poker out of her hand. Hector turned her around and pushed her toward the stairs. 

"Bed for you, miss," he said firmly. 

"You act like I'm not going to just go read in my room," she said obstinately.

"You could," he shrugged. "As long as you're in the process of resting."

She sighed and turned around, heading back toward the kitchen. 

Hector followed her half a step behind, and Rebecca sighed.

"What? I'm grabbing a candle!" she eyed her big brother, annoyed. "I am allowed to do that, yes?"

"I'm not stopping you," Hector crossed his arms and watched her.

"Uh-huh," she nodded and lit the candle. She crossed the room to the stairs, looking around one more time. She stopped at the bottom, set the candle down on the last stair, and hugged both of the boys. "G'night gents. Try to stay out of trouble, would you? And sleep soon. It's awfully hypocritical of you to send me to bed if you weren't planning on it yourselves."

They looked at each other and shrugged. She sighed. "There's extra blankets in the oak chest if the barn gets cold."

"Love you sis," Hector called up the stairs after quietly. 

"Ya ya," she threw over her shoulder with a laugh.