“MAKE SURE you cut off all the green stuff,” I say to my little sister.
Eva’s black pigtails are a mess. Loose strands fall to the side as she tilts her head. She squints at the block of cheese. “I don’t see any green.”
“Right there.” I point to the streaks of mold along one corner.
“Oh.” She clenches the butter knife in her chubby six-year-old hand and stabs like she intends to murder the mold. Her cheeks are flushed from earlier. She’s too young to be left home alone, so I had to take her with me to play tag with my friends. She does her best to keep up with eleven-year-olds twice her size. We made a rule to walk, not run, whenever she’s it, which is often.
I turn to the loaf of stale bread and check it for mold as well. We get these loaves free each week from Mr. Park’s store, where my dad works. He lets us have anything that’s past the expiry date. After cutting off the moldy parts, I carefully balance each slice in the toaster. Weirdly shaped bread slices tend to fall to the bottom and burn. I’m glad it’s only the smell of fresh toast that fills the apartment when I’m done. Eva hands me her hacked-up cheese chunks, and I place them between the slices.
“Let’s make juice too!” says Eva as she stands on her tiptoes to open the top freezer door. She hops like a pogo stick but fails to reach the
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Eleanor Chun is a freelance writer and author of the children’s picture book, Invisibles, which Kirkus Reviews calls "An engaging (…) tale about limiting screen time." She was named a finalist in the Penguin Random House Canada Student Award for Fiction 2024 and longlisted in the CBC Short Story Prize 2022. Her work-in-progress middle-grade novel made the shortlist (as of October) in CANSCAIP’s 2025 Writing for Children Competition. She recently completed her Certificate in Creative Writing at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. Updates on her work can be found at www.echun.com.