(Sorry this is much longer than I’d planned)
Many years ago we went on a family holiday to a uk caravan site. Some nights we’d go to the on-site bar that did kids shows (and sold booze) and sometimes I’d do this. I’d order our drinks at the bar, and when I’d handed them out I would look at my son and say
“Oh! Did you want a packet of crisps.” As if this was something I’d just thought of
‘Yes please” he’d say, and named one of the two flavours of crisp he liked
So then I’d look at the bar and shake my head. “Oh I don’t know it’s getting busy now”
“Oh pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee”
I’d look thoughtful and say. “Let’s try this. Close your eyes.’ And because my son was three he did. Then I’d put in front of him one of the two flavours of crisp I’d already bought at the bar and put in my jacket pockets (we would eat the other.) I’d tell him to open his eyes and say “magic crisps.’ He’d look at the crisps that had just appeared from thin air and then up at me with huge shining eyes as if I were the most wonderful thing in the world, (sadly this doesn’t last) Maybe it wasn’t the best joke in the world, but it made us happy
But that was thirty years ago, and today we were on our way home from FIL’s funeral, so we were all a bit broken up. We’d been driving for an hour when I said
“Did anyone get any fruit gums at the services?” (For my wife to feed me as I drove)
The answer was no, and we drove on in slightly melancholic silence
And then our son, our amazing son, said “I can’t ask you to close your eyes because you are driving. But here-“
And he put his hand through the gap between the seats clutching a slim cylinder
“Here you are, magic fruit gums”
Thirty years he’s been waiting to pull that one! Thirty years and he chose the perfect moment to give us all a lift, sadly it didn’t last, FIL was 88, he was a proud strong man and raised three good kids, and at the end he got three songs and two readings from someone that wouldn’t know him from Adam, it’s not much for a life