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I reached out to nudge the girl’s plates at them for emphasis. “Eat. Stress burns blood sugar and I don’t want you two all mopey for the rest of the day. We got a shopping trip into town after we drive your aunt back to the airport.”

The aunt in question wandered in at that point, still talking on my phone. “Okay Johnny, here’s your kids. Oh no, both the girls have mouthfuls of food so I’ll have to put Aran who has jelly all over his face on the line first.”

Both the girls made muffled sound of protest as she handed the phone off to the sticky fingered boy. I would have approved of the teasing, but it was my phone now getting covered in grape jelly.

A conversation ensued about the merits of sliced fruit on sandwiches as the aunt grinned at her two glaring nieces. I tried to be a good host. “So. We still got all the sandwich stuff out if you want to help yourself.”

She looked everything over with an air of superiority, then brightened up. “Oh, is that provolone. My mom found out she’s lactose intolerant, now that there's a term for it, and has forbidden all dairy products in her house. And I’m away too often to keep any groceries at my place.”

She wiggled in between me and the counter while reaching for the bread. “Can you get me a plate?”

A “please” would have been nice. Also don’t be rubbing your butt up against me woman, I’m old, not dead. None of that was out loud of course, and I did still get her a plate.

I also wet down a paper towel and set it out between the girls, the younger ones, to use before their turn with the phone. Aran kept glancing at his sisters to gauge how upset they were, but ultimately ran out of things to say to his dad, who told him to pass off the phone to his sister.

I think he wanted to further tease the two of them since his dad didn't say which sister, but Sara spoiled it for him by shaking her head and pointed at Ami. The middle grand child managed to hang up the phone while trying to clean off the jelly, and started to loose it while wiping again and again to try to get the last of the stickiness off while it was ringing with her dad on the other end of the line.

Look clean enough for me. “It spins and crosses itself kiddo, let me take it and tell your dad to wait while I finish cleaning it off.” She let go of the phone reluctantly. “Hey kiddo, got to wipe the screen clean, so let me call you back in a second. Jelly.”

I gave the witch a sharp look to which she seemed oblivious she a mostly cheese sandwich. Giving the screen a last finger check for any last sticky spots, then again as I rubbed away at the one I found. I hit redial and passed the phone off to the middle child.

Who then skittered out of the room so no one could listen in. Sara grabbed a few more paper towels, dabbed them under some water, and proceeded to begin cleaning off her brother’s own sticky spots.

There's a trick you have to learn to keep the banana slices in a peanut butter and jelly. The kid would master it in time, but until then it would require a change of clothes after each such meal. Which is what is Sara left the room with her brother to go do.

Leaving me alone with the witch.

I tried to stare her down, but it was a little hard to do with someone who showed no sign of stopping as she munched away at her sandwich. “So, was that a deliberate stress test of Ami, or does getting her wound up just come natural.”

She gave me a surprised look and tried to quick chew her last bite. “Sorry. Let me get you something to drink. I grabbed another drink box from the fridge.

She swallowed her bite, and got the straw into the box. Taking a sip before she finally gave me an answer. “Sorry, I wind them up all the time. But getting the phone sticky wasn’t a plan, I just like to favor Aran which I can. My mom always put me ahead of John, and when I got older I felt a little guilty about it. I don’t want him to ever think I’m going to do the same with his boy.”

She grinned. “And I’m not going to walk on eggshells around Ami. She’s going to loose control dozens of times over the next few years. Might as well have it happen at someone else’s house.”

I took a second. “You know I can talk about how I’m as strong as Sara, and have a lot less cause to hold back on you. I could brag about how I resisted your mind tricks. But I think you might be angling for another shot as me. So no, I’m not going to do any of that.”

While I started cleaning up a bit. I told her how I was going to deal with her.“If you poke the bear too much, I’m going to tell on you to John.”

After a moment of letting her mull on that. “You’re on pretty thin ice with him as it is. It wouldn’t take much for him to cut you out of any deal being made with your mom. You going to want another sandwich before I put this away?”

She shook her head no as I eyeballed the remaining half of Ami’s sandwich, but I left it alone for the moment. I was still a bit hungry, but it was always best to be at least a little hungry before I went grocery shopping. Otherwise I wouldn’t buy enough food because even now it killed me to buy anything when it wasn’t on sale.

Ami wandered back in to pass off the phone, only to find all her sibling absence. “Sara took the boy upstairs for a change of clothes.” She nodded and turned to head upstairs, stopped, turned, then came in. “Don’t eat my sandwich.” She actually wiggled her finger at me while shooting me a dark look before heading back out.

The witch gave me questioning look. I shrugged. “Don’t know what she’s talking about.” Then she pulled the dish with the remains of her grandnieces lunch a symbolic distance away from me.

Humph. Don’t act like you know me.

After a moment of silence, I tried to feel her out a little. “I tried to find your sister. She didn’t tell me about being pregnant, or leave me any clue why she left. I looked for her. Tried to track her down, but at some point it became clear to me I wasn’t going to find her.”

She gave me a mixed look. Disinterest, with some hostility and then bottoming out in consideration. “I wasn’t even conceived until after Brianna came home. Mom’s second chance at the perfect heir. You were just kind of a placeholder in the story for me. Guy X who got my sister pregnant with what amounted to my brother who kept asking about you, while I was being told I had no father.”

She shrugged. “Not trying to be a bitch here, but up until today it was the first time you were more then a footnote and something John stopped bothering to try to talk to me about since we were kids.”

The witch waved her hand around. “Now you’re somebody who is important to John and his kids, but for me you’re just someone who I might see every now and then, and that only because you’re going to be around them. I’m sorry you got cut out of their lives all this time, but I don’t really have an interest in any of it.”

She shook her head. “It’s just not my problem or responsibility. You seem like a good guy, but I don’t need to know, and I’d would rather not get involved.”

“Thanks for lunch, and the ride to the airport if the offer is still good. But you need to talk to Brie about what happened with you and her. I got enough issues with her of my own.”