My Cookie-Baking Sister

I said, "Dad. Mom wants you to call her."

Dad didn't reply. He kept typing.

I tried again. "Dad! Mom wants you to call her!"

"What?" I heard the fingers stop typing.

"Mom wants you to call her."

"Did she say why?"

"No."

Dad went back to typing.

"Dad! Call Mom."

"I'm in the middle of writing something."

I felt like pounding my head against the steering wheel. "Dad, Mom would only ask me to have you call her if it was really important. You had better call her now."

"Did she say why I should call her?"

"No."

"Then it's probably not that important." Dad went back to typing.

I stopped the car on the shoulder. Dad asked, "Why'd you stop?"

"We aren't going any further until you call Mom."

"Justin! We have a long drive ahead of us, in case you didn't know."

I did know. "Call Mom."

"Oh, okay," Dad said with disgust.

I handed Dad his cell phone and waited until I heard him say, "Hey, Honey" before I got the car moving again. Mom would know exactly where we were as everyone in our family had apps on our cell phones that shared our location with the other members of the family. I listened in as best I could as Dad talked to Mom. Most of the conversation consisted of "She said that?" over and over again. Then Dad said, "I'll call her now. Bye, Honey."

I listened to make sure Dad did indeed make the promised call. He introduced himself and was apparently put on hold. I could hear him drumming his fingers nervously on the laptop holder as he waited. Then whoever Dad was to call came on the line. Dad immediately started making a sales pitch - "When Rainbows Fall was three weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list." All three weeks had been at number fifteen, but Dad said there wasn't any difference between number fifteen and number two in terms of marketing. The call lasted twenty minutes. It was weird to hear Dad be so fawning and obsequious on the call as he usually was so full of himself when he was in writer mode. Before I could ask Dad what it was about, he was back on the phone to Mom. Most of that was agreeing with whatever Mom was suggesting.

When Dad hung up with Mom, he said to me, "Justin, the rest of the trip is off. When we get to El Paso, you're to take me to the airport; I'll be flying to LA. You'll continue on to San Antonio and spend the night at our hotel. Mom will make a reservation for you for tomorrow night at a hotel in Birmingham." Dad paused for a moment as if to collect himself. "A studio wants to buy the rights to When Rainbows Fall." Dad's voice was thick with wonder and disbelief. "Vin Diesel is interested in starring in the movie. The studio would like me to do the initial draft of the screenplay, and they want me to help pick locations in Nashville to film at." Dad paused. I could picture him shaking his head. "The movie version of When Rainbows Fall is going to be my life for the foreseeable future." He sighed. "That means the trip to Disney World is off."

Dad went back to typing on his laptop. But the typing was different this time - some typing followed by a long pause instead of the usual steady flow of keystrokes. Eventually, I figured out Dad was surfing the 'net, probably researching what would be involved in turning When Rainbows Fall into a movie.

I knew I should be happy for Dad. Ecstatic. Having a novel turned into a big-production movie was the ultimate for him. It'd probably bring him and Mom financial security for the rest of their life.

But I felt sad. I hadn't realized how much I was looking forward to the Disney World trip until it was canceled. The cancellation would break Kate's heart - she had been so looking forward to going. And the trip could have been the last vacation we did together as just the four of us. Next summer, I'll have a job and won't be able to vacation. By the next time we can take a vacation, I'll probably have a girlfriend. Kate might even have a boyfriend. Eventually, I'll get engaged and marry - I saw myself as having a family started by the time I hit thirty. The Disney World trip seemed like a great way to celebrate the end of the summer tours; the end of the whole family's total commitment to Dad's writing career. But Dad's unexpected success had now forced its cancellation.

* * * *

That night at the hotel, I only had a brief video call with Kate. I was exhausted from the long drive and the emotional excitement of Dad possibly hitting the big time.

Kate said, "Mom's flown to LA. As she's Dad's business manager, she's going to attend all the meetings." Kate excitedly told me everything Mom had told her, which wasn't much more than what Dad had told me.

I suspected once again, I'd have to be the bearer of bad news. "Did Mom tell you the Disney World trip is off?"

"What?"

"Dad told me the Disney World trip is off." Kate's face fell. "His life for the foreseeable future is going to be turning When Rainbows Fall into a movie. I guess Mom's too. It sounds like they're planning on being in LA for however long they need to be."

Kate's eyes started watering. She said in a small voice, "No. She didn't mention that."

I hated hurting Kate. God, I wished Mom or Dad had been responsible enough to give her the bad news instead of me. All I could do now was to try to mitigate the damage. "I was really looking forward to it, too." Tears were running down Kate's face. "Perhaps we can go another time. We'll discuss it with Mom and Dad. When is Mom going to call you?"

"She said when you got home, they'd do a video call with us." Kate was sobbing lightly now. "But I've made a reservation! And we were going to have such a great time together!"

"Kate..." I couldn't think of anything comforting to say. Hopefully, we'll reschedule but who knows when all four of us will be free again. I'd be home soon, but that wasn't much of a consolation to Kate as I'd be spending most of my time with my friends. "We're going to have to hold down the fort at home until they're ready to come back."

"I..." Kate let out a big sob. "I'm going to go..."

And she ended the call.

* * * *

The call the next night wasn't much better. It was basically Kate looking sad as she said she'd see me tomorrow.

I did one more long day of driving, and then my final summer tour was over. Relief swept over me as I turned onto our street. When I pulled into our driveway, I smiled to see Kate's bright blue HR-V. When I reached to open the front door, Kate opened it with a big smile on her face. I could smell cookies baking. I stepped into the house and gave Kate a big hug. She said, "Justin! I've missed you so! It's so good to have you home."

"It's great to be back."

"I've got some cookies for you!"

"So I smell."

I let Kate go, and, when she started to walk away, I stopped her. "Have you been working out?"

Kate blushed and looked down. "Yeah, I have. You talked about working out, and I decided I should too." Kate looked at me and smiled. "I have a friend who was on the swim team, and I asked her if we could work out together. She was happy to have a workout partner. She showed me how to use the weight machines." Kate looked a little embarrassed. "She was surprised at how quickly I was able to go up in weights. Now, I can lift almost as she does."

Kate and I walked to the kitchen. She was wearing a T-shirt and shorts. Her arms and legs looked more toned now, her body a little firmer. Her ass looked even more incredible. I liked the change. I was so happy to see Kate. She had gotten me through another long, boring summer. I appreciated now what a wonderful, interesting person she was. And she looked more beautiful than before I left. If she wasn't my sister...

I poured myself a glass of milk. "Do you want some?"

"Please."

I poured her a glass and then bit my first cookie. "Cinnamon oatmeal raisin. These are my favorite cookies. Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm."

Kate smiled proudly. I talked about my drive as I ate the cookies. As I talked, Kate discretely checked out my buffed body. Inwardly, I was glad I too had worked out hard all summer long. "I really missed Dad being in the car with me. He never talked to me while I drove, but I'd think of things to discuss at the next stop with him. It was so lonely driving all the way back from El Paso by myself. How are you doing?"

"Lonely too. I miss Mom. Ready to give Mom and Dad a call?"

"Sure. Then let's do dinner."

Kate brought her tablet into the kitchen and sent Mom a text. Soon, Mom and Dad were on a video call with us.

"Hey, kids!" boomed Dad's voice. "Good to see you again. Justin, I'm glad you got home safely. How are you two doing?"

"Good," Kate and I both said.

Dad said, "Glad to hear it. We're doing great." I could tell he sincerely meant it. "Every day here so far has been one of the most exciting of my life."

"And mine!" added Mom.

"We watched them film on location today. The studio wanted me to see what filming was like, so they sent me to see them film some movie they have in production."

Mom said, "Yesterday, we went to the Jimmy Kimmel show. That was so much fun!"

"And the rest of the time," continued Dad, "we've been crazy busy."

"What have you been doing?" I asked before immediately deciding to rephrase the question. "Where are you in selling When Rainbow Falls?"

Dad said, "Let me start from the beginning. Shannon is a woman who's very close to Mr. Diesel. She saw that When Rainbow Falls was on the New York Times Best Seller list, read a review of it, and decided it might be something that would interest Mr. Diesel. She's the one I talked to in the car. She has said that when I have a script and a storyboard of the script, she'll let me give her a thirty-minute sales pitch, and, if she likes it, then she'll arrange for Mr. Diesel to hear my sales pitch."

"Wow!" Actually, that didn't sound like very much, considering Mom and Dad had put their life on hold for this.

Dad continued, "So we have room in the studio's building where I'm working on creating a storyboard of When Rainbow Falls."

Mom said, "And as your dad is the world's worst artist, I'm doing all the storyboard drawings."

Dad said, "And studio people drop by, and we have the craziest talks. If we were to do a trilogy, what would the other two movies be like? If Vin passes on this, who would we would cast instead? Or could we do a country music murder mystery TV series for one of the country music cable channels? They think really big here and toss around lots of ideas."

I asked, "Do you think any of those ideas will happen?"

Dad said, "I have no idea. One thing I've learned is that talk is cheap. We'll only know how serious these people are when our lawyer sits down with their lawyer to talk money."

Mom said, "So we're looking for a lawyer. A good one. And the good ones are very busy so it's difficult to arrange an interview with them. So it's going to be weeks before we hire a lawyer, and we're going to stay here until then. But it sounds fairly certain that the studio will purchase an option on When Rainbow Falls." Dad nodded. That was good - Mom and Dad should come out financially ahead even if nothing more develops.

Mom took a breath and said, "Now, let's talk about the trip to Disney World."

I said, "Dad said it was canceled."

Mom gave Dad a sharp look. Dad said, "I misspoke. I had assumed the Disney World reservations were like any other hotel reservation. My plan was to cancel this trip and all of us go at Christmas time."

Mom said, "But the reservation at Disney World is non-refundable. We can't go, but you two could. Do you want to go?"

"Yes," both Kate and I said. Kate practically shouted it.

"Great! It's a Disney Vacation Club one-bedroom suite with a full kitchen. One of you will get the king-sized bed, and one of you will get the queen sleeper sofa. It has a kitchen, so take as much groceries down with you as you comfortably can. You have our credit cards in your name. We trust you two to spend reasonably. Bring back all your receipts." Trust but verify. "And have a great time."

"We will, Mom!" said Kate.

"We will!" I added.

Dad said, "We've been looking forward to doing Disney World with you two, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Like I said, hopefully, all four of us can go again later."

I said, "I want to do that, too."

Mom said, "Kate, don't worry about social media while you're there - your dad and I will take care of it." Mom sighed. "Okay, I've got a lot of drawing to do, so I'm going to let you kids go. Let's do another video call the day before you leave."

"Okay," said Kate and I in unison.

Mom ended the call. Kate started jumping up and down. "We're going! We're going! We're going!"

I gave Kate a big hug, lifting her off her feet. She giggled and kicked up her feet. I gently set her back down.

Kate asked, "Where do you want to go for dinner?"

I shook my head. "I've been eating out for months. What I want is a home-cooked meal." I knew Kate would offer to cook dinner, so I said, "Let me cook something. You've been making me cookies for months now; it's my turn to make you something."

I decided to make us meatball subs. I got some meatballs from the freezer, put them in a saucepan, poured some spaghetti sauce over, and let it simmer. As I straightened, I felt my back stiffen. I said, "I'm sore from three days of hard driving."

"Would you like a massage?"

"That'd be great."

I sat down in one of the dining room chairs. Kate came up behind me and started massaging my shoulders. "Like this?"

"Press harder with your thumbs." I wondered if Kate had ever given anyone a back massage before.

Kate quickly caught on and was soon working out a lot of stiffness. I said, "You're doing great."

"Trying to keep my practice boyfriend happy."

I smiled. My being her practice boyfriend had been our little joke all summer.

After Kate had gotten out all the kinks, I thought she could get out, I got up and finished making the subs. Over dinner, we talked about our Disney World plans. "Let's take my car!" suggested Kate.

"Well...I'd like to do the driving. I'm so used to it now that I'd feel uncomfortable sitting in the passenger seat."

"Oh, that's no problem. You don't mind if I read while you drive?"

I almost laughed. "Not at all. I'm used to driving with someone who's no company."

"Do you want the king-sized bed?"

I did, but I wasn't going to be so inconsiderate as to ask for it. "How about one of us gets the bedroom for three nights, and then it's the other person's turn."

"That'll work," said Kate brightly.

Most of the rest of the discussion was Kate going over the plans she had already made. When I stood up to take our dishes to the dishwasher, Kate jumped up and gave me a big hug. She said, "I'm so glad we're going."

* * * *

I spent the next two days unwinding, mostly visiting friends. It seemed like every one of my friends had a Travis and Brooklynne story to tell, none of which were good. I couldn't bring myself to go to my apartment on the off chance that Travis and Brooklynne were there.

Wednesday morning, Kate and I packed up and made the ten-hour drive to Disney World. It was nice to be able to listen to the radio as I drove. Kate and I talked on and off, but she mostly read. Our reservations were for the Bay Lake Tower, which was connected to the Contemporary Hotel and is very close to the Magic Kingdom. We didn't have any problems checking in and soon made our way to our sixth--floor room. We opened the door and saw a small hallway that curved around a wall that had a funky Mickey picture on it. When I got further into the room, I saw that it was long and narrow. The left half was the "public area" with a kitchen, dining area, and a sitting area. The right half was the bedroom and the master bath. On the far side of the bedroom was a small balcony. I stepped out onto it and looked out.

I said to Kate, "Nice view of the parking lot."

She laughed. "I think Mom was looking for location and skimped on everything else."

I stepped back inside. "Do you want the bedroom first?" I wouldn't mind a good night's sleep after a long drive, but I thought the polite thing was to offer Kate the bedroom first.

Kate said, "If you don't mind. Girls have so much more bathroom stuff than guys, and I'd like to start close to mine."

"I can't argue with that." Something caught my eye. "Look - they have Disney movie DVDs." A quick search found what I wanted. "They have Beauty and the Beast."

"Which one?"

"Live action."

Kate wrinkled her nose. I knew she didn't care for the live-action version. I felt Emma Watson didn't have the stature to play Belle and hadn't been able to do the acting, singing, and dancing the part required. But for Kate - the animated version was the right version, and anything with the slightest deviation from the story of the animated version was wrong. She hated Belle as an inventor.

I said, "I'll call the front desk and see if we can get the animated version."

Kate brightened. "That'd be great."

"Watch it tonight?"

"No. Tomorrow night. Definitely tomorrow night."

We didn't want to pay for a partial day at a park, so after we got settled in our room we went over to Downtown Disney for the evening. We had a lot of fun checking out all the shops. It was a good day, and I was expecting tomorrow to be a great day.

* * * *

The next morning, Kate surprised me by coming out of the bedroom dressed in her super-oversized T-shirt that made it look like she was wearing Belle's yellow ball gown.

"You're wearing that?"

"Yes."

"It's going to be hot."

"I don't care," Kate said firmly, ending all discussions.

We were at Epcot when the park opened early and followed Kate's plan for what attractions to see. Kate's outfit drew looks wherever we went. She seemed very uncomfortable with the looks - I was reminded of the time she changed into a tiny bikini at my apartment and then regretted buying such a small suit. But she didn't say anything, and her discomfort with people looking at her was the only flaw in an otherwise great morning.

After lunch, we took the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom for Kate's appointment at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. On the way over, I looked over the guide to the Magic Kingdom.

"Kate, it says here that the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique is for ages three to twelve."

"So?" She seemed nonplussed by my statement.

"You're a little older than twelve."

"I want to be made up as Belle, and they took my money to make me up as Belle. So they're going to make me up as Belle."

She had a plan and was sticking to it. "Ooo-kay."

We marched up to the castle and got there a few minutes early for Kate's appointment. To my surprise, the staff didn't react when Kate said the appointment was for her - it was just another appointment to them. After some folderol, Kate was in a salon chair with a plastic apron covering her clothes.

Paula, Kate's stylist - sorry, Fairy Godmother-in-Training - pulled out two containers of nail polish and asked Kate, "Pink or Blue?"

Kate thought for a moment. "Blue."

As Paula applied the nail polish, a slightly embarrassed Kate confessed, "I've never painted my nails before."

"You haven't?" said Paula. "Why not?"

Kate shrugged. "I don't know. Didn't seem worth the time."

Knowing that piece of information, I pulled out my phone to take pictures of Kate getting her nails painted for the first time.

Paula said, "What, with a handsome boyfriend like yours? I'd think you'd do things like painting your nails so you'll look your best for him."

I said, "I'm her brother."

Paula looked mortified. "I'm so sorry! I just assumed..."

"It's okay," said Kate. "We're very close."

I said, "Our parents were supposed to make the trip, but they had to cancel at the last second so it's only Kate and me."