Matters Of Time and Fate

Chapter 8

Sniper woke up early that morning, and the first thought in his mind was that he wanted to make coffee. He'd had a rough, feverish sleep the previous night, and he needed to cleanse his mind with a cup of black coffee. Just the way he liked it.

As Sniper went to the kitchen and began to prepare coffee in the pot, he internally praised himself for waking up early before everyone else. Now he could have his coffee and he could make his breakfast in peace and quiet, without anyone –

"Are you making coffee?"

Sniper startled, turning around to see Olivia standing there. He fumbled for a moment, trying to think of how to answer.

"Uh...yeah, I am,"

Olivia hopped up on the chair beside the kitchen counter, looking over his shoulder. "Make a cup for me! I like milk and sugar in mine,"

Sniper processed this for a moment, before he looked back at Olivia, confusion in his eyes. "What? You want coffee?"

Olivia looked at him like he'd just asked a stupid question. "Yeah? I like coffee! My nanny makes some for me every morning, with milk and sugar,"

Sniper scoffed. "Really? I mean..." he scratched the back of his head. "You're only six, should you really be drinking coffee?"

Olivia pursed her lips together. "My daddy says I can have it! He says everyone drinks it,"

"Well," Sniper cleared his throat. "Six-year-olds don't drink it. You know what I drank when I was six?"

When Olivia shook her head, Sniper replied, "Milkshakes, I used to drink them every morning. They're not really that healthy, but I can show you how to make some,"

"Milkshakes?" Olivia thought about it, and then shrugged. "Okay. Can we put chocolate in it?"

Sniper just grinned at her. "I like your thinking! We can put whatever we want in them. You like peanut butter?"

Olivia nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah!"

"All right, all right," Sniper laughed, opening a cabinet and getting out a jar of peanut butter, as well as some cocoa powder. "Let's get started – pass me the blender, yeah?"

Meanwhile, Engineer was sleeping peacefully on his air mattress when he was rudely awoken by the loud whirring of a blender in the kitchen. He startled, stumbling to his feet in the direction of the noise.

"What in Sam Hill is all that racket!?" he snapped, hovering in the doorway.

Sniper looked up from where he was pulsing the blender. "Sorry, mate! We're making milkshakes, blender's real loud..."

Olivia stared at the mixture of peanut butter, vanilla ice cream, cocoa, and banana through the clear plastic of the blender. "Press the button again! It still looks lumpy..."

Sniper pressed the button, and the violent whirring struck right back up. Engineer flinched at the sound. "Gosh darn it! I should make a blender that's real quiet – I probably could!"

The whirring died down again, and Olivia checked the milkshake again, frowning. "Still lumpy!"

Before Sniper could mash the button again, Engineer shooed him away from the blender. "Hey, y'know what? There's some stuff we still need from the store, how about we take a little shopping trip and I can buy some more parts to build a quiet blender? Then you can put whatever you want in there without wakin' the whole house,"

Sniper huffed. "Look, the milkshakes aren't done! Gotta blend 'em somehow,"

Engineer grabbed a wooden spoon and handed it to Sniper. "Use this! Do it the old fashioned way,"