The Moment

Flash Fiction

The Moment

“Can I go now?” Jason asked quietly.

Dad looked over at his plate, still full. He couldn’t have eaten enough to even satisfy his basic need for food. If he let him go now, he’d be asking, or sneaking food all evening.

“If you eat a little more, then you can go. You need to take care of your body, even if it’s not the food you like. Try it!”

“I did try it,” he held up a fork with obvious sauce on it, “This tastes terrible to me…”

“You know Gramma made this, she’s going to ask how we liked it…”

“Gramma always says that everybody is different and likes different food. She told me I didn’t have to eat food I didn’t like. That somebody else would like it, then there’s more for them.

“When did this happen?”

“When I was at her house last week, remember?”

“And she said you didn’t have to eat what you didn’t like?”

“Yes.”

Dad was a bit shocked. When he was a child, he was required to eat everything his parents gave him to eat, or go without eating. Many days he did go without eating. Suddenly that whole process came back to him. The food, the hunger when he didn’t like it and had to go without. And his father…

His father was the one who insisted everything got eaten, or you go without. How had he forgotten that terrible feeling enough to turn around and use it on his own child! Suddenly he wanted to hug Jason, but instead he just changed his ways.

“Let me get you something else,” he said, “you don’t need to eat that. How about a PB&J?”

“Yes!!!” Jason yelled, “Thanks Dad!”

And a relationship began that just got stronger everyday of their lives.