Cake and Ice Cream

Short Story Day 93 of 365

At Alissa’s seventh birthday party, her dad Mike started singing as he darkened the room and brought out the candle-lit cake for Alissa. Her friends and their parents joined in. She took a huge breath and blew them all out and the children cheered.

“Who wants cake and ice cream?” Mike asked.

Of course the kids all screamed out their desire and then jabbered among themselves about who would get the biggest piece.

Mike looked at the parents and said, “Tom? Sarah? Matt? Stephanie? Any of you over there for cake and ice cream?”

They all nodded in approval.

Mike’s wife served up the cake and ice cream to the birthday girl first and then to the parents.

“No ice cream for me, Honey,” Mike said. “But I’ll have some cake please.”

“Come on, Mike,” Tom said. “You’ve gotta have some ice cream to go with your cake.”

“Naa, not me. They don’t go together. Different textures.”

“Different texture? What about pie?” Stephanie asked. “You like ice cream with your pie?”

“Sure. Ala mode? Of course,” Mike said. “Who doesn’t? That’d be weird not to like ice cream with your pie.”

          Matt asked, “And they aren’t different textures?”

          “They are, but they’re different. It’s hard to explain. Cake’s kinda grainy but pies are smoother. Maybe it has to do with the filling.”

“So you’d never eat those frozen cakes, the ones with ice cream as a filling?” Stephanie asked.

“Not a chance.”

“And here I thought everybody in the world must like that combination. I mean, it’s like baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie, right?” Matt asked.

“For some,” said Mike.

There was an awkward silence when the kids were gobbling down the sugar, and the parents were contemplating Mike’s food choices.

Mike broke the silence and the tension, and said, “Okay, I’ll confess. My mom said I was dropped on my head a few times when I was small, so that may explain it.”

“Maybe,” Tom said. “Any other anomalies we should be aware about going forward.”

“Nope. Straight as an arrow from here on out. And anything you do find can be traced directly back to those childhood mishaps. That’s my go-to excuse now.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Alissa the birthday girl said.