Chapter 3 - Where Are My Sugar Cubes?

Chapter 3
Where Are My Sugar Cubes?

Yep. Today was officially cancelled.

Sydney Cohen, a Primitive gradana? (whatever that was). No freaking way.

For all her thirteen years of life, Sydney had always been fond of reading. Of fictional stories that teleported her out of her own world, of the fantastical characters that rode fire breathing dragons and went on excellent quests. Now, her own life was starting to feel like one big fairytale. Maybe she should’ve been thrilled, or even fascinated by the talking Foods and this talk of another world called ‘Geveodu’, but honestly, she was beginning to feel a little bit dreadful. If Krale was right, and she really was a Primitive gradana…that just sounded absolutely awful. A Primitive gradana---not to forget, a lost Primitive gradana---was just giving too much main character energy. If she could choose to be any character in a book, it would be the old mentor, because that would mean she got to act wise, stay at home, and sip tea all day.

“Um…” Sydney tried to speak, but her throat was dry. “I---I refuse. I don’t want to be that.”

“Huh?” Krale said, confused.

“Could I be…uh, maybe the berry bush instead? You know, the one authors describe to set the scene. I could be helpful and be our heroes’ dinner!”

Krale blinked, his expression blank. When he finally came back to his senses, he shouted, “You can’t just deny your own identity! It’s like telling me not to be the greatest salad bowl that has ever lived. Impossible!”

Ruthantasis rolled his eyes. “I think that is very much possible, Grandpa.”

Krale bonked him on the head with his fork.

“Ow!”

“My point is, you must return me and him home at once! You’re the one who brought us here.” Krale pointed the fork accusingly at Sydney, who held her hands up innocently.

“I wasn’t the one who brought you guys here. I can’t teleport things,” she said. “That’s just absurd!”

“Oh yes you can!”

“Oh no I can’t!”

“Oh yes you---”

“Maybe it was Mr Skeleton over there!” Sydney quickly intercepted before Krale could utter another word. She wasn't about to bicker back and forth with a talking salad bowl like a tennis match.

“You’re saying a pile of bones is the lost Primitive?” Krale asked.

Sydney nodded. She pretended not to know that Mr Skeleton was definitely made from plastic. If you ever inspected him closely, you could see that at the back of his skull, there was a small imprint that said ‘Made in China’. But of course, Sydney totally didn’t know that.

All of a sudden, the school bell rang and Sydney’s pigtails jumped up with a start.

Oh no. Sydney looked at the clock. Tick, tick, tock. Her perfect attendance was on the line! Break was ending, and class was about to start. After all these years of never even having one sick day, Sydney wasn’t about to break her streak. With one quick movement, she stuffed Krale and Ruth into her tote bag. Despite their muffled threats of impaling her with a fork (most of the complaining came from Krale), Sydney dashed out the door. Nothing was going to get in the way of Sydney and her academics. Nothing was going to stop her from going to her classes. Nothing. Especially not a pair of talking Foods. Sydney snorted.

Yep. That fact was never going to sit right with her.

***

One life advice Sydney Cohen can give you: If you’ve only been through a third of your school day and happen to have a talking PB&J and salad bowl on your hands, never impulsively stuff them into your tote bag. Leave them in your locker, or the lost-and-found box, or else you will suffer the wrath of the fork.

For the rest of the day, Sydney had been constantly poked at by the salad bowl’s fork cane, and even when her tote bag was a good 30-centimetres away from her, Krale somehow always found a way to annoy her still. Ruthantasis, on the other hand, kept attempting to crawl out of the bag in order to search for sugar cubes. To translate briefly, this meant that Sydney definitely did not get her notes down, and when the teacher had called on her in English class (her favourite class ever), she had gotten the question wrong.

“Miss Cohen, what did Piggy from Lord of the Flies use to light a fire?”

Sydney snapped back to attention and blurted out, “Sandwiches!”

The teacher and her classmates had stared at her in confusion. What had angered her the most was how Krale and Ruth were both tsk-ing their tongues at her, even though they were the reason she got the question wrong. Ruth had already climbed out of her bag and planted his jelly feet on her desk, smearing the red jam all over her notes. Then, he had the nerve to correct her.

“Piggy obviously used his glasses, Sydney. Were you even listening?”

Sydney might as well turn into a volcano and explode the whole school. So, when the last bell rang, Sydney did not hesitate to dart straight home.

***

Sydney slammed her door shut. She plopped her tote bag onto her bed and lifted Krale and Ruth out, placing them onto her mattress. Immediately, Krale started to protest, but when he saw the look of pure anger on Sydney’s face, he immediately backed down and obediently sat. Ruthantasis didn’t dare utter a single word as Sydney locked her room, pulled the chair from her desk, and sat. It didn’t help calm the Foods’ nerves either when she decided to sit facing them, and Sydney very much hoped that the irritated look on her face was menacing enough to keep them quiet for some time. Because, if there was one thing Sydney Cohen could never tolerate, it was disrespect. And man were these two Foods disrespectful.

“You guys,” Sydney pointed accusingly at Ruthantasis and Krale. “Are unbelievable!” She scoffed and threw her hands down. “You got me in trouble for the first time in five years! I never get in trouble!”

Call her a perfectionist if you want, but Sydney wasn’t about to let this mistake go, however small.

“Child, I assure you. One little mistake won’t affect you in the slightest,” Krale said. “This big---humongous---one, though,” he gestured to himself and Ruth. “You better bring us back, miss girl.”

Sydney huffed. “How many times do I have to tell you? I wasn’t the one who brought you here.”

“Oh yes you were,” Krale said.

“Oh no I wasn’t.”

“Oh yes you---”

Sydney groaned. “We are not starting this again.”

Ruthantasis shook his head. “No, please, continue. Watching you two bicker is peak-entertainment.” He held his jelly hands out to emphasise his point. Sydney shot him a glare. Ruthantasis shrugged innocently.

Sydney took a deep breath. In…and out…. She refocused herself and got her facts straight.

“You two stay here for a while, okay? I need to do something first,” she said.

“I---” Ruthantasis was about to say something, but Sydney cut him off with a nod.

“Yes, I know. Your sugar cubes.”

The sandwich immediately sat back down, satisfied. Sydney took that as her cue to quickly flee the room.

Even if a talking sandwich and salad bowl suddenly appeared in her life, Sydney still had responsibilities to take care of. Sydney quickly ran downstairs and put a couple cookies on a plate. She filled a cup with water and brought them to her grandpa, who was still sipping tea in the living room. She put the plate of cookies on the table for him. Her grandpa chuckled, putting his cylindrical teacup down.

“Oh sweet girl, you didn’t have to do that,” Thomas Cohen said, but Sydney shook her head and just kissed him on the forehead. Then, she took her cup of water and rushed up the stairs, careful not to accidentally spill it---something she has done too many times to count.

“Bunny, is that you?”

At the sound of her soft, unsure voice, the world around Sydney stopped spinning. It was as if the axis of the Earth was perfectly back on its tilted angle, and she forgot everything she was about to do. Colour returned to her face as Sydney gave in to a smile and tip-toed up to the room closest to the stairs. With her hands on one side of the door frame, she peeked in.

A black haired woman in silk pyjamas sat on a queen sized bed. Her pyjamas had little patterns of pine cones and trees on them. When the woman’s two blue-green eyes lifted off the carpeted wood floor and met Sydney’s, her long black hair fell forward and she smiled. Sydney couldn’t hide bubbling joy on her face any longer and stepped into the room, quickly placing the cup of water on the nearest dresser. She offered the woman a playful bow---one suitable for the finest lady in old England.

“ ’Tis I, madame,” Sydney said, slightly lifting her imaginary dress up to imitate another type of bow. This time, suitable for a princess.

The lady in pinecone pyjamas laughed. Her face was the brightest in the whole universe, and Sydney knew that for a fact. Ada Cohen’s body might be pale, her bones may be a tad bit fragile, but nothing compared to that smile on her mother’s face. Not even the brightest stars in the sky.

“Now, what should I call you, Miss…?” her mother asked.

“You may call me Sir Cohen, Knight of the Great Hall of Cats, devoted to none other than Her Majesty Queen Kitty herself.” Sydney switched to a chivalrous salute, making her mum laugh. Naturally, the room filled with happiness the moment Ada Cohen opened her mouth. Her mum patted on the spot beside her on the bed, and Sydney gladly sat down, hugging her mum so tightly she almost couldn’t breathe. Then, she slumped down onto the bed. Sydney let the softness of the large mattress sink her, wrap her in a warm embrace. She closed her eyes.

“I can never get tired of your bed.” Sydney sighed dreamily. “I can’t believe you get to sleep on literal clouds every night.”

Her mum playfully flicked her on the forehead before lying down next to her. “Your own bed is plenty nice, too, bunny.”

Sydney sank farther down into the bed and covered herself with blankets. “But nothing can compare to the Goddess’s bed!” Then, she rolled over to look at her mum and feigned mock surprise. “Oh, and the Goddess is you, by the way.”

Her mum laughed. Ada Cohen had the biggest bed in the house. Sydney loved it so much since it gave her more excuses to come into her mum’s room. Sydney was sure the bed could fit three people plus a cat since it was so large. Everytime she lay on it, she would be transported to cloud nine…no, cloud one thousand.

Sydney was glad it was her mum who got the biggest bed in the house (and possibly the whole universe), though. If anyone deserved this luxury, it would be Ada Cohen. Sydney would gladly sleep on the streets if that meant her mum could nap peacefully, even if it was for eternity. She pulled her blankets down.

Ada Cohen smiled at her and pulled the covers back up, over Sydney’s shoulders. Sydney beamed back at her, snuggling into the softness of the cloth. It was the little moments like these that made Sydney never want to grow up; moments like these that made her want to stop time, to replay it over and over again, to commit every feeling, every emotion, and every scent to memory because she knows she can never grow tired of it all. She loved the way her mum spoke so tenderly to her, and she never wanted to take any of this for granted. Sydney breathed in the scent of her mum’s perfume.

Every month, the scent was different---Sydney had noticed. Her mother made her own perfumes, imitating the scents of places she longed to see some day. Today, she smelled smokey. A little like toasting some marshmallows over a crackling campfire, or the burning destruction of an erupting volcano. Both of which were equally cool alternatives.

“How was school?” Ada Cohen asked, snapping Sydney back to reality. Her mind darted from smoking hot lava to school, and finally back to the talking Foods she had hidden away in her room. Sydney’s eyes went wide.

“Nothing, really,” Sydney said, trying as best as possible to look and feel normal. “School was kind of weird today.” She refused to meet her mother’s eyes. “I think all the work is getting to me. My mind has been in a jumble lately.” She decided to leave the whole part about ‘burping sandwiches’ and ‘cranky old salad bowls’ out. Her mum didn’t need to be worried about her. She already has so much on her plate.

“Oh, yeah. I almost forgot,” Sydney said, quickly changing the subject. “Your medicine. I brought you some water.” She stood up from the bed and headed to the dresser, pulling some pills out from the drawer and finally handing them to her mum.

“Thank you, sweetie,” her mum replied, a little bitterly. “I can’t wait to be rid of these pills someday,” she mumbled. Sydney handed her the cup of water and Ada Cohen gratefully swallowed the medicine down. Sydney put the cup down and looked around the room.

Clearly, her mum had been busy scrapbooking the day away. Scraps of paper and all sorts of stickers and decorative tapes were scattered all over the floor. Sydney’s gaze went to the open notebook on the desk by the window and gestured to it with her chin.

“Where did you hop to today?” Sydney asked, taking a seat beside her on the bed again. Her mum smiled, and Sydney could see the eagerness of wanting to show someone her work in those eyes, gleaming like a blazing fire, yet restricted only to the confines of the fireplace. Her mum made an attempt to get up and get the notebook herself, but Sydney gently sat her back down and retrieved it for her. Ada Cohen thanked her daughter and flipped to the latest page, the cream coloured paper painted with bright greens and dashing reds. There was even a corner smeared with aqua blue, bedecked with little fish stickers and underwater volcanoes. Scraps of newspaper were stuck all over, as if someone had scattered words or prophecies all over this distant, unknown land. If Sydney had to describe it in one word, it’d be unpredictable. Sydney marveled it, then looked up at her mum.

“What place is this? I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a thing on Earth.” Sydney said, in awe. Usually, when her mum hopped to places in her notebook, they were existing places on Earth. They were places her mum longed to see, but never got the chance to. That’s why she hops there instead. Yet, this time, it was clearly some place in another universe, some place straight from her story books.

There was a wistful look on Ada Cohen’s face as she said, “I was thinking a lot today. Mostly of…” she trailed off, but Sydney didn’t need her to finish. She knew what her mum was talking about. It was the hometown none of her family members seemed to like talking about. Grandpa said it brought back too many painful memories, and Grandma outright banned the subject.

But…would her mum have such a longing expression on her face if the place really was that bad?

Ada Cohen continued, snapping Sydney out of her thoughts, “This was how it looked like. Every day was different. Things would change every hour and you had no idea of telling what would come next. We lived alongside unpredictability.”

Unpredictability.

Sydney scrunched up her nose and thought back to the events of this morning. “That doesn’t seem very fun.” Not with all the talking Food popping up and burping in her face, that’s for sure.

Her mum laughed and pulled her into a side hug.

“Look here. See the ocean and the fish? They came once to our home.” Ada Cohen wasn’t making much sense, but the gleam in her eyes made Sydney nod and agree with everything that she said. Sydney was desperate for answers now, for just a glimpse of this cursed hometown, and urged her mum to continue.

“And the soft, light green grass! For some reason, it was always cut so short. Shorter than my ankles. I think the Lord must’ve preferred it short.” Ada Cohen laughed, making Sydney chuckle too. They fell back down onto the bed and lapsed into comfortable silence. Her mum was fully wrapped up in her own memories now, and it made Sydney drift into her own daydreams. She stared at the ceiling, imagining all the places her mum had shown her before. She imagined all the things they’d do there, all the pictures they would take. She smiled at the thought.

“Us four: me, you, Grandma, and Grandpa, we’re going to go to the Grand Canyon.” She drew a picture of the canyons in the air with her finger. “After that, we’d go to the Maldives, and then maybe to Japan to see Mount Fuji.” Images of them laughing and singing flickered through her mind. “We can even go to Thailand, rent a boat, and go snorkelling on one of their islands. Did you know they have the prettiest, most crystalline blue waters?” Sydney turned over to face her mum. Ada Cohen had that same wistful look in her eyes, and Sydney quickly tried to correct herself.

“Oh, I only meant when---when you get better, of course! Travelling now would not be a good idea.” She gave her mum a reassuring smile, to which her mum returned her with a gentle kiss on the forehead.

“Thanks, bunny,” she said, then fell back into silence, as if trapped by a whirlwind of thoughts. This time, the silence wasn’t so comfortable.

Before Sydney could ponder about her mum’s reaction, the click of the front door unlocking resounded in her ears. Plastic bags crunched and she heard a pair of shoes thump down onto the ground. Sydney peeked up.

“Grandma must be home. Let’s go help her make dinner!” Sydney stood up and helped her mum downstairs.

While, in the room farthest down the corridor, two talking Foods were still in Sydney’s room, waiting. Sydney heard none of their arguments as she led her mum down the wooden stairs. A slight grumpy voice, though, could be heard, muttering about…what was that, sugar cubes?

But of course, Sydney was too busy with everything else in her life she forgot about the sugar cubes entirely.

Author's Note

written: Nov 2024