The Wakelins have taught me so much about cooking. Well, except for that sometimes lazy and brooding one, Jude. As I hover above the family, getting a bird's eye view of the preparation of whatever meal either Andy or Juliette has started on, I watch them chop, stir, sauté, bake, slice, dice, and shake almost every evening. Delivery or take-out is rare in this house.

Besides all the shows and movies I watch comfortably perched up in the corner between both couches in the living room, cooking is when there is a lot to see and hear. It is prime time in the Wakelin household.

      My mother cooked delicious homemade meals when I was a child. As I got older, however, she sat at the table more and more, with her robe on, staring out the large kitchen window. She would set out a bowl, glass, napkin and spoon for me, along with a box of cereal, milk, and orange juice.

Sometimes it wasn't even morning when she laid out that sort of meal for me, but I ate whatever my mother had prepared. A quick meal of pasta and jarred marinara. White bread with cheese, ham, lettuce, and mustard. Scrambled eggs, with ketchup and buttered toast.

When she was able to put in the effort, she would make a large pot of vegetable soup, and we had it for days. I would help her chop up all the vegetables. I made no complaints. I knew she was doing the best that she could for me.

Sadly, I have lost my sense of smell, so I can not tell whether or not their culinary creations are any good. I can assume from Jude's pleasurable sounds that he is enjoying his meals on a regular basis; he definitely eats enough. There are hardly any leftovers. If there are any at all, I always spot Lenore swatting Jude's greedy hands away.

She wraps up the remainder of that night's meal in foil or plops it into a plastic container for her uncle, Andy, to take with him into the car shop. She is afraid if she does not pack his lunch now and then he will turn more often to bacon cheeseburgers and fries or Italian subs with the boys at the shop; she is very much intent on curbing his red and processed meat consumption. He was a cigarette smoker for close to half of his thirty-seven years.

Jude, stubbornly, has just clocked in almost a year on the cancer sticks, and it doesn't look like he wants to quit. Cigarettes, along with processed meats and red meat, are highly carcinogenic. Having lost her grandmother a few years ago to cancer, Lenore feared the same fate for Andy. She wanted him around for a long time and in very good health.

The way she loved her family, especially her uncle, broke my silent heart at times. She has lost both her parents as well. Her uncle and older siblings are her entire world. I've seen tragedy firsthand, and this girl's ability to care for others with so much hurt still inside her is breathtaking.

This evening, Andy and Juliette are making pizza. The Wakelins are pizza junkies, especially Lenore. For someone so slender and petite, she can eat so much. I never really cared for pizza, but the ones they make look really delicious. I never get hungry anymore, of course, but sometimes I can remember what it was like to crave something. When I watch Lenore eating her food, that's when I feel it the most.

I often catch Andy sneakily letting Jude have some of his beer. Must be a little uncle and nephew thing. I would not know. My mother was the only person that raised me. I am certain, though, that he is unaware of the fact that Jude drinks anyway, and a whole lot more than just beer.

Prime time really gets going when they all gather around their small square wooden table and talk over dinner. Sometimes they laugh together. I have actually seen milk spew out of noses before. That was something I had not seen once in my living life. They laugh so much and with their entire bodies. Of course, when they all first moved in here, they cried so so much. It was heartbreaking.

For several weeks they barely spoke, only motioning to one another. They wailed and cried and hugged each other tightly. As the days dragged on, if someone smiled, someone else surely would too, and then they would look at each other guiltily as if it were a crime to just smile.

Fully enjoying their pizza, they discuss Lenore and Juliette's new school years. I am nervous for the both of them. I will always be a ninth grader and, of course, I will never attend college. I am excited to see what will happen and who they will be bringing over for visits in the upcoming years.

Blanesville Casanova. That is rather comical. Jude is furious. I may be watching overhead, and sometimes it can be really hard to see his face under all that hair, but I know he is fuming.

He is on that cellphone of his almost all day long. How can someone do that? I know they are used by almost everyone these days, but when I was alive, all I craved was real human interaction. Now people just stare at screens. It's a shame.

I see Andy smiling contentedly at his children. I know he is not their real father, but he treats them like his own, as if they were his all along. He smiles a lot more now. He makes me wish I had a strong male presence in my beforelife. That is what I call it at times, my beforelife.

The first couple of years living here was a real adjustment for him. His face often wore panic or dread. Even I could sense how scared he was. Some nights he would cry himself to sleep, asking God how he was going to manage. Stifling his tears and moans in his pillow.

Once the girls have cleared away the table, the boys, as usual, go into the living room to peruse Netflix. Netflix is amazing. Television alone back in my beforelife, and especially films, where outstanding. The music, too. But Netflix just blows me away.

I really wish I could operate the remotes in the living room so I could watch when no one was home. The speakers in there are magnificent. They are so lucky to be able to experience that sort of entertainment at home.

     As the men most often do, they select a comedy for tonight. Ghostbusters. I can not help but to laugh with all my might. Unfortunately, me doing so sends the slightest hint of a vibration through the walls and it can sometimes be felt when sitting on one of the sofas. I see that all four of them sense the vibration, but they continue watching the movie's opening credits. They probably think it's just the surround sound.

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A/N: Lovely reader,

Did I get a giggle out of you?

What else did Daniel make you feel?

Don't worry. You'll come to find out more about him and his "beforelife", as he likes to call it.

Maybe he's watching you right now.
He really wants you to vote and comment!

XO,
Leanne