Idle Thoughts Fill Freezers

TheGreatandPowerfulDM: @everyone, the march 1st game is cancelled. They will be inducing me on the 26th to hopefully give birth the 27th. Even if I am out of the hospital by the 1st, I will be in recovery mode.

*

The young woman shuffled the Tarot deck, two questions in her mind from a source she did not understand.

The first: When will it happen? The 27th? The 28th? The 1st?

The second: Will everything be okay?

A secret third question lingered in the background, not fully realized.

She laid the cards out carefully at her desk, face down, a secret between them and the universe until they are perceived.

She turned them over.

*

The Queen of Cups

*

"Meal prepping is always a good thing, right?" I asked, trying to grasp the nebulous thought in my head. The idle thought during the slow hours trapped in a check-lane at work had spun itself in circles without a clear direction. Now that work was over, it was back, crowding out everything else in my brain.

"I don't think we have the fridge space for that," Mom answered dryly, turning onto our street. "You know your brother's got all that stuff in there for his lunches."

"Or that he's forgotten about or has gotten shoved to the back, I know." Tugging on the end of my ponytail, I sighed. "I just... I know there's several of them in the house. I know there are. But it's also a lot of people who don't really have the energy to put into trying to make meals after everything."

Mom paused. "I think we started the conversation in the wrong place. What's this about?"

"I want to make some meals that we can take over to Ty and Tara’s, so they don't have to find enough mental spoons for making food and dealing with new baby. That would be helpful, right?"

"With a new baby? Yeah." She pulled into the driveway and took the key out of the ignition before turning to look at me. "When would this be, exactly?"

I shrugged. "I don’t know exactly. It's an idle thought I had at work. Something they might need after everything. You know. Just... I don't want to default to like a casserole or something because that seems like an everybody-does-that sort of thing, but at the same time all I was thinking was like a few meals pre-put-together in an aluminum baking tin and covered in plastic. And there's just 'remove plastic and shove in the oven at 375 degrees for 20 minutes' or something like that."

"I think they'd appreciate that."

"Even if I haven't asked?"

"Were you going to?"

I winced. "Not in so many words?"

"Robin, what were you going to do?"

"I was going to ask Maki about dietary restrictions and ick-foods for the house so I could find some dump-and-go recipes that would work for them?"

"Why is that phrased like a question?"

"Because I'm really trying to hope it's not as stupid as my brain is trying to tell me it is." The thrum of anxiety in my chest was like a violent teeter-totter on a playground where the kids are trying to figure out how far they can throw one another. Everyone's still holding on for dear life, but the moment something shifts, everything is going to fall apart.

Mom shrugged. "It sounds to me like you've already made a decision, and it wasn't with your head."

"That's why my head's saying it's stupid!"

She smiled, opening up the car door and letting in the frigid winter wind. "That sounds to me like a reason to stop listening to it for a moment. The brain isn't great at making those emotional decisions. It gets caught up on too many facts."

*

The Page of Pentacles (Reversed)

*

"'Google is my bitch', my ass," I muttered, scrolling endlessly through links to recipe blogs and cooking videos and articles that redirected from lists of ideas to different recipe blogs. Tara had only said the phrase the once, but I'd written it down. We'd been compiling a list of 'things writers say', and Google really was an essential tool for figuring out details we wouldn't or couldn't manage to figure out on our own. Like how long it takes to exsanguinate or the social structure of the Anglo-Saxon court or the different kinds of magic in D&D and how they function in practice.

Normally, it was pretty helpful. And while it technically wasn't failing to provide information, it was presenting it in eight different ways with AI-mode, clarifying questions, a sideways scroll wheel of YouTube shorts, tiny thumbnail picture tabs with the same links buried beneath all the nonsense, and a few of the ingredient lists immediately mentioning an item I specifically excluded from the search.

"Yo, Robin! We're headed to the store soon! Didn't you want to come along and get some ingredients?"

Resisting the urge to throw my phone across the room, I called back, "Yes, I want to come! I'm just having a little trouble finding recipes they can all have that will also travel well!"

Mom appeared at the door of my room. "And that's probably why most people just bring casseroles. Easier to deal with, several servings, and practically customizable."

"I don't want to give them casseroles! They will get sick of casseroles! I managed to get Viv's recipe for the baked macaroni and ham thing they make. Which is incredible, by the way and I would make for the house if the cheese and the spice wasn't going to be an issue for some people. And probably also the potato chips."

"Potato chips?"

"Yeah, barbecue potato chips," I replied, grabbing my shoes. "You just sprinkle them on and fold them in like bread crumbs, and it somehow elevates it so much. I could probably eat one on my own, and I know they like it, so I've got one thing. I wanna have, like, five or six." As always, trying to tug on my shoes wrecks my balance and I catch the wall to keep from falling over entirely. "Okay, I'm ready."

"Maybe you could make that chicken noodle casserole recipe you got from Naomi."

"Chicken might still be on the banned list. Baby didn't like it for some reason, and I don't want to make something Tara can't have because that's 80 percent of the reason I'm doing this."

Mom looked back towards the kitchen. "Do you want to bring along one of the cookbooks?"

I sighed, slung my purse over my shoulder and followed her down the hall. "You know what? Sure. It would probably be easier than Google right now because it doesn't have six million sponsored ads before any of what I'm actually looking for, and the screen can't jump around because books don't have screens. Betty Crocker wouldn't do me dirty like this."

*

The Page of Wands

*

The nervous energy shuddered through me as we hit the narrow bumps right before Ty and Tara's house. The streets were quiet, as they always were in the back neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city, but I almost wished I was walking from the bus stop because I could have music in my ears, my arms weighed down with my gifts, and no energy whatsoever to overthink.

"Should I have called ahead? There's usually someone at home, but this isn't exactly a usual time. We specifically weren't going to meet up today."

"Didn't you get an update last night?" Mom asked, focusing on the road ahead and the cars parked on the curb as we turned onto the last street.

"With pictures, yeah. I don't know if she's been released yet. Ty would probably want to stay with Tara and the baby, though, but Kat should be home. If not her, maybe Aaron?"

Mom glanced at me. "Maybe you should call. We don't exactly want to just leave food on their doorstep."

Phone-calls. My worst enemy. Just ahead of stairs and people talking about me like I can't hear them when we're sitting in the same room. I still pulled out my phone and pressed Kat’s contact, even though touching the call icon always felt like a mistake.

The other end of the line buzzed in my ear, and I tried not to think about the fact that I usually text Kat instead of calling her. And that I may have come a long way just to find the house all closed up and even though I do have a key, I don't know how to turn off their security system.

The line clicks as the connection opens. "Hello?"

"Hi, Kat, it's Robin."

"Olo! Nice to hear from you! Tara isn't back yet, but Ty did go ahead and post a couple pictures of JJ on Discord."

"Yeah, I saw. Are you at the hospital with them?"

"Nah. You know me, much more of a homebody. And someone's got to keep the cats entertained."

"Good. That means this will work." I glanced over at Mom as we pulled into the driveway and the motion sensor above the garage chirped. "That's me in the driveway now."

"Oh. You do know we aren't doing D&D today right? Even if Tara was home, it's too soon!"

"I know. But I also know that the next few weeks at the very least are going to be exhausting, and it would be better to have a little bit of help and support." I glanced back at the trays of food we'd prepared. "I can't get over here regularly enough to be super helpful, but I brought some things I think might help. Can I bring them in?"

"Sure. Let me go unlock the door."

The line disconnected and I shoved my phone in my pocket before unbuckling my seat-belt and getting out of the car. "Okay, we're good to bring it in. Do you want to come with me?"

"I suppose I can help you carry it all in," Mom replied with an exaggerated long-suffering sigh. "We wouldn't want to drop anything at this point."

Kat was waiting at the door as we came up the walk. "Oh! When you said it was something to help, I thought it would be something for baby." She chuckled. "This does explain why you asked about food preferences the other day. I just thought you were trying to plan ahead for the next game day."

"I mean, this does technically help baby," I argued. "Just more indirectly. I've got Viv's pasta bake with bits of ham, a chicken and rice casserole, and creamy potato soup. Mom has the baked macaroni, the shepherd's pie, and the chicken noodle soup. So, you know, options!"

"You didn't have to do this. We would have managed."

"I know. But you've been there for me a lot, even when I didn't have anything to give except my time, so it just makes sense to give back now that I have the means." I shifted uncomfortably on the stoop. "Are you going to have enough space in the fridge and freezer for these?"

"I think we can managed to find some space." Kat stepped back. "Come on in. You know, Ty sent a message earlier saying that Tara and baby should be released today. You could stick around until they get back."

I glanced back at Mom. We didn't really have any plans for the rest of the day other than delivering the food, but the others at home would be expecting us back sooner rather than later. Stalling for a few moments to think of the right words, I shoved the soup into the fridge and closed the pasta bake into the freezer above it. "I don't know," I admitted, turning back. "It feels too soon. I think things will be stressful enough without adding more people into it."

Kat nodded. "Suit yourself. There will be time to meet baby JJ later. But I'm sure that Tara and Ty are going to appreciate not having to cook." She opened the chest freezer and held out a hand for another one of the trays.

"All of the trays have a sticky note with the instructions for cooking it from both thawed and frozen, just in case," I added, passing over the chicken and rice casserole and offering up Mom's trays as well. "And either of the soups should be fine in the freezer for a little while, but you'll probably have to let them thaw out to be able to portion out and reheat them."

“You really pulled out all the stops, didn’t you?”

Mom chuckled. “She was terrible about explaining what she wanted to do at first. You can start stories in the middle of the action; you can’t do the same with conversations.”

“In my defense,” I said, raising a finger, “I’d been having the conversation in my head for four hours by that point. I was in the middle of it!”

“No wonder I couldn’t keep up! You had a head start!”

Kat patted Mom on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. You got there in the end. Or rather, you got here in the end. Thank you for bringing this stuff over. Both of you. Our door is always open to you guys. Especially if you bring food!”

*

A three-card spread in tarot is one of the most basic configurations. Interpretations of the cards and what their position is in the spread is versatile, but it relies on the mindset of the one reading the cards and the question they are pondering as they examine them.

The young woman was not a fortune-teller by trade, she did not often give readings. But the spread before her was asked two questions and answered three.

Question one: when will it happen?

Answer: The 27th. The 28th will be recovery, and the 1st will be the first day home.

Questions two: will everything be okay?

Answer: yes. This is an exciting but an exhausting time for everyone. It's a new life starting now.

Question three: what should I do?

Answer: follow your heart, don't let your doubts stop you, and this will be a happy surprise for them.

For a moment, layers of reality peeled back, and the character and the player were the same person, waiting for the next moment as the world shifts into a new configuration around them.

And then the moment ends and time freezes once again as the tarot-reader waits for the story to continue.

*

ChaosCrew-theBard: All I'm hearing is we need to budget time to meet baby when next we game. Good thing I always arrive early!