"Fine," Linda exclaimed. "What do you want me to do first?"
Jon noticed something...well, several somethings. There was no dinner...his mother had been in the middle of making it, but now it looked like it hadn't even been started. The room also looked different. Things were in different places. There were only so many ways you could arrange a room, but...everywhere he looked, things were different. What the...
"Get the cutting board out," Zoe said, heading to the fridge, "and chop up these vegetables," she said, handing Linda a bag from the fridge.
"You're cooking?" Jon blurted out in surprise. Zoe didn't cook. And Mom had been making hamburgers before this.
"Yes, and could you set the table, please?" Zoe said, smiling at him.
"Umm...sure," he said.
As he did, he kept watching the two. Zoe was usually flying off the handle at a moment's notice, but this older, more mature Zoe seemed to be patient, giving Linda instructions , but not in a way they sounded like orders. It was a contrast to when Linda tried, usually ineffectively, to get Zoe to do anything.
"Done," Linda declared. "Is that it, Mom?" Jon flinched when his mother called his sister Mom. It...just seemed wrong. But...if this was the stone's doing...it probably only would seem wrong to him. To everyone else...this was normal.
Zoe combined the vegetables with the meat had been working on, and put the whole thing on the stove to cook. "This will be ready in half an hour...I have to go pick up Mikey. Can one of you keep an eye on dinner? Just stir it and turn it down it when its ready."
"Okay," Linda said, whipping out her phone.
"Back in a jiff," Zoe said, grabbing her keys. She turned to Jon, suddenly frowning at the look on his face. His color seemed off also. "Are you all right...you look kind of pale?"
"Just...long day," he stumbled.
She gave him a look of maternal concern, which Jon found creepy, reaching over to put her hand on his forehead. "No fever..."
"I'm fine..." he insisted.
"Well, maybe you should go to bed early...how have you been sleeping lately?"
"Isn't Mikey waiting?" He said...trying to get her to go away before he freaked out completely.
"Well, let's see how you look after a good meal," she said, heading out the door, leaving him alone with his mother...or the teenage girl version of same.
"Why is it with me, it's...I had a long day too....and with you...it's, you must be sick?" she complained, pulling out her phone. "You get special treatment because you're the oldest...and Mikey's her baby...and I'm stuck in the middle."
"Do you...feel like something's different?" Jon asked, slowly.... Geeze, she looks so young... He didn't know much about what his mom was like when she was fourteen, but she'd been the oldest before.
"Like what?" She asked, focusing on her phone and settling back on the couch.
He sighed. "Never mind."
Linda rolled her eyes. "You're such a weirdo sometimes," she said, with a combination of annoyance and affection, going back to her phone.
