Shut up and eat!

My girl, my girl, don’t lie to me, tell me where did you eat last night?
In the plants, in the pines where the sun don’t ever shine
I’d shiver with hunger the whole night through…..

When you’re a bachelorette middle child and your older sisters have ridden away with their knights in shining armor, how would you handle your fate taking charge of a little sister who’s got a tongue pierce, is an ex- skateboarder, a hard- liquor drinker, a college student forever and, having disappeared at night, would knock on your apartment door the following morning just in time when you’re up sweetly recalling dreams that you were flying over a poppy field and broken glass? You put on your robe and open the door and… just give thanks that she is alive. You figure out what power this little nag has got over you because she was the reason why two years ago you declined the invitation of your ex to shack in with him because you had said: ”I can’t leave my sister… like this.”

Is this little snip worth the tears when your lover didn’t come back?

Without saying a word, you bun your hair, heat water and start cooking. Before you knew it, you came up with the signature apartment breakfast: fried rice, gooey egg yolks, some beef and mushroom stew leftover from last night, and a vegetable dish- from a shiitake stir fry to a hopeless ratatouille without the courgettes. Never mind if there aren’t courgettes- you just have to have the breakfast veggies no matter what. Then thanks to the little pots of herbs at your verandah, you were able to make the dish more fragrant and tasty. Laid out on the table, you notice that your breakfast is not a toast and a cup of coffee but like a portion of some feast. Bring on some bread and butter, hot coffee or chocolate, and a whole slab of gigantic fruit like pineapple or papaya.

You sit down on the floor and eat. You remember, once over a McDonald’s breakfast, you and your old lover were discussing (arguing) breakfast. You innocently confessed that you actually have vegetables for breakfast at home. Boiled squash- on your rice. Spinach on your omelet. Stir- fried bean sprouts.

No wonder, why restaurants don’t serve your rabbit food for breakfast because, honey, they just don’t sell!

-Oh, shut up and eat.

Your sister starts telling you where she was last night. You tell her to… just shut up and eat. This is breakfast, darling, not confrontation time.

Somewhere during the day over coffee at the backdoor, you get your sister’s whole story where she had been last night. Down to the last detail. Apparently, you realize that you can give up your lover - but not breakfast veggies -whether it has a missing ingredient or not. And neither your sister, whether she’s got a tongue pierce, ex- skateboarder, a hard- liquor drinker, a college student forever… By choosing not to leave her, that choice actually saved you from a lot of trouble.