Breakfast At IHOP

Two sisters go out to breakfast with the kids.

    Lyssa got called in to go to work in a few hours and her husband was already at work so she called up her sister to see if she would take her two sons for the afternoon and evening. Her sister, Sherrie, said she would be happy to so they arranged to meet at IHOP to have breakfast and hand off the children. Cisco was seven and Zachery was four and Sherrie liked spending time with the children and kept them often.

     When Lyssa pulled up in the parking lot Sherrie was already there waiting for her. She met her at the entrance to the restaurant.

     “Hi. How are you boys this morning?” Sherrie inquired.

     “Good, are we going to get to ride in your new car?” Cisco asked.

     “Yes you are. I thought maybe we would go to the park and play on the swings. Does that sound like fun?”

     “I want to go to the place that has the goats and the rabbits.” Cisco replied.

     “Me too.” Zachery added.   

     “We can probably do that, let’s go inside and have some breakfast.”

       Lyssa and Sherrie briefly talked about the new job Lyssa was starting while they waited for a table. The waitress brought them water, coffee and menus.

     “What looks good to you Cisco?” Lyssa asked her oldest son.

     “I want lots of bacon and an egg. And chocolate milk.” 

     “I don’t know if they have chocolate milk but if they do you can have some. What do you want Zach?”

     Sherrie was sitting next to Zachery and she was going over the children’s menu with him. “Which breakfast looks good to you?” She was pointing to the pictures on the menu.

     “I want these pancakes.” He pointed to a picture of chocolate chip pancakes.

     “Are you sure? Have you ever had chocolate chip pancakes before?”

     “Yes.” He wanted what he wanted.

     “I am not sure you will like them but you can have them.” Lyssa said to him.

     The waitress took their orders and the boys colored on their placemats while they were waiting and the sisters visited. Their orders came and they all started eating, at least everyone except Zachery. Zachery stared at his pancakes. The girls tried to ignore him at first thinking he would eventually eat.

     “What’s the matter?”

     “ I don’t want these.”

     “But they are what you said you wanted.”

     “This isn’t what I wanted.”

     “Why don’t you try them?”

     “ I don’t want to. They look funny.”

     “They look like chocolate chip pancakes. Do you want some of my omelet?”

     “No.”

     “Ok that’s fine, you don’t have to eat but the rest of us are going to eat our food.”

Everyone ate their breakfast and Zachery just sat there with a pouty look on his face. The waitress came by and asked if they were done and they said yes. She cleared all the plates away.

     The girls left a tip and got up from the table. Zachery stayed there.

    “Come on Zach we are going to leave now.” Sherrie pleaded with him.

     “I want my pancakes.”

     “ The waitress took them and threw them away because you said you didn’t want them.”  Lyssa added.

    “ I do too want them.” He started to cry.

    “ Well, it’s too late.” Lyssa told him and went to the front counter to pay the bill.

       He started crying loudly. Lyssa was at the counter paying the bill while Zachery wailed away.

      Sherrie walked Zachery up to where Lyssa was standing. He grabbed her around the legs.

     “I want my pancakes.”

     “Your pancakes are gone because you said you didn’t want them.”

      Everyone in the restaurant was now staring at the scene playing out at the cash register. The girls started to feel like child abusers even though they hadn’t done anything wrong. They figured that was what everyone was thinking when a kid threw a fit of this caliber.

     A waitress walked up with a cheesy toy and Zachery responded by slapping it out of her hand. The girls thanked her and proceeded to drag him out of the restaurant kicking and screaming. Cisco thought it was hilarious and was laughing at the fit his little brother was throwing.

    Zachery was uncooperative the whole way and by the time he was half dragged and half carried out to the car they were thoroughly embarrassed and ready to kill him at the same time. As soon as they got out to the car he stopped crying.

     “I want to sit in the front seat.” He said and he and Cisco started fighting over who got to sit in the front seat. Breakfast was now forgotten and Sherrie and Lyssa were thinking it was going to be a long time before they took the kids out for breakfast again.

 

      

Reviews

[Roland Corvus]

Very funny, scarily accurate. Almost reminds me of myself when I was a little lad that people wanted to strangle..