A/N: First fanfiction writing in over two years. I got this cool review requesting a chapter with Relda so... here it is, even though she isn't Granny yet :)

Relda looked through the cupboards in the kitchen. She had been planning all day to make her special soup for dinner, and she had gone through her list of ingredients several times earlier to make sure that she had everything that she needed.

Cartofi roots, four cans of scoici, carrots, half and hal… wait, where was it?

She looked through the refrigerator several times to no scanned the countertops, hoping that someone had just left it out a little while in their efforts to get at something else in the refrigerator. Then she saw if out of the corner of her eye. The crushed and obviously empty carton of half and half lay partially hidden in the garbage can. Her boys had probably used it to feed stray animals again…

Her scoici chowder wouldn't be very much like scoici chowder without half and half.

"Basil, I need to go to the grocery store."

"There's a storm coming," her husband replied, looking at her sunflower dress somewhat critically.

"It will only take a few minutes; we'll be back before it starts."

It was a cloudy day, but not cold. There were just enough clouds in the sky to warrant a "cloudy" description rather than the range from "partly cloudy" to "mostly sunny" that the weatherman had promised for that day.

So Basil drove with her to the grocery store, taking an umbrella from beside the front door as they left the house.

"I'll be right back," she said, hopping out of the car almost before it stopped moving.

The store was a little more crowded than she expected, but it wasn't more than ten minutes from the time she got out of the car to the time she was paying for the missing ingredient. Then she looked through the doors and wished she had brought the umbrella from the car into the store with her. Rain mixed with small hailstones was pouring from the sky, already soaking the ground.

Of course.

There wasn't much she could do at this point though, so she steeled herself to go outside and started to walk out the doors and into the parking lot. However, instead of the cold sheet of water and ice that she was expecting, there was just the pattering of rain against material.

"You forgot the umbrella," a familiar voice said.