Ring Ring

Riinng! Riinng!     The alarm bell rang in Colette’s room. She tiredly opened her eyes as she stretched her hands out while in bed. The alarm clock read 5:30am, which meant wake-up time. She then got up to go brush her teeth before cleaning up.     “Breakfast’s ready y’all”, Mia called from the dining room to the house forty-five minutes later. Colette picked up her phone and texted Chloe – ‘let’s go to the coffee place at one’s. She then texted Patience ‘Hi pal, wanna hang out with I and Chloe today?’. She then left for the dining room already dressed for the cold day.     “Hmm, I see you’ve still gone for toast sandwich and cocoa tea huh,” Colette said as she took her seat in the dining room where the rest of the family had already gathered for breakfast.     “What are you saying child, you seen this before,” her mother asked.     “Perhaps she’s become a time traveller!” All but Colette laughed     “Yeah, wish you all knew though,” she thought to herself.     “So, we’re gonna have a LONG day at the restaurant,” Mia said.     “Hmm, well I’m leaving at 12:30…”     “Oh no you don’t, or didn’t you hear what I just said?” Her mother interjected.     “But ma, I was gonna go out with Chloe and Pat today,” Colette said with a sullen look.     “Still no Col, besides, not letting you out of my sight for the time being,” her mother said.     “Argh, I said I’m fine mum,” Colette said, with her face starting to look dejected.     “Argus, handle this please.”     “Oh no you don’t dad.”     “Young lady, will you please sit down, your mum’s absence yesterday afternoon has left us with quite the work in the kitchen. An order came in yesterday to get a ton lot of pastries ready by nine today, and I barely did quarter of them yesterday, cus your mama was worried about you, I’m not saying you should repay her, but be considerate.”     “Ugh!” Colette grabbed two pieces of toast from her plate and went outside the house to the balcony. She suddenly realized it was a mistake , as the outside was freezing cold that morning, and the sun wasn’t visible yet because of the cloud covering. She let out a sigh that was filled with steam from her body as she sat on the chair at the corner of the balcony and stuck her left gloved hand in the pocket of her coat, before placing one slice of toast on her lap and began eating the second slice. 'Damn order, totally forgot,' she thought to herself. She looked ahead of the house into the open space. It wasn’t snowing now, but the breeze that was blowing was filled with chill. As she began eating her second toast, the door of the house opened and Clement came forth, holding a mug of steaming tea in his right hand.     “Here.” He handed the tea over to Colette.     “Hmph,” she replied.     Clement then leaned on the railings of the balcony and also looked forward at the open space. “Almost all the birds have migrated huh, those trees used to be filled with them, specially those magpies, ha,” Clement said.     Colette sipped from her tea. The both of them were then silent for a while. Both their parents then came out of the house ready to go to the restaurant. Colette got up and went to drop her mug in the kitchen, before going to join her family in their car square. Her father removed the canvas cover over the car and by nudging his head beaconed for them to enter the car, and off to the restaurant they went. Mia and Argus talked all the way to the restaurant, while Clement sat back at his seat, busy on his phone. Colette sat at the other back corner of the car, looking dejected.     They arrived the restaurant 7:00am and began cleaning up the restaurant while their regular customers started trooping into the restaurant for their breakfast. Mia was already busy preparing dishes and re-heating leftovers from the previous day. When Argus finished cleaning the kitchen, he began to setup the baking and cooking apparatus for the pastries order they had received. They were meant to bake five hundred pastries – two hundred bear claws and three hundred apple tarts. Argus had already done half of the bear claw pastries because the raisins were delivered earlier the previous day, and the apples only arrived later in the evening, much to Argus’ frustration. When Colette and Clement finished cleaning the restaurant, they started taking the orders of the customers, and for the next four hours, they were all busy.     Colette checked her text to see if Patience had replied her message. She had texted that she’ll be available. Colette then sent messages to both Patience and Chloe – ‘Hi girl, it’s really busy at the restaurant, unexpectedly. Wondering if you could please come around to help out, PLEASE!!. She then sent the message separately to both girls, and continued working while her parents kept working hard in the kitchen.     “Wish their aunt was around,” Argus muttered to himself as he beat apple slices to mesh.     “And you know more than anyone else that she deserves her break, she’d being working real hard here,” Mia replied as she mixed a dough. “Clara though, called last night, and said Brazil’s really great, she even told me she contemplated staying there…”     Argus stared at Mia with a quite shocked face.     “Calm down Argus, she was just joking, said to watch out for your reaction when I told you haha,” Mia teased her husband. “Well, it’s high time she found a husband or becomes a career lady, rather than lay stuck in her brother’s restaurant.”     Argus averted his gaze from Mia. “Well, perhaps she just loves it here…”     “You seriously aren’t wishing for your sister to grow old here are ya?” Mia asked.     “Well, we both will,” he replied.    “Cus we own the place Argus,” Mia retorted.     About an hour later, both Chloe and Patience entered the restaurant, much to Colette’s delight.     “Well girl, you owe us big time, BIG TIME,” Chloe teased her.     “Hmph, never thought the date, hang out or whatever it was supposed to.be would be a work date haha.” The three girls giggled. Colette took them to her mother who acknowledged their help after greeting them. Colette then took them to the changing room to wear aprons. Chloe was put to work on counter duties with Clement, while Patience followed Colette to the kitchen to work on the pastries since she had some experience with it. They had both come to help Colette’s family at the restaurant once when they were shorthanded, with Argus down with illness.     And so the day passed, the pastries were all baked, and the owners came to collect them at past nine, when they were all rounding up their restaurant activities, with Chloe and Patience both given lunch and dinner, along with some desserts, and packaged dinners for their families and Argus gave them some pocket change which he insisted on, before they closed shop, and all got into the car. Argus first dropped Chloe home, before arriving at theirs with Patience, who went to hers beside theirs. They had all eaten dinner at the restaurant before coming home, and given how tired they were, didn’t take long before retiring to their rooms. Colette had already gotten refreshed and was set in her bed wearing her pyjamas, and covered in her blanket. She was staring at the ceilings of her room again, thinking.     ‘The bomb huh, what to do, what to do.’     And so the troublesome days begin for her, days that will bend her and push her to her limits, as they say, the calm before the storm, she’ll have to differentiate fantasy and reality really fast, and without breaking; atleast completely.