About Natalie

“Where are all of the spoons!” I shriek, calling up to the second floor, where my three children are in their bedrooms.

“Sorry!” they each call back with varying degrees of volume and sincerity. 

The dishwasher is empty and the silverware drawer seems complete with plenty of forks and knives. But I am trying to set the table for dinner and I only can find one spoon for the five of us. 

“Dinner is almost ready, and some of you are going to be eating with your feet!” I threaten. “Don’t have any up here!” Jason yells down to me. “Of course not,” I mutter to myself adding something about him being the resident clean freak. Trevor appears with two spoons and two dirty bowls. “My ice cream monster,” I grumble, putting the bowls in the dishwasher and beginning to wash the utensils by hand. “Sorry,” he says walking away, grinning, not sorry at all. “I am still short at least three!” I shout again to the only kid left, my daughter. “Okay! Okay!” she says, appearing unexpectedly beside me with three cereal bowls and a handful of spoons. “Thank you!” I sigh snatching the spoons from her hand. “Put the bowls in the dishwasher. And stop eating cereal in your room,” I order, tossing the cutlery into the soapy dishwater and beginning to scrub them. “Will do,” she giggles, walking out of the room. I didn’t notice that there were three more spoons than bowls. And I didn’t see the circle-shaped burn marks in the center of the spoons.

I always wonder what I would have done if I had.