He looked around and found a fork and flipped over the cooking meat. He had never liked black bacon; his dad wouldn’t eat it any other way. He preferred it to be red, still crispy but not blackened. He liked to taste meat, not ash. He let the slabs of bacon stay on the griddle for a few moments more as the remaining fat popped and cooked off. Grabbing the plate he had used to bring the bacon over to the slicer, and washed it quickly. He scooped up the cooked bacon onto the freshly cleaned and dried plate. One of the pieces broke cleanly under the weight of several other pieces and he smiled at his handy work, a perfectly cooked batch of crispy bacon. He couldn’t help but be a little proud of himself.
“Hey, Charles.” William called out to his friends as he saw Charles moving off in some other direction.
His friend stopped and turned to look at him. Charles smiled at the heaping plate of cooked bacon in his hands. “Well, somebody knows how to use a grill.” He walked over and took the plate from William. “That’s good to know. I’ll send Kat over here and you can start cooking those eggs she brought in.” Charles started to walk off but hesitated and turned back around. “Hey, Will, do you like cooking?”
William looked at his friend and nodded his head, “Yeah, I love it. I just haven’t been able to do it since I got here.”
Charles nodded, “How about we make omelets this morning for everybody, if you wouldn’t mind?”
William stopped himself from answering right away. He did love to cook and if he said yes, he’d be on the grill all morning and maybe every time they had kitchen duty. Doing the same thing over and over again wasn’t his idea of fun. But he loved to cook and the thought of passing up this opportunity made him die a little on the inside. He smiled and nodded his head, “Sounds good to me.”
Charles nodded and walked back the way he had come with the plate of bacon. He called back over his shoulder, “I’ll get someone to bring you the ingredients, ham, vegetables, whatever you need, just let me know.” Charles disappeared around the front of the kitchen.
William nodded to himself and looked around for some kind of a refrigerator. It didn’t take him too long to realize that the refrigerator had to be all the way in the back next to the freezer. Heaving a sigh, he took off at a trot to get back there and grab some butter, if there was any to be had, and cheese and vegetables.
Coming back with the needed ingredients he placed them on the counter next to him. He was just about ready to open the tub of butter when Katherine walked around the corner carrying that mesh basket filled with eggs. She looked tired and a little ragged. “What have you been up to?” he asked empathetically.
Katherine smiled at him and shook her head, “Oh, nothing I was just called to run all over the city getting stuff.” She wiped her sweaty forehead and she gently placed the basket down on the counter next to the cheese and tomatoes. “What are those for?”
William smiled as he grabbed two eggs out of the basket, “They’re for omelets.”
“Omelets?” She turned her head sideways while looking dubiously at the counter. “You mean those disgusting things with all the meat and vegetables wrapped in fried eggs?”
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Her negative tone struck him as odd. “You mean you don’t like omelets?”
Katherine looked up at him sweetly. “Will, I love everything that goes into one of those things. I like eggs and I like ham and bacon. I like tomatoes and mushrooms. I like peppers and onions. I just don’t like them together. It always seemed… wrong to me.”
William almost laughed but Katherine’s serious tone told him that would be a mistake. “Have you ever tried one?” He asked gently.
Katherine looked at the counter and the griddle, “No, no I haven’t. I never saw the need to.”
“Wait a minute you have gone through life hating something that you have never even tried before?” William didn’t bother trying to keep the disbelief out of his voice. “You know how crazy and close minded that sounds, don’t you?”
Katherine tried to hide a shy smile, “Oh yeah, like you have been open minded about everything you came across in your life?” She cocked her head to side. “Ok, I’ll try one of your omelets this morning. But if I gag, I’m blaming you.” Smiling she walked away to wherever it was that she had come from. Looking back over her shoulder she said, “You might want to plainly cook some of those eggs though. There may be people who just want their usual scrambled eggs with breakfast.” Then she disappeared around the corner.
William looked at the eggs in the basket. Was this all there was? The basket was a good size and it held maybe three or four dozen eggs. This couldn’t possibly be enough to feed all the human born in the city. Well, he had what he needed and there was a hot griddle in front of him. Grabbing a steel spatula, he dipped it into the tub of butter and dropped a good chunk of it onto the hot surface. It immediately started bubbling and hissing. He spread it out a little and turned the fire down a bit. Grabbing an egg, he cracked it messily and threw it onto the melted puddle of butter. Discarding the shells he grabbed another and cracked it as well. Soon he had a nice pile of egg on the griddle. Taking the spatula he roughly mixed the whites and the yolks together. The griddle was still a little too hot and he had to turn it down again. After some flipping and scraping with the paddle the eggs were a rich fluffy yellow, even without milk. He pushed the eggs off to one side and looked around for a container of some sort.
As he was looking he realized he had no idea what time it was or how long he had been there. He called out, “Hey, Charles? Somebody?” There was no answer. He turned around and opened a cabinet to see if there was anything that could hold cooked eggs.
Presently Charles walked into the stove area. “Will? You wanted something?”
He pulled his head out away from the cabinet and looked at his friend. “Yeah, I was wondering what you wanted me to put these eggs in?” He said as he pointed to the cooked pile of yellow goodness on the stove.
Charles gave a little half smile. “That’s great, Will really.” He put his hands on his hip and looked up toward the ceiling, “How did I get this job?” He asked more to himself than to William. He turned back to his friend, “Yeah, I’ll get that for you. Listen, Will, we are way behind right now.” Charles looked around behind him. “I’m going to throw a whole bunch of stuff at you in about thirty seconds, are you going to be alright?”
There was genuine concern in his Charles’s voice. William looked up at him and said, “Yeah, hey, Charles whatever you need I’m here. We’ll get this done.” He smiled up at Charles as he finished.
Charles wiped at his head with his hand. “Ok, I’ve got pancake batter coming your way…” Just as he said this, Tara walked up to the stove carrying a huge barrel of soft white batter.
She placed the barrel on the ground and looked up at Charles and William, “You boys going to be alright with this?”
William nodded, “I got this. I’ve never cooked for this many people before but there’s a first time for everything.”
She nodded her head, “Good luck.” She said. She turned around and called back over her shoulder, “You’re going to need it,” as she walked away from the two of them.
Charles looked down at the barrel of batter, “You sure you’re going to be alright with this, Will?”
William smiled and patted him on the shoulder, “Charles, no problem. Don’t worry about me. Just get done what you need to get done.” William looked around the room quickly. “I could do with some stuff to put all this food in once I cook it though.”