Helen watched him dissect his cake.
”You are eating the yellow sections first.", she remarked.
”Yes, I don’t like them.”
”So, in that case you leave them till the last.”
”No, you save the best till last.”
She, too, was eating the yellow sections, because, he deduced, they were her favorites : the same action, opposite motivations. Like all things they did? Like getting married? Having a child? They both ate with strategy, a cube at a time, peeling the marzipan away.
”You don’t like marzipan?”, he asked.
”It’s horrible.”
”Then you will be left with it, and you’ll wish you’d eaten it first.”
”I won’t wish I’d eaten it first, because if I’d eaten it first I’d feel sick and wouldn’t be able to eat the rest.”
He shook his head and smiled. “No, no. Its like making a sacrifice. Making an initial sacrifice before the feast – to appease the gods of hunger”.
”Gods”, she laughed, leaning forward and whispering, “You and your little pagan gods.”
(-Pg 145 from Samantha Harvey’s The Wilderness)
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2 comments:
Very lucidly brought up the perhaps existing divide in the thought process of men n women.. ( not stereotyping anyone..)..Cos I always thought as the man in the convo. Save your best for the last!! ..
The other view was equally valid.. Live in this moment kind ! ... :)
I agree buddy, though am not sure of the gender implications. Yes, I love the prose....Its almost like poetry to me.
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