Chocolate Cake
My dad’s student from the college, who’d come over for dinner, looked at me and said, “You can’t have any chocolate cake!” I was one. He thought he was making a pretty good joke. I burst into tears. While stammering his apologies, he almost burst into tears himself. My dad told this story forever. He would mimic us both: the student’s goofy “You can’t have any chocolate cake!”; my big “WAAAH!” It was his favorite cautionary tale: joking with babies when you yourself are but a baby, who understands nothing until, suddenly, facing the tears you’ve caused, you understand everything.
Photo Credit: Sarah Horrigan
Wonderful insight in a little gem of a story!
Love this.