What did a guy do when he was an only child for a mom on Mother’s Day? He didn’t have a sibling like Will and Mike did. He knew that Will and Mike could count on Jonathan and Nancy for help. Who did he have? Well, he could call Steve for advice, but tracking Steve down away from a mirror was always a difficult task in and of itself. Plus Steve had his own mother to work on for Mother’s Day, at least he thought he had a mom? Dustin scratched his head and started to pace around his room.

Walking always helped him to think. Dustin’s birthday had always been a big to-do for his mom. She always went the extra mile for him. She made him his favorite meal for dinner and usually his favorite breakfast. French Toast and sausage links with fresh squeezed OJ was his favorite. It made his stomach grumble to think about it. That’s when the light of recognition went off in his mind. He’d make his mom some breakfast in bed. That was surely easy enough right? Saturday night he went to bed early so he could get some sleep. He wanted to be awake before his mom was so he could surprise her. This was going to be an adventure.

~*~

The next morning, Dustin rolled out of bed and hit the floor with a rather loud thud. Somehow in the middle of the night, his feet tangled over one another in the blanket. So when his alarm went off, he jumped loudly. He rolled over to turn off his alarm and fell right into the floor. “WELL SH*T!” He hissed under his breath. If his mom heard him, the whole surprise would be over before it even started. He untangled his blankets from his feet and managed to crawl over to his closet to get dressed.

It was May so the warming Spring sun allowed him a chance to slide on his favorite shorts. He found his favorite Return of the Jedi shirt with Wicket the Ewok on it in a background on Endor. Tube socks and his Nikes were the finishing touches on how he was dressed for now because it was a look of comfort he was going for on this day. He thought about a hat, but changed his mind. His mom liked his curls. He grinned sheepishly as he headed out the door and down the hallway.

~*~

The kitchen never looked so intimidating as it did on this particular day. His mom made cooking look so easy. He was an engineer. He was a smart guy. He could figure this out on his own. Dustin walked toward the cabinets. There was a loaf of bread on the counter. It was Butternut bread with the Peanuts logo on the wrapper. He didn’t want to admit it to the guys, but he still watched the old Peanuts specials every time the holidays rolled around. His mom knew it and kept his secret. It was certainly another reason why Dustin had to give his mom the best Mother’s Day ever.

His mom had a special pan she used to fix up his French Toast. He started to dig in the cabinets until he found it. He twirled it in his hand, nearly dropping it in the process. “WHOA!” He told himself while trying to keep the pan from falling. He was going to have to be more careful! He sat the pan on the stove in the back on top of a burner that was two sizes too large for the pan. Dustin’s logic was that it would heat up faster on the bigger burner and would be just an all around better way to make the French toast quicker. After he sat the pan, he turned on the burner all the way. Red meant that it was on right?.

After he did that, he turned to the refrigerator and pulled out a dozen eggs. His mother had picked these up at the grocery store the day earlier. He had watched his mom as she cracked eggs before to make his French toast. He took the eggs over to the stove. The first one was in his right hand. He started to crack the egg on the side of the pan when he put his thumb through the egg. “EWWW!” He squealed. He didn’t see the amount of shell that had gone into the pan after he tried to crack it. He dropped the liquid in the pan and set aside the eggshell. He tried to do it again. This time he didn’t get any on him, but there were still bits of shell in the concoction he didn’t see. By the time he got to his sixth egg, he was doing it like a champ.

He smacked his hands together brushing them off after closing the rest of the eggs. The burner under the pan started to get a low red at this time and it was getting more luminous. Dustin neglected to see the burner itself because he knew these eggs had to sit in the pain a little before he dropped in the first piece of bread. He looked around the kitchen and noticed his mother wasn’t around yet. This was good. So far he’d been able to stay quiet enough that she’d been unaware.

Next came the bread. Dustin untied the end and reached inside for about four pieces of bread. That would be enough to start with right? He carefully placed each piece of bread until they were crust to crust inside the pan when the eggs were in the pan. The eggs were just starting to bubble which was a good thing. It meant they were cooking; or so he assumed. He moved over to the drawer where his mom kept her spatula. He was reaching around in the drawer trying to find the spatula. It was taking him a while so this was getting on his nerves. “DAMNIT!” He grumbled loudly.

As his search continued for the spatula, he didn’t notice that the eggs and the bread were starting to smolder. The tendrils of smoke were curling upward until they finally reached the smoke detector. The loud screaming sound of the smoke detector immediately caused Dustin to look toward the stove. At the moment he did, there was a flame that leapt forward from the stove itself. He didn’t know it at the time, but he’d overloaded the pan with eggs that started to slosh out over the side as it bubbled. The bread turned into black charred hockey pucks by this time. “OHSH*TOHSH*TOHSH*T!” Dustin repeated with a louder voice.

From out of nowhere came his mother with baking soda that she tossed on the fire. “Dustin! Are you alright?” She immediately turned the stovetop off and wrapped her son up in her arms. “If you were hungry, I could have just made this for you.” Dustin could have sworn she was whispering a prayer or two as she held him in her arms making sure that not a curl was singed on his head.

“MOoooom…” He mumbled like a petulant child. “I was trying to make you a Mother’s Day breakfast! You do so much for me. I just thought it was my turn.” His whole countenance was crestfallen. He hated that he’d failed this badly.

His mother was touched by the genuine thought and the effort that Dustin had put into this. “Oh Sweetheart. I appreciate what you tried to do so much. But you could have been really hurt doing this had I not woken up when I smelled the smoke.” She had already turned off the smoke detector before she gathered her son in her arms. “Promise me you won’t do this until you learn how to cook better okay?” She asked, trying to hide her smile.

Dustin pursed his lips into a thin line. “Fine Mom. I promise. At least let me help you clean up this mess.” He held on a little longer to his mother.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” She answered grinning.

~*~

That Mother’s Day ended up being one of the best days in Dustin Henderson’s life. The quality time he spent with his mother on this particular day would warm his heart forty years later when he visited his mother in the Assisted Living Facility that she had retired to when she hit the age of 80. Claudia Henderson deserved the world and he made sure she got it well into her golden years.
 

"I Am On A Curiosity Voyage, And I Need My Paddles To Travel."