What Do You Want

Fruit and yogurt, mama said.

It wasn’t like fruit and yogurt at home, though.  Yogurt at home was always blue or pink.  This yogurt was white. White food was weird. You couldn’t tell what it was gonna taste like.

It’s really nice. You should try it.

Also the berries on it were GIANT! And shiny. And dark, like almost black. They looked like monsters.

Look at all that yummy fruit, dada said. He was eating pancakes. Maybe pancakes would be better.

I want pancakes!

That’s daddy’s pancake. You said you wanted fruit and yogurt so that’s what we got you.

You don’t even like pancakes, Dada said.

Yeah, that was right. Pancakes at home were white. But these pancakes daddy was eating were dark blue. They looked pretty good.

Try your yogurt, Mama said.

It was almost like the berries were staring back. The shiny spots looked like little eyes. And some tiny, curly fuzz-pieces from the berries were floating on the top of the yogurt.

Mmm-mmm. Nope. No-ope.

Just try a little, Mama said. Then if you don’t like it, Daddy will switch with you.

I don’t like yogurt, Dada said.

Mommy will switch with you, Mama said.

Mommy was eating toast, but it was white toast and it had very yellow butter on it that made the toast look even whiter. And she was eating eggs, which yuck, I do not eat eggs. Dada was eating eggs, too. They were smelly like cleaning the kitchen smell.

NO!!!

Just give him some of your pancake, Mama said.

It’s really small, Dada said. He should learn to eat what he ordered.

Just try the yogurt, Mama said. If you don’t like it, we’ll get you something else.

NOOOOOO!!! No no no no!!! I do not want yogurt! I WANT PANCAKE.

Sorry, mama said, not to me, to someone behind her. Okay, we’ll get you a pancake. That was to me. Okay? Your own pancake. Hang on and we’ll order it. Your own pancake.

My own pancake. Okay. Okay, this was good. This was gonna be okay. Really hungry, but I’ll get my own pancake soon. Really hungry.  Maybe dada would give me some of his pancake until my pancake comes. Ug, hungry.

Dada?

What’s up, dada said.  He reached over the table and grabbed one of the giant black berries with his fingers. Some yogurt dripped off of it back into the bowl, glop. Dada wiped the berry on his napkin and put it in his mouth. It made purple juice on his lips.

That looks yummy.

Mm, dada said. Good berries.

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

What’s wrong? mama said. What’s the matter?

Dada was laughing. Why laughing? Yeah, what’s wrong? he said.

What’s wrong? He ate my berry. I only had a few berries and he ATE ONE.

NOW I CAN’T HAVE IT ALL. 

I yelled it, as loud as I could yell, loud enough for the whole restaurant, so everyone would know.