What Happens at 3 O’clock Stays at 3 O’clock

It’s three o’clock in the morning and Hope Carter is where she is every morning that she plans to make her famous peach pie. A couple of years ago Hope’s mother, Patience, had finally told her the secret to her famous peach pie. Hope had been begging her mother for years so she was extremely excited when her mother finally agreed to let her in on the family secret.

As she is baking now she recalls the day it finally happened. Hope had been in her mid-twenties then and had longed to be able to make her mother’s famous peach pie.

For as long as she can remember Hope has loved her mother’s peach pie. When she was old enough to bake on her own she had asked her mother to show her how to make her peach pie. Her mother had said, “When you are truly ready I will show you how to make my peach pie.”

That first year she asked almost everyday but when it didn’t get her anywhere she only asked on her birthday and Christmas. On the day she finally learned the secret she was very excited plus it wasn’t even her birthday or Christmas either. By the end of the experience she had been a little confused and very exhilarated by the experience.

She had gone to her parent’s house at 1 o’clock in the morning to do it too. That was a little bit of a surprise but it is what her mother required so she did what she was told. After hearing the history of the peach pie recipe she was ready to get started even more than she had been when she arrived. The process seemed simple enough and truly was nothing out of the ordinary. With that said though there are some special ingredients and specific rules to follow.

The rules are as follows:

RULE# 1 - The most important rule of all is that the preparations must start at 3 o’clock in the morning. Why 3 o’clock in the morning? Well for a couple of reasons. One is to maintain the secrecy of the recipe and process but the other reason is rule# 2.

RULE# 2 - You must be nude with only an apron covering you. When Hope’s great-great grandmother, Faith, had added the apron it was because flour kept getting in uncomfortable places as well as some other things. That was the only amendment allowed to be made since the beginning. Which leads us to the final rule, rule# 3.

RULE# 3 - The sharing and passing on rule. The recipe could only be passed onto the first daughter or oldest granddaughter if no daughter is born to the keeper. If by chance you have no children then it would pass to the eldest niece in the family. So far it’s only been passed to daughters but things can change at any given time.

Great-great grandmother Faith had begun this process completely by accident. The reason she had started baking in the nude had been for the simple reason that it was hot inside even before she began baking with it being the middle of summer in the south. Hot and humid as hell without air conditioning was not compatible with baking inside. She soon discovered this led to unforeseen things though. Her husband, Hope’s great-great grandfather, Pope Brown had found her too irresistible when he would come upon her baking in the nude. This led to five children so Faith had begun baking in the middle of the night while her husband and children slept. The apron had come about almost right away as well. First as an attempt to deter her husband, which didn’t work, then to keep the flour from finding its way into uncomfortable places. Doing it at night so early in the morning also helped great-great grandmother Faith keep the recipe a secret. Secrecy was very important to Faith so the recipe was never to be given out lightly. Once given to one’s daughter that person was sworn to complete and utter secrecy.

When Hope’s mother, Patience, was given the recipe her mother, Charity, made her sign papers saying she would never share it except with her daughter and then only at the right time. Charity had told her daughter that the paperwork had been in existence since the beginning although it wasn’t a legal document until it had been Charity’s turn to share the recipe. Before then it had been a morale document of sorts. Back then that had been enough to keep Charity and her mother Grace from sharing the recipe. When Patience had come around her mother saw that as she grew she was horrible at keeping secrets so she had made the paperwork a legal document. It stated that if she ever shared the recipe in its entirety with anyone other than the designated person she would be sued by the keeper or keepers of the secret recipe. If they were not able to do so themselves, Charity set up a kind of trust that would do so in their places if they were unable. It was very hard for her mother to keep the secret but she did and when she finally felt the time was right to tell her daughter she was relieved to be able to share it with someone else.

So at three o’clock that first morning Hope stood clad only in the apron her mother had bought years ago for her especially for this occasion. She learned the secret to her family’s famous peach pie. The apron was a part of the process as well. With each new keeper of the secret a special apron was picked out for her by the previous keeper. The aprons were very special and had great meaning for both the giver and the receiver. Usually the apron was chosen after the first time the mother was asked by her daughter for the recipe. So when Patience gave the apron to Hope both women were in tears. The apron is beautiful and Hope wears it every time she is in the kitchen either baking or cooking.

She remembers that she had been a touch uncomfortable at the beginning of her lesson but by the end she no longer even saw herself nor her mother as being naked in her mother’s kitchen. By the end of the lesson she was only thinking about her first attempt at the peach pie. While her mother had shown her the recipe she had not been allowed to write anything but the basics down. For the secret ingredient in the crust she was only allowed to write, “secret call mom” it was the same for the secret ingredient in the filling as well. She was expected to know it by heart soon. Not needing any help from her mother or any written instructions.

That was a little over two years ago and now she is able to make the pie all on her own. She only got help from her mother a handful of times. She follows the recipe she has in her head most of the time but she has taken to adding her own little twist occasionally. She only adds her own twist for her immediate family and friends but when her mother and or grandmother join them for dinner she sticks to the original recipe.

Back to now though. Back to why she is up naked save for her apron, stress baking her famous peach pie. She got a call a couple of days ago from a very nice, very high end restaurant. They heard from various clients that their peach pie paled in comparison to hers. They asked her if she would be willing to sell them her recipe. When she didn’t respond right away they added that they would be willing to pay her royalties every time they sold a piece of her pie. She knows that she can never tell another person about the recipe let alone sell it to someone else.

She told them she would think about it but truthfully she wasn’t going to give them her family's recipe. She never would. The money is tempting, that's true. Maybe she could give them her recipe without her family's secret ingredients. So here she is stress baking the best damn peach pie around to try and make a pie that tastes the same as her family’s pie but without the secret part.

She did the only thing she could after hours of baking pie after pie she called her mother.

Patience answers on the second ring as if she had been expecting her daughter’s call. “Good morning sweetie. To what do I owe this wonderful call?”

Hope takes a deep breath and tells her mother what has been going on. By the time she stops she is even more certain that she is not going to give them the recipe in any way, shape or form.

After a moment of silence her mother replies, “I think you already know the right thing to do. I think you have already made up your mind.”

Hope does know what she is going to do. She had just needed to talk to her mother about it. She had just needed to say it all out loud. Smiling, even though her mother couldn’t see her, she said. “You’re right. I already know. I just needed to talk to you. I just needed to say it out loud I guess. Thank you mom. I am not going to give them anything. Our recipe is sacred. It is meant for us only. They are just screwed.”

Hope and her mother talk a little longer about life and other things before ending the call.

With her mind made up Hope stopped baking for the night and took in what was in her kitchen. She had baked seven very beautiful, very great tasting pies. “Well hell. What am I going to do with all of these pies?” she says to herself. That’s when it hits her. “I will bake the pies for the restaurant that way I don’t have to give them the recipe.”

She rang the restaurant owner right away and the deal was made. She was the soul baker of her family’s peach pies. If she was not available to make the pies they did not have the peach pies.

She worked for the restaurant until she no longer could but by then she had already passed the secret down to her own daughter with explicit instructions to never share the recipe with anyone but her own daughter.