I hope you enjoyed Cookie Monster-I guess continuing stories isn’t really gonna work. So, here’s another Pesach story-I hope you like it! 

“Recipe for Disaster”

I swept up the rest of the dirt and dust and dumped it neatly into the garbage can resting nearby. With a purple Crayola marker that I found lying around, I happily crossed ‘BEDROOM’ off my list. There was only 2 weeks left to Pesach, and since Mommy just had a baby, as the oldest I was in charge of a lot of stuff. And that’s an understatement.

Time for a snack, I decided. I ran down the carpeted steps and stopped short at the entrance to the kitchen. “Whoa!” I said. “Who did that?” Pots and pans were strewn across the floor. The stainless steel fridge door was open, and a waterfall of white colored liquid dripped down from an overturned milk carton. Potatoes and cucumbers lay beside bowls and cooking utensils.

I sighed and opened the cabinet to take out the paper towels. None there. I ran as fast as I could to the bathroom. No paper towels. The basement had none either. “Alright,” I muttered. “Whoever did this is going to be in so much trouble!”

“BENNY! DOVI! LEAH! RENA! COME HERE RIGHT NOW!” I yelled. 4 pairs of feet tumbled down the stairs, and rolled into the kitchen. They all let out a gasp, and turned to me with an innocent look. “I didn’t do it!” they said at the exact same time.

I picked up the milk carton and put it on the counter. I shut the fridge door and turned to my siblings. “Well then, one of you is lying!” I said. “It can’t be that none of you did it! Who do you think did it, Mommy’s shaitel head? The wind? Hashem? Dream on! Now tell me: who did it?”

They all looked at each other. “Come on, tell me already!” I nudged them. Rena shrugged and plopped down on a stool. Leah looked at the mess then at me, and just poured herself a drink of orange juice. Benny glanced at Dovi and leaned against the fridge door. “Oh, and someone also took all the paper towels!” I glared at them. “Now how am I going to clean up this mess?”

“I was cleaning my room since I came home,” Rena said meekly.

“I was doing my homework,” Leah added quietly.

“Okay, and you boys?” I nodded to Benny and Dovi. “Do you have something to say for yourself?”

“I was doing a project in my room,” Dovi mumbled.

“I was organizing my sefarim (books),” Benny protested.

“I guess I’ll need to do detective work!” I sighed. “And you all need to clean this up. Right now, I don’t care who did it. You are going to stay here until it is spotless!”

I marched out of the room and sped up the stairs. I flung open the door to Rena’s room. It looked as though she were in the process of cleaning up. A  few paper towels lay on the night table, but nothing significant.

With a sigh, I went to Benny’s room. His blue blanket lay in a heap in his bed, and a couple of sefarim were scrawled across the desk. Alright, so it was either Leah or Dovi.

I slipped into Dovi’s room. Paper towels were EVERYWHERE!! An old mop lay across the floor, and some screws were rolling around. A screwdriver was nearby and a book was open on his bed.

Without another glance, I ran down the stairs. Rena and Dovi were putting the pots and pans away and Benny and Leah were in the midst of cleaning up the rest of the mess with some old rags.

“Dovi Schapiro! Get over here right now!” I yelled.

Dovi sighed and trudged over to me. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

“Sorry?” I screamed. “Just sorry? Why didn’t you tell me in the first place? You used up all the paper towels, you made a gigantic mess in the kitchen and all you say is ‘sorry’?”

Dovi looked up at me, confused. “I didn’t make a mess in the kitchen,” he said. “I was using the paper towels because I got an inventing book, and they had an invention that makes cleaning really easy. You put the paper towels inside a compartment-I wanted to help you get ready for Pesach. I only went in the kitchen to get the paper towels. I wanted to surprise you.”

I felt really bad for accusing Dovi. “Sorry,” I said. “Go upstairs and finish making your invention. That was really sweet of you. But who made the mess in the kitchen?”

Dovi shrugged and skipped up the stairs.

I walked into the almost-clean kitchen. “Okay, guys. You can stop now. Just tell me who made the mess.” I told them.

Rena shrugged. “I told you already, I was cleaning my room the whole time.”

Benny nodded. “None of us did it. I don’t know who did.”

I sighed and surveyed the kitchen. They had done a pretty good job, and they really hadn’t made the mess.

Just then, I heard a faint cry coming from one of the bedrooms upstairs.

Oh no! In all this excitement I had forgotten about Shmully, my baby brother. He’s not really a baby-he’s two.

I ran up to his room and burst open the door. Shmully was sitting on the floor, sipping milk from a plastic cup and munching on some chocolate chip cookies. He was pointing at a toy on the top shelf in his room.

“Shmully want toy,” he said when I came in.

I gasped. “Shmully! You did it!” I cried.

Shmully looked at me blankly before pointing again at the toy.

“Toy!” he said. With a little laugh, I took the toy down from the shelf and headed downstairs. I apologized to Benny, Leah and Rena and pulled out some vanilla fudge ice cream from the freezer.

Dovi came down with his new invention, Cleaner800, which by the way, was very useful.

We all enjoyed the ice cream, and I learnt something very important- give people the benefit of the doubt. Oh, and don’t forget about 2 year old brothers when you clean for Pesach!

Hope you liked it!

Tehila