Something Sweet for Someone Sweet

       The sky darkened as the sun slowly slipped from its perch and over the curve of the earth, disappearing in a colorful display of brilliant light. Snowfox watched the bright ball of light slowly vanish and the moon begin its nightly ascent to greatness. Tonight its surface was only half shown but it in no way affected its hypnotizing beauty. A small smile on his face, he watched the stars twinkle into existence across the sky until it seemed the air was filled with tiny fireflies. He reclined and lay back on the soft grass under him, watching the night as it grew more complete yet not darker as the moon and stars prevented such a crime from taking place. Tonight it seemed not even the clouds dared to interrupt their holy shine as they radiated down from the heavens, bathing the earth in their gentle light.

        Snowfox closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of the night for a time. The soothing chirp of the crickets, the gentle swish of the wind through the grass, and the slight flutter of bats off to catch, what was to them, breakfast. The chorus of the night continued its beautiful tone and sent the gentle wraps of sleep towards the denizen of the yard. For a moment it seemed that it would take him and whisk him off to the world of dreams… but here was not the proper place. With a sigh, Snowfox rose from his, quite comfortable, position and sleepily moved back towards his home, stumbling through the door and, after closing it, wasted no time in locating his bed. Not even bothering to pull back the covers he collapsed onto the soft fluffy surface and finally succumbed to the world of dreams. As his mind drifted off a single streak shot across the night’s sky. While this phenomenon would normally signify the pinnacle of a night’s wonders, tonight it was just the beginning…

       T’was a night full of wonders and it swept through the house, the whole kitchen was stirring but as quiet as a louse…

       The cookbook was first and it rose onto the counter, signaling the beginning of weeks of preparation. Next came the cooking instruments, bowls, whisks, spoons, cups, and various other measuring and cooking apparel, each with a specific and ordered goal to complete before they could return to their peaceful slumber. The ingredients were next. Each one already knew their job without the book’s guidance; such was the extent of their nights of secret preparation. Thankfully, their unaware owner had left them plenty of ingredients for the plan to be enacted. The cookbook watched the whole thing unfold and glanced nervously at the clock. Tonight had been a quite late one for their owner. Normally he was in bed quite soon after dark but tonight he had decided to watch the stars for a few hours… The book hadn’t dared begin the plan while his owner had been awake, the risk of discovery was too great! However, everything was going smoothly so it hardly mattered.

Snap!

       The optimistic hopes of an easy night’s sleep broke with the support ramp. A whole array of ingredients scattered across the floor and everything stopped — except Snowfox’s snoring. Even the wind seemed to sigh with relief as the kitchen reorganized and assessed their broken support. The whole of their plan had hinged on that ramp, which had been an old, but seemingly stable, board lying in the corner of the room. Their owner had brought it in for something but had thankfully forgotten its existence, and thus it had become an integral part to their scheme. Unfortunately, they just now began to suspect that the reason had been for firewood…

       The cookbook rubbed its pages together and came up with a new plan. It would take much longer, but it could work and that was what mattered; failure wasn’t an option! He roused the spare twine and set them to work on a slow, but steady, pulley system bringing the ingredients from the floor to the counter and vice versa. Hours passed but finally the real work could begin. The ingredients were each measured, mixed, and sent back to their sleeping nooks to catch up on their night’s sleep before it slipped away. After about another hour of slowly, but steadily, working through the recipe the last ingredient was added and swirled in with the rest of the, soon to be delicious, mixture. With the ingredients all back in their places and the first part of the recipe spread across a tray the last step began, getting it to the warming oven…

       The process was long and difficult, filled with quite a few moments that would have any onlooker’s heart racing. A few times the whole plan nearly amounted to a mess as the heavy tray threatened to break the thin twine, which was barely holding the whole operation together. However, the fate proved kind and rewarded their efforts, allowing the cake batter to finally come to rest inside the oven. The oven began its work in earnest and, as the rest of the kitchen reorganized for the creation of the decorative frosting, cooked the equally scrumptious batter to a perfect texture. As the daylight just began peeking over the crest of the earth the kitchen rushed to combine the two completed parts of their puzzle.

        As the sun rose and the birds replaced the bats, their owner stirred. Snowfox awoke and stretched, feeling quite refreshed after last night’s stargazing. He rose and stumbled sleepily to the kitchen to get breakfast. Thoughts of breakfast were stopped as he saw the cake resting on his counter. He blinked a few times in disbelief and slowly walked over to it. The words, “Happy Birthday, Snowfox!” were written in blue frosting across its white sugary surface and he wondered how it could possibly have gotten there. It would have been the perfect scheme too, if only the kitchen utensils had remembered to wash themselves after…


Happy Birthday, Snowfox!