Write On Edge: Forbidden Challenge

Red Writing Hood this week gives us 450 words to explore something forbidden or taboo.

I've had a pretty brutal week so I wanted something lighthearted. We met Nikki (Tracy's cousin) on the beach during the sand challenge.


I offer the following in response: Cookie Hunt

Nikki scoped out the kitchen. She knew it by heart, of course, but her mother like to change the hiding places. She tiptoed in, her heart lurching at every sound, from the gulls crying outside the beach-house to the staccato snoring of Uncle Pete from the living room. The microwave display advertised the time in neon green, a time the adults would wake and shuffle to the kitchen for the acrid coffee they all consumed by the bucket-loads. As if by magic, the coffee maker beeped itself on, and that putrid smell permeated the room in seconds. If she was to succeed, she would have to act fast.

“If I were a cookie,” she mused, concentrating on the pantry first and then the bread box. Coming up empty after the pots-and-pans-drawer proved fruitless, she turned her attention to the freezer. She shivered from the escaping air as she wrenched the door open, disappointed with the selection of frozen peas and carrots.

“What are you looking for?” Joshua startled her. He stood casually in the doorway, blocking any chance of a clean getaway.

Would a cousin rat me out? she wondered. Silence iced over the conversation as if it was leaking in the open freezer.

“I hope you’re not looking to spoil your breakfast,” a smile tugged at his mouth as he shuffled to the coffee maker. “I recall there’s some oatmeal in the bottom cabinet, there.”

Nikki moved to the indicated cabinet door, confused, but unwilling to relinquish her reason for being in the kitchen.  Opening the door, she discovered Inside, as bright as a golden church idol, the family's teddy-bear-shaped cookie jar. “Josh!” she exclaimed, turning in her excitement. “I’m forbidden to have cookies before lunch you know.”

He poured coffee into a waiting mug, a grin covering half his face. “Strange, I could swear you had oatmeal. Could be the fact I haven’t had my coffee yet.”

She put the jar back after smuggling a few chocolate chips into her robe pocket. She would have to think of something nice to do for her cousin, but for the moment, all she could accomplish was an evil giggle.