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The snow was melting and the sun was shining, with the temperature over forty. Yes, spring had officially arrived, and just in time for Easter, too. The pharmercy household was alive and well with the holiday spirit, eagerly getting ready as the grass began waking up from the winter slumber. As per usual, most of the noise came from downstairs, where Angela was in full blown Martha Stewart mode.
“Oh, this just looks precious !” Angela fawned as she looked at one of her final projects side to side, three large vases filled chock full of flower arrangements. “The lilies, the daisies. I have to say, I really outdid myself this year!”
“Just like last year, huh babe?” Fareeha replied in a monotone drag from where she was sitting on the floor, cutting strips of paper for paper chains.
“Exactly!” Angela grinned as she crossed the flowers off her to-do list, tapping a pen at the next item of business. “I’m gonna need your help for the next part. Grab Dieter.” Now, a large number of plastic bins had made their way from the garage to the living room, overflowing with Easter decorations. Fareeha sighed as she set down her project to retrieve Dieter, the snowshoe hare sniffling in his cage, radiating pure crabbiness on a fundamental level. He was probably the reincarnation of a 32 year old death row inmate, if anything. Fareeha grumbled under her breath as she tried to grab the skittish Dieter, eventually succeeding and turning back to her overzealous wife.
“Here.”
“Just hold him there. Almost done e ee….. ” Angela clenched her teeth as she moved her fingers just so, stepping aside to reveal the next decoration. “Alright, put him in.” A wicker basket sat on the coffee table, filled with a combination of fake grass, tinsel, and plastic eggs. Fareeha felt a tinge of guilt as she set the poor thing in the obviously uncomfortable container. Angela clasped her hands together and squealed, the bunny looking idyllic in the Easter-themed cradle. “Oh, your mother will just eat this up!” Fareeha had no sooner set Dieter down than Angela already had her phone out, snapping several pictures as she tried to contain her excitement.
“.....How long are you gonna leave him in there for?” Fareeha scratched her neck with a raised brow, mildly concerned. He was already starting to gnaw on the tinsil.
“Huh? What was that, sweetheart?” Angela responded without looking up, still moving in a flurry as she tried to capture the holiday spirit from as many angles as possible. Even if she didn’t respond, Fareeha already knew the answer. The whole weekend. She sighed as she scooped up the poor pet, returning it to its cage despite Angela’s immediate protests. “Hey! Put him back! It was perfectttttt!” Fareeha crossed her arms, clicking her tongue before returning to her own decorations. “You bully!”
“You got those pictures, didn’t you? Just cross it off your list and move on.” Angela pouted without saying another word, knowing her wife was right as she attended to the list. A line of pen, and onto the next project.
“Next is….egg dying. You up to help me with that?” Angela peered over the pad at the preoccupied Fareeha, holding the pen to her lips. “I suppose I should go to get Hana for that too….. Be a dear and set it up while I go get her, please?” Fareeha gave a flat look of disdain, promptly ignored by Angela as she disappeared upstairs. Fareeha groaned as she got up, well aware of how completely whipped she was.
“Darling? Come dye eggs with us!” Angela tapped on Hana’s bedroom door before swinging it open, secretly hoping to catch her in another asinine act of streaming.
“Huh?” Hana cocked her head back from where she was sitting in her chair, headphones half on as white letters and characters sat unmoving on a black screen. “What did you say?”
“....What’s this?” Angela squinted at the computer, disappointed, expecting some sort of talk show, or maybe one of those dating sims Hana had recently taken up. “Break your computer or something?”
“Uh….No? It’s Moria. You should be old enough to remember.” Hana chuckled to herself at the light roast as she went back to the game, the small ‘@’ sign moving across the screen. Angela stared at it for a moment before running out of fucks to give.
“Well, whatever it is, it’s time to stop hacking the CIA and come downstairs for family time. We’re dying eggs.”
“Not hacking, it’s Moria…..Like Lord of the Rings, Moria…” Hana gave a half-hearted explanation as she turned off her monitor, begrudgingly following her mother back to the civilization of the downstairs. Fareeha had done her job with the table, the wood covered thick in old newspapers. Cups of dye and water sat in a row, looking like a capitalistic rainbow.
“Hey, just about done setting up. Take a seat.” Fareeha smiled as she set a carton of eggs on the table, already hard-boiled from that morning. Hana sighed as she slid into her usual seat, picking up one of the eggs and looking it over.
“Why do we do this again?”
“So the Easter Dieter can hid them tomorrow!” Angela snickered as she sat down herself, grabbing an egg before looking to the dyes. “Fareeha, sweetheart, were there some special wax crayons in one of those boxes?
“Got them right here!” Fareeha pulled a small black cardboard box from her back pocket, slapping it down on the table. She had been married to Angela long enough to know what to expect.
“Thank you, Sweetheart!” Angela opened them up, taking one of the white crayons. It was devoid of color, a stick of wax used only for Easter eggs.
“You’re welcome, babe.” This is why they never needed marriage counseling. They were perfect. Fareeha smiled as she picked up one of the eggs.
“Alright, so Hana, what you want to do is put your egg on a spoon, and then….Sweetheart, what are you doing?” Fareeha looked up from where she had been cracking open an egg, eating it.
“....Eating an egg? We haven’t had lunch yet.” The room was silent for a moment before Fareeha knew she screwed up. “.....I got hungry.”
“We need those for Easter!!! Go make a grilled cheese if you don’t want to wait! I can’t believe this.”
“...We have more than enough, so I thought one couldn’t hurt…” Fareeha meekly gestured at the 24 pack egg carton on the table, clearly too many for three people to dye.
“Fareeha, do you not realize the importanc- “I’m done.” Angela stopped as Hana spoke up, both of the adults turning to see the egg in her hand. What she held could barely be called an egg anymore, the crimson surface covered in golden spots with what seemed like an emerald lace tied around the entire egg. She set it in the empty container and fetched another one. Angela coughed, pursing her lips as she began working on her own.
“That’s a really good egg, Hana!” Fareeha was less composed as she looked over Hana’s masterpiece, the light gleaming off the still-moist shell.
“Eh.” She shrugged. “Could’ve been better. Next one’ll be fuckin’ fire.”
“How’s yours coming, dear?” Fareeha craned her neck to look over at Angela, eyes focused as she held the egg steady in a cup of dye.
“It’s almost done.” Angela bit her tongue as she calculated the maximum time for the dye to permeate. “....There!” A flick of the wrist, Angela retrieved the egg, wiping off the excess dye before revealing it. Fareeha was amazed, the egg seeming to shine with every color of the rainbow on a whole nother level. Each color seemed to melt into each other on a realistic level. Fareeha thought about how if Angela held it up to an actual rainbow, she wouldn’t be able to point it out. “Quite a good job, if I don’t say so myself.” Angela gave a proud snicker as she reached out to place it in the carton next to Hana’s
“Could be better.” Someone scoffed from across the table. Angela stopped cold.
“Excuse me?”
“Oh, ya’know, I’m just saying ...” Hana smirked as she twirled a half-finished egg in her fingers, elbow on the counter and chip on her shoulder. “It’s great. For a scrub .” Angela gasped like the victim of a black and white noir detective film.
“How dare you talk to your mother like that!”
“Why don’t you prove me wrong, scrub~?”
“I’ll make you regret those words!” Fareeha watched as the room turned into an overly intense sports anime. Both parties grabbed a new egg, working on it with a flurry of techniques and flourishes. Fareeha never knew someone could dunk an egg in a cup of dyed water with so much ferocity. Occasionally one of them would grunt as they worked, obviously trying to outplay the other. They finished the first pair of eggs, not even pausing as they each grabbed another and continued.
“Oh, wow, these are beautiful!” Fareeha smiled as she looked at the eggs, wondering if she would have the heart to eat them later. Angela had elected for a Van Gogh approach, transforming her egg into a spherical version of Starry Night. Hana had put her own spin on things, making the egg look like a series of cascading pixels, starting from the top and dropping off into what looked like a web of green and black. Fareeha guessed it was computer related.
“You might as well give up, mom!” Hana seethed as she scribbled on her egg with a crown, brow furrowed in concentration.
“You know nothing, my child!” Angela let out a cackle as she rotated an egg in one of the cups, doing her best to look cool. As impressed as Fareeha was by their skills, the two still looked ridiculous. She sighed, picking up an egg herself and working quietly.
“You’re quite the tenacious foe, aren’t you?”
“You’re not so bad yourself, youngster!” Both Angela and Hana were breathless in their seats, a wide range of eggs crowded into the carton. Famous artists, vibrant colors, and almost every art form imaginable had found its way onto one of the eggs. The contest had seemingly ended in a tie, both girls staring at the ceiling with aching hands.
“Finished!” Fareeha chimed up, her wife and daughter looking at her as she held up the egg she’d been working on for the last hour and a half. The room seemed to enter a tense silence as the two felt their egos crumble out from underneath them, The egg in Fareeha’s hand seeming to shine brightly in the light. She had somehow constructed a scaled family portrait, hyper realistic without a single missing detail. The blue lines were offset by the rest of the purple egg, a piece of work that would be better off in a museum than an egg carton. Fareeha gave a satisfied hum as she plopped it down next to the others, lacing her hands together as she leaned back in her chair. Angela and Hana didn’t say a word, reduced to quiet mutterings and dark stares at the kitchen tiles. “What do you guys want to do next?!”
“...Cry.”
The rest of the Easter preparations went off without a hitch, from Hana eating a good half of the Easter candy on accident to Angela almost sewing a bunny tail onto Fareeha’s favorite pair of pants, it seemed that the family was well ready for the coming holiday. As they settled down for the night, the to-do list was thoroughly completed, everything silently awaiting festivities and jubilation in the coming morning.
“But I don’t want to go to church!”
“Sorry Sweetheart, but someone’s gotta go with grandpa.”
“It is good to go at least twice a year!” Reinhardt bellowed laughter as he dragged a well-dressed Hana out the door. “Do not worry, they have doughnuts!”