The Magic of a Chocolate Addiction

My father and I sit around the kitchen table, reading the state-wide newspaper and watching my mother thumb through a year-old Nebraska Life magazine.  We’ve long-since given up the pretence that she can read any of the articles or photo captions, but we don’t tell her that. 

Stuck on the last word of the Jumble, my father recounts their activities from the day before. 

“We went to the lakes and watched the birds for a while,” he explains.  "We stopped at that place down the street for ice cream, and Carol could read ‘M&M’s’ off the menu!”

My forehead crinkles involuntarily.  “Well, they say logos have a lot of staying power.  You don’t have to know how to read to pick out a symbol or image of something that means a lot to you,” I reply, trying to rationalize the occurrence.

“No,” he says, a little more emphatically, “that place down the street.  They just have the words written on the board.  I was going to get a sundae or something small, but when she read M&M’s off that sign, I was so surprised I had to get her one.”  He nods toward the freezer, where I’d previously discovered a large Styrofoam cup filled with soft-serve and candy.  “I thought she’d lost all that for good.”

We simultaneously turn our attention to my mother, who still flips magazine pages back and forth.

“Mom, do you like M&M’s?” I ask, curious if she will remember the incident.

Her eyelids close as her brow rises.  She sticks out her chin and ever-so-slightly nods her head as if contemplating the mysteries of the universe.  Finally, she answers, “Yeah,” and turns to a new page.