#13. I have another thought about the daily treat at Ye Olde Coffee Shoppe
by storytellerisabel
I’m piling up a small stack of things I never did with Mom and Dad.
The stack sits in sun and shade. When we do something new with Mimi or Pop, it reminds me that I never did this with Mom and Dad, and that reminds me that they’re gone. Sort of like a chain reaction.
I explain this to Mimi, while I stir my pumpkin latte. I watch her face.
She sips her hazelnut coffee. Isabel, she takes a breath, after a while? Well, after a while, I hope that when we do new things it won’t always come with the sad thought…She hesitates.
I finish her sentence, With the sad thought that Mom and Dad are dead, you mean?
Mimi nods.
I think, THAT will never happen. But I don’t say this to Mimi. Instead, I gulp the top froth; it gives me a milk mustache that gets the twins laughing. I’m about to say, Mimi, we’re not there yet, but then I just can’t help it; I start laughing too when the twins give themselves chocolate mustaches. Then Belle, who was drinking a Blueberry Smoothie, comes over with a blue mustache.
Like I said: sun and shade.
ISABEL
I Am Isabel the Storyteller 
I started reading this last night – I must say I knew of this new older Isabel for a few weeks but the world crowded my reading of Isabel out – I love it – I love the details of what I can see all around Isabel as she describes her world – I struggle with Isabel as she processes her past world with her mom and dad -and new world with her grandparents- it is a feast for my inner eye as I visualize their new world – painful to listen to their grieving – but important -and tender – we often ignore the role of the grieving process in our worlds – not always due to actual death but death of pivotal lost essentials in life – an important lesson for us all- I sighed disappointedly only because the author has more unwritten chapters to provide the readers -such as myself -who wake up the next morning and want to be part of Isabel’s journey – bravo to the author -I stand up in the Carnegie Hall in my mind and yell out – bravo, bravo to this author – and wait for the next chapters — love the art work too:))
Thanks for being there, dear Reader. I love you for the time you’re putting into me.
Here’s Belle’s recipe for blueberry smoothies; on the menu board, written in, of course!!, blue neon marker, she calls it: “Belle’s Blueberry.”
Blend all of this at super speed:
6 ounces of Wyman’s Frozen Wild Blueberries (I know. I know. This is like an ad, but trust me, Wyman’s are tiny and sweet. Mimi introduced them to Belle, and Belle figured out how to use them. They’re the best.
6 ounces Vanilla Yogurt (Belle like organic yogurt. Mimi and I do too)
1 Tablespoon of honey
1/2 cup of milk
Drink it up. BUT!! Don’t slurp at super speed; it’ll give you an ice cream headache even though it doesn’t have ice cream in it. It WILL give you a blueberry tongue and mustache–if you want to do that tip-the-glass-up-near-your-nose-so-the-liquid-coats-your-upper-lip thing… 🙂
Isabel Scheherazade
Nice touch – this provides another layer for our senses and a means of being part of your world. Tasty.
I read Pop your comment and he said this reminded him of layerCAKE and a story. When Dad was a little kid, they made Moravian Layer Cake and had a piece after supper. Later that night there was a giant thunderstorm that got the three of them all downstairs and scared. The lights went out. They lit candles and huddled together at the little round table they used as the kitchen table. Mimi (well, back then she was just Dad’s Mom, not Mimi) said let’s have another piece of cake. And, says Pop, we ate it all. It was the first and last time they ever did such a thing, but it got them through the storm. So, let’s see, you are SO right, thinking about recipes and noticing food and smells and nature and, well, just noticing adds another layer to living. I’m thinking it may soften the edges and even cushion the falls? (Wow. All this from Belle’s blueberry smoothie. Yay Belle!)