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Leonard struggled to break the spaghetti in half, and he was even using his knees. "Leonard, don't do that. Above the stove." Ida looked up from the cutting board. Leonard nodded and stepped onto the highest step on his stool, and tried to break the spaghetti with his arms hovering above a pot of boiling water. Still he couldn't break the spaghetti. Rose could break spaghetti without a stool. Who's Rose? Leonard thought. Oh, she's your homunculus cousin/half sister. She's not born yet, tho. Author-Chan explained, then gave Leonard a headpat, and disappeared into the void.
Whatever. Leonard went back to struggling with the spaghetti. "Can you break that?" Ida put her knife down and walked over to her son. She took the spaghetti from his small hands and broke the yellow sticks easily. "Do you work out?" Leonard watched as Ida put the spaghetti in the pot. Ida shakes her head with a smile, "Oh, Leonard."
Ida goes back to cutting some carrots, but stopped when she saw a hand near the knife. "Yes, Leonard?" "Can I try it?" Leonard points at the knife. Well, Leonard is already nine years old. Maybe he should start learning how to use a knife. Ida nodded and passed him the knife. She set her hand on Leonard's and guided him. Once he cut one and a half carrots with her help Ida leaves him to do it by himself. “Be careful, okay? I’m going to ask your grandmother if there're any tomatoes in the garden."
Leonard nods and turns back to the cutting board. He picks up another carrot and starts slicing it. Though, halfway, he accidentally hits his finger. Leonard whines in pain and sticks the finger in his mouth, trying to clean the blood. He takes it out but blood still comes out.
Ida comes back into the kitchen with a bucket of tomatoes, but finds Leonard using up the paper towels. The used ones were crumpled and covered in blood. "Leonard! What happened?" Ida picked him up and set him on the stool. Leonard showed her the cut. "Oh, it's just a small cut." Ida took a first aid kit in the cabinets in the shelf. She sets it on the island and opens it up. She takes out a bottle of ointment and a plaster. She rips off another paper towel and presses it against the cut. "Ow. Ow-" Leonard winces.
She takes the bottle of ointment in her free hand and takes another paper towel. She tosses the blood-soaked one and drops a bit of ointment on the folded towel. Then she dabs it on the cut. Leonard sniffed, "It smells like the toilet."
Ida smiles and unwraps the plaster. She carefully placed it on the cut and smooths it out. "There. You okay?" She puts all the stuff back and closes the first aid kit. "Yeah. Thanks." Leonard nods.
"Aw, shit." Albert's voice can be heard outside. Leonard and Ida both turn to the door, and Samuel and Albert pass them. "Sammy! Where have you been?" Ida puts her hands on her hips. "Me and Al were getting a gift for Mom. In town." They all looked down to the basket in Samuel's hands.
"What, why? I thought her birthday was two months ago." Ida asked.
"It's Mother's Day." Samuel told her. Then he turns to Albert, "Maybe we should go put this on Emma's grave as well. As far as I remember, Frank gave Em the exact same flowers on Mother's Day a few years ago." They started to walk away. "Yeah, okay, sure, whatever." Albert replied, no tone in his voice.
"Oh, it's Mother's Day? I completely forgot. 'M sorry, Mum." Leonard looks down in shame. "Oh, honey, it's okay. I already got a present." Ida kneels down to him. "What is it?"
"Being the mother of such a great child." Ida picked Leonard up and twirled him around. Leonard giggled, "I love you, Mommy."
"'Love you too."