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Chapter 3: Snow Men, Kitchen Talk And The Kenyan Inquisition

It was Kendall's second-to-favourite day of Christmas and her father's least favourite day of the year, and he had excused himself on the previous day to wander the woods amid the picturesquely falling snow like he'd done every year as long as she remembered.

He'd watch the snow fall slowly, taking quiet joy in the way
the ground cooled slowly to let snowdrifts form on the forest floor. Having successfully avoided the pre-Christmas fuss he would wander back home on Christmas Eve at dusk, tipsily crooning really rude lyrics to “Deck the halls”, set down a plucky Christmas tree against the back of the boathouse, kiss her mother full on the lips despite her complaints about bourbon breath, and waltz her across the veranda and down the small pier where he would serenade her some more embarrassingly loudly.

In the end, her mother would kiss him just to shut him up, usually in the middle of a rousing chorus of 'Oh my darling Clementine'.

Kendall could well understand the urge not to be underfoot when the collective seasonal cheer hit the proverbial fan as it usually did amid the X-men and the people weathering the holidays at the Institute. Their inability to adhere to the basics of normal life turned the commercial midwinter fiesta into something everyone with some cash could attain, often to the point of overcompensation.

The mansion and its grounds had turned into a manic battle zone of streamers, practical jokes, frantic present-wrapping and hushed schemes between otherwise sensible adults. They'd had the traditional 'practise dinner' where Aunt Rogue got to feed them silly a few days in advance “to make room for the big 'un” as she always said. Kendall strongly suspected there was a conspiracy underway to make her eat as much mushy peas as possible in the space of one week.

Luckily things were far more serene at the boathouse, as most of the decorating had already taken place thanks to her mother. Executed with a field general's gentle despotism, it had taken them merely the better part of the morning and afternoon to set the house out in its tasteful Yuletide splendour.

Kendall was grateful her mother understood the concept of 'less is more' and banned tinsel from the house save for her little brother's handmade ornaments from school, whatever they were supposed to be. There was one that resembled an orangutang and one that could be generously called an apple, but the rest of the dozen-odd lumps remained a mystery better left under its veil.

All that was missing was the tree.

Ororo was wrapping the last of the presents in the kitchen when Kendall's gangling form appeared in the door frame, cautious and curious about the items strewn on the counter-top.

“Come on in, nothing here you shouldn't set eyes on.” She turned the neat packet over in her hands and gave her daughter a conspiratorial wink, offering her a glimpse at the spine of the book she was busy wrapping. It was the newest volume in a series of steampunk novels her brother read religiously. Kendall found them a bit ludicrous, but if her brother liked them then more power to him.

Her mother sipped delicately at a mug of mulled wine, then poured Kendall a mug of her own and motioned her to sit down at the island.

“Just a taste,” she said with a smile and tweaked her daughter's nose despite the resulting adolescent ire and rolling of the eyes.

Kendall sipped at the spicy drink while she watched her mother finish the wrapping with a neat bow on top of the name tag humming under her breath. She was grateful it wasn't a Christmas carol “ the mansion's kitchen had been filled with blaring seasonal music around the clock for the past week, and there was only so many times her sensitive ears could put up with 'Jingle Bell Rock'.

“I was happy to see you'd excelled in your vocational studies. Metalworking seems to please you?” her mother asked and plopped a plate of gingerbread hearts beside Kendall's mug with a vague imperious gesture in their direction. Kendall dunked and chewed, dutifully.

“Yeah... It's pretty neat, soldering and welding an' stuff,” Kendall said pensively, then added carefully, “I'd like to take the advanced course but my teacher says I'm too smart to be a welder.”

“Does he, now”, her mother said, all too casually for Kendall's liking. That casual tone had once been aimed at her principal, and Kendall suspected the Teacher's Association was still bristling at the resulting uproar. As it was, her mother was the picture of domestic tranquility as she stirred the big pot on the back burner. It simmered merrily, perfuming the kitchen air with the unmistakable scent of sukuma wiki that said 'Christmas' to Kendall just as much the scent of pine resin. For as long as she could remember her mother had sneaked the leftovers of her Aunt Rogue's Christmas cooking out to the boathouse, grumbling about 'shameful waste' and 'perfectly good ingredients', somehow managing to turn a basket full of vegetable leftovers into a savoury dish that left you wanting for more.

Mom had the strangest idea of Christmas foods but Kendall wasn't complaining “ there'd be a small feast tomorrow morning, ugali straight from the pan, fried yams, wild rice, mushrooms with onion and the bakeapple pie her father had made yesterday and quickly hidden from greedy fingers. Her mouth watered at the thought.

“Juice that for me, please.” Two halves of a lemon appeared in front of Kendall with a bowl and she absent-mindedly crushed them in her fist. Her mind was occupied with gleaming metal and jumbled piping until Ororo's voice interrupted her daydream.

“And what about you, Kennie? Are you enjoying welding enough to make it into a profession?”

“I, um... I kind of like it too much, y'know? Welding's cool an' all but I wanna go further. Build stuff, take science extras.”

She watched her mother stir the lemon juice into the steaming pot on the range and saw something in her eyes soften. For a while her mother, too, seemed to be somewhere else altogether. Then the sapphires focused on her again and Kendall squirmed underneath their scrutiny. Was this the flamin' week of the bleedin' Kenyan Inquisition?

“Build things... What did you have in mind for that old bike, then?”

“I... I dunno yet, it was just a stupid idea I had. Just wanted to poke around, see what makes a motorcycle tick I guess.” Kendall rubbed the back of her neck.

“Nothing makes that hunk of junk tick, kestrel. It's done for."

“Well, then I guess I'd see what went wrong with it,” she offered with a shrug. “Been wonderin' ever since Uncle Remy took me along on that scavenger hunt and we ended up poisoning the rats in the garages after Aunt Rogue had had a near coronary trying to find Item Three in one of them.”

“Child, you don't need to dissect that bike to know what happened." Ororo and poured herself another mug of mulled wine, the fragrant steam billowing around them for a while before the fan over the range caught it. “I could tell you just as easily.”

Kendall gaped for a second, then got herself under control. “I didn't think about asking, really,” she said sheepishly, then brightened. “So will you tell me? Please?"

“I suppose I must, it being the season of giving and for mentioning it myself in the first place. It's not that much of a story, though.”

“What, no world-changing crisis?”

There was a chuckle, dry as desert winds. “Depends on your viewpoint, I suppose. It was before you were born, a few years after your father and I married."

"Your father had been away for a few months and fallen through some rough times while playing cat and mouse with few of our old... acquaintances who are no longer with us. He was a sorry sight when he dragged himself home on that bike, right in the middle of a sleety storm in October."

"He had been gone over ten weeks longer than he was supposed to and it was showing. He hadn't been eating or sleeping properly and it had taken a toll on his healing factor, which was already strained.”

“Must've been bad”, Kendall said, shivering.

“Oh yes. He was weary and sick. Trouble was, so was I. I gave up trying to talk sensibly to him when he was in such a stupor “ he put a boneheadedly brave front on as usual, but nothing seemed to penetrate that thick skull of his." Ororo brushed her knuckles across her mouth, a gesture Kendall had come to associate with deep emotion.

"It took him some time to put two and two together, but after a few bowls of Rogue's chowder and saying hello to Mr Molson he was much feeling brighter. Sadly I'd already gone to bed, having been sick for what seemed like an eternity and tired to the core of my bones myself.”

“Wait, did you have, like, the flu or somethin'?” Kendall's eyebrows knit together in confusion.

“And that, right there, proves you two are truly related”, Storm said with a sigh. “I was three months pregnant - expecting you, Kennie, and had been unable to get a word out to your father, him having gone curiously incommunicado and deep underground. I'd been throwing up steadily all over the place, and was in no shape to stay up long.”

“In any cause, I was asleep when your father finally had his Eureka moment and decided, light-headed as he was on malnutrition and that damnable chowder, to go on a joyride through the grounds to celebrate the occasion. He still insists that if he'd been riding one of his Hogs it'd never happened." Kendall rolled her eyes at her mother and got a cocked eyebrow back. They sniggered together.

"In any case, he was riding the Bonneville, and with or without that fact contributing, I woke to an insane crash a little after four in the morning. Apparently he had been so overjoyed that he didn't notice a muddy patch on the dirt path before yanking the bike up into a wheelie and he experienced a surprise rendezvous with that big oak tree. I found him staggering happily up from the wreck, miraculously unscathed.”

“Woah”, Kendall said. “He was that happy?”

“Yes. In a way it's all your fault”, Ororo said and knocked back her mug. “And you really shouldn't gape like that, my sweet. It makes you look like a goldfish.”

“Motherrrr!”

“The blame is on me I suppose, as you've got my looks mostly”, the windrider said equitably, biting into a gingerbread heart.

Kendall stared a while, then burst into laughter and Ororo joined her. After a while it subsided into mutual munching and mother and daughter seemed to come to an understanding. What kind wasn't clear to Kendall yet, but talking with Mom always had a way of making things seem all right, that everything would work out just peachy in the course of time.

Kendall was happy nonetheless to just sit with her mother a while in their little kitchen, even though she wouldn't admit it in a million years. Here they were having an actual conversation, and she was being teased almost like a grown-up. Even though Mom eventually kissed her on the forehead like a little kid, she also poured more mulled wine into Kendall's mug with a wink.

They drained the drink in companionable silence, drowning gingerbread hearts in the spicy brew. Slowly it warmed Kendall's belly and a happy, relaxed glow seeped through her.

“Hey Mom?”

“Mmm?”

“Did you ever have other boyfriends besides Dad?”

Her mother gave her an incredulous look that balanced between amusement and exasperation. “Sure.”

“Well?” Kendall swung her feet on the bar stool and bit into another heart. “What was he like?”

"Who?"

"The guy you dated before Dad."

“Tall, dark and handsome.”

“Motherrrr!”

“No, really.”

“Really? Wow." Kendall took a moment to snicker inwardly. Maybe she should've gotten Dad some high heels for Christmas. "What was he like?”

“He liked to build things, like you,” her mother said after a pause, and for a while a sad smile played at the corners of her mouth. “You could say that it was what he was made for, really.”

“Was he good at it?”

“Genius. He was an inventor.”

“Huh. How did you meet? Was it romantic? Did he knock you off your feet?"

“He shot me down from the sky,” Ororo said, her lips tightening into an odd little smile. “Literally.”

Kendall's eyes grew wide as saucers. “And you still loved him. Was it serious?”

“Yes. And we'll leave it at that for now, Kennie, for the sake of holiday cheer and my blood pressure. Why don't you take your brother out for a while? Your father should be back sooner than you know”, her mother suggested, the sad look in her eyes dissipating mostly. “There should be enough snow for a snowman or two by now. Fresh air will do you both good.”

“Yes, Motherrrr”, Kendal said with a purposefully suffering air and rolled her eyes on her way out of the kitchen. In reality she didn't mind that much, at least not today “ Dylan could be fun when he wasn't busy making her life hell and embarrassing her in front of her friends with all the zeal of a nine-year old.

She was about to holler at him to get his butt down and ready when she noticed he was already standing at the door, looking smug.

Stupid sneaky kid with his sneaky senses of sneakiness.

“Coming, sis?” His annoyingly blue eyes sparked pure evil at her as she grabbed her coat and followed him outside.

“You bet your ass I'm coming, brat”, she grumbled.

“Mooooom! Kennie said ASS!”

“So did you, Dylan,” their mother said, appearing in the hallway arched eyebrow ready and aimed, amusement in her voice. “Now out with you two!”

A gale pushed them outside and the door shut with a firm snap. “Get some oxygen in your brains!” could be heard muffled through it, but the siblings were too busy to notice “ the sheer amount of snow that had come down since the morning had stunned them into greedy silence.

With a look spared between them and a nod of understanding they set to work to create the most fearsome snow monsters possible, not paying attention to the sun's arc on the sky until the fiery disc began to descend into the horizon.





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