Tomato Sauce

Doug's language teacher, James, has been coming by occasionally the last couple of weeks around dinner time. I fed him every time he showed up, and unfortunately for him, a lot of times it was leftovers.

One day I saw him on the road and he said, "You want me to come for dinner again, don't you?"

So, apparently, he didn't think it was all that bad.

On Tuesday of this week, he was helping Doug get ready for his language evaluation, and he happened to stay until dinner time.

It was Kylie's night to cook, and she had chosen to make pancakes.

I felt kind of bad inviting him, knowing what was on the table, but I did. There were no side dishes, no vegetables, nothing. Just pancakes.

And, I might add, that there were only a few plain pancakes for adults because Kylie had put either M&Ms or chocolate chips in most of them for the kids.

James told us he knew what pancakes were, and we asked whether he would like one with or without chocolate.

He chose the chocolate.

Then we asked if he would like syrup. He tried it, and decided that the chocolate would be sweet enough. He didn't need any syrup.

He ate one without saying much.

Then on his second one, he says, "Do you have any tomato sauce?"

We all started looking at each other.

"We have Top Up and Ketchup?"

He said, "No, real tomato sauce."

I got up and got a bottle of Heinz Ketchup out of the fridge and held it up, and he said, "Yes. That is real tomato sauce."

Kylie and I are making faces at each other across the table at this point, wondering what he is going to do.

He says, "Wow. This is cold."

He put a napkin around it to hold it, and yes, poured it onto his chocolate pancake.

You should have seen the eyes at that table as we darted around looking at each other's reactions, and I'm praising Jesus that Caleb didn't blurt anything out.

My stomach, however, could not take it.

So, if you are someone who puts cold ketchup on your pancakes, just keep it to yourself, and please don't share with me.