"Oh no," Deb says. "You're getting chocolate all over Auntie Ra."
Littler J smiles, unconcerned.
"Ra likes choco."
In this, he's actually wrong. Ra doesn't like chocolate, other than for the 5 blissful seconds where it sings onto my tastebuds. I don't like that it breaks out my skin. I don't care for the smell. I'm not sure how I feel about its global impact.
He smiles at me for confirmation and in that moment-
Ra loves choco.
Once upon a time there was a movie called The Runaway Bride, where Julia Roberts played a woman who almost got married several dozen times but would take off right before the wedding. Richard Gere plays a journalist who wants to know why. As part of his investigation, he realizes that every guy she almost married thinks she likes her eggs prepared a different way. She always eats them exactly the same way as her intended.
So do I.
I couldn't tell you if I like scrambled eggs more than poached. I know when my dad makes poached eggs and cuts into them with a happy smile, I love my eggs poached too. I know when Mamasaur is babbling over her favorite black skillet, throwing fritos and diced tomatoes into her scrambled eggs, I eat them just like that. I know when Dave spent an entire morning preparing a hundred deviled eggs for me, shaped like dinosaurs, those were my favorites.
In prison, I ate a fried egg that I cooked for myself. The first thing I had cooked with real utensils and grills in over a year. It tasted like freedom, and that egg- that egg I loved too.
In the movie, they try to fix her. They make her choose her favorite, and I couldn't help but think- why does it matter?
I love people more than eggs.
I love sharing things with the people I love, more than eggs.
I like having things in common with people, more than eggs.
That seems totally reasonable to me.
Ra loves people.
And sometimes that means, even though she doesn't really- Ra loves chocolate.
Especially when its wiped onto her clothes and hair by tiny hands.
Especially when it's called choco.
Especially when it is considered a precious resource and it is shared freely.
Yes.
In those moments...
Ra loves choco more than anything ever invented.
