Near Death by Chocolate

Suzi lay quietly in the bed that had been given for her use. The darkness of the night was like a warm blanket on her soul. Unlike many small children who are afraid of the dark, Suzi loved night time. She missed Mama terribly, and at night, she could think about mama without interruption. Maybe she loved night time because when mama was still around, she would come home from work and they would make dinner together and then do the dishes together and then they would sit together on the porch swing and watch the night.

A small tear pooled and glistened in her eye, but didn’t fall, as she thought about those moments. She could hear Dan and Kit arguing about something in the other room. It didn’t seem like that bad of an argument this time. Dan and Kit were friends of Mama. Somehow it didn’t seem possible. Mama was kind and smiled a lot. Kit just seemed upset at something all the time. Suzi remembered the day Mama told her that she was going away.

“Suzi, I have to go away for awhile”.

“Why?” asked Suzi

“I just do. It’s important, or I wouldn’t do it. You’ll get to stay with some friends of mine. They have a couple of boys a little older than you so you’ll have someone to play with.”

“I don’t want you to go,” Suzi said.

“I know. Me either. But I’ll be back. I promise.

It had never occurred to Suzi to ask where Mama was going.

That was two months ago. And those boys were not fun. Davy and Jem weren’t interested in playing with her. If they weren’t playing video games, they were fighting and tussling with each other. For the most part, they left her alone.

She missed her big back yard with the giant willow tree right in the middle. The long feathery branches sweeping down nearly touching the ground. It was like walking through a curtain to a private world inside the perimeter of the tree. Mostly she missed Mama. It never bothered her when Mama wasn’t home when she got home from the first grade, because she knew that Mama was just at work and would be home soon. She never had to wait more than an hour to hear the car drive into the driveway. In the meantime, she would play with her doll or read a book or play under her willow tree if the weather was fine.

But here, with Dan and Kit and Davy and Jem, it was loud and crowded and she never knew where she should be. There was no tree in the small back yard and although she brought home many more books from the school library then usual, she still had a lot of time on her hands. This family didn’t treat her badly, they just made it clear that she was an inconvenience.

She sighed, clutched her doll more tightly, rolled over in her bed and finally fell asleep.

Suzi awoke but didn’t move until she could remember what day it was. Her heart sank a little when she remembered that it was Saturday. No school today. She loved school for two reasons: it got her out of this crazy house for most of the day, and she actually really liked learning.

“Suzi! Breakfast is ready! Come on down!” Kit’s voice cut through her thoughts like a biting wind. Sighing, she rolled out of bed, put some clothes on and trudged downstairs leaving her wavy blond hair un-brushed. Davy and Jem came tumbling down, pushing, grabbing and pulling at each other trying to be first to the table.

“Knock it off, boys,” hollered Kit.

“I won!” said Davy.

“Did not!” said Jem.

“Did too!”

“Not”

“Boys!” shouted Dan as he walked into the kitchen. “You both won, so shut up!”

Suzi sat quietly, waiting for Kit to bring the big plate of pancakes over to the table.

“Happy birthday babe, “ said Kit as she place a towering stack of pancakes on the table mostly in front of Dan. She slapped at Davy’s hand as he tried to snag the top two pancakes.

“Birthday boy gets first grab,” said Kit.

“That’s right boys,” said Dan with a smile, “it’s my birthday so I expect first class treatment today!”

“When’s your party Dad?” asked Jem

“I don’t know,” said Dan looking at Kit. “When’s my party?”

“People should start showing up around 6:00. There will be lot’s of Costco finger food, drinks AND I’m making your favorite chocolate cake.”

Suzi perked up at that. Chocolate cake. She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten a chocolate cake. In fact, she couldn’t remember if she had ever eaten one at all.

“Do we get to be there too?” asked Davy.

“Only if you behave,” said Kit. “No running, fighting, yelling or any other sort of interrupting behavior. You can stay if you are quiet and stay out of the way”

Suzi rolled her eyes to herself. That wasn’t going to happen. She was glad she had brought home a new book from school yesterday because she knew she would be spending most of her day today in her room. Kit would be cleaning the house and bustling about getting ready for the party tonight and Suzi didn’t want to be in the way. She did want to see this chocolate cake made, however.

“Kit,” she said quietly. “Can I watch you make the cake?”

Kit paused for a moment and looked at Suzi. “Alright Suzi, you can watch. But don’t touch anything.”

Suzi nodded.

“I’ll be starting on it right after breakfast.”

Suzi nodded again.

When the breakfast dishes were done, Suzi planted herself right by the Kitchen Aid mixing bowl as Kit pulled out the ingredients from her cupboards. She brought out 3 round pans from a lower cupboard and said, “Actually Suzi, I could use your help with one thing.”

“Okay,” said Suzi eagerly.

“I need you to grease these pans.”

Kit gave her a stick of butter and showed her how to rub it all around the inside of the pan. “Make sure you get the cracks and sides all the way up”.

Suzi paid close attention to her job, but by the time she was done, Kit had already mixed all the ingredients into a rich brown batter, so she didn’t get to see what went into it. Suzi watched as Kit poured the creamy mixture into each of the 3 pans and then put them into her oven.

“Can I lick the bowl?” asked Suzi.

“No,” said Kit sharply. “Absolutely not. Now the cakes have to cook, so go play for awhile.” Suzi reluctantly left the kitchen and went up to her room to read.

Sometime later, she woke up disoriented. What day was it again? Oh yes, Saturday. Dan’s birthday party. She must have fallen asleep reading. She got up and hurried downstairs to see how the cakes were doing. The kitchen clock said 4:05. How had she slept so long in the middle of the day? Kit was in the kitchen stacking the second cake round on.

“Can I help?” asked Suzi.

“No honey, I’m in a bit of a hurry now. Guests will be here in less than two hours and I still have to fold laundry and clean the guest bathroom.”

Suzi watched as Kit slathered chocolate frosting on top of the second cake round and then carefully placed the third round on top of that. Then she frosted the top and did something fancy on the sides. From Suzi’s point of view it looked like a fat chocolate tower. She was dying to taste it. When Kit had finished, she put it aside on the counter ready for the evening to come.

By the time the guests started coming, the laundry was folded, bathroom cleaned and living room floor vacuumed. Suzi had helped with the laundry. Suzie sat on the floor in a corner watching as people came, got themselves a plate of food and a drink and talked and talked. The boys were running in and out with some cousins that had arrived. Kit finally banned them to the yard outside. The adults eventually started playing charades and got more and more loud and happy seeming.

At last the moment Suzi was waiting for came. Kit proudly brought in the cake with one tall big fat candle on it while everyone sang Happy Birthday. Dan blew out the candle and Kit handed him a knife. He sliced out a piece for everyone. There was one left when Suzi went up with a plate for a piece of cake.

“Not you Suzi,” said Kit. “Here, I have a special treat for you.” Kit handed her a large sugar cookie with thick pink frosting. Suzi took it and ran up the stairs so no one would see the alligator tear threatening to slide down her cheek. It wasn’t fair. Why couldn’t she have a slice of cake? It wasn’t like there wasn’t enough. Everyone else had one and there was one piece left. Where was Mama? She just wanted to go home.

After a while, she could hear that people were starting to leave. She wanted to go at least look at that piece of chocolate cake again-if it was still there, so she quietly went back down stairs. No one saw her slip into the kitchen. There it was sitting alone on a plate on the work table. She pulled a fork out of a drawer and climbed up on a chair that was by the table. She looked around to make sure no one was coming and then plunged her fork into the soft cake and quickly jammed it into her mouth. The explosion of flavor was almost overwhelming. It was sooooo good. She took a second bite, making sure she got lots of frosting with this bite. So smooth and creamy and yummy…..and then a feeling of hotness rolled over her body. Her lips began to feel big and her tummy hurt really bad. She put her hand on her tummy and rolled down to the floor just as Kit came into the kitchen.

“Good grief, what have you done?” She ran over to Suzi. “Suzi, are you alright?”

Suzi was wheezing holding one hand on her throat and one hand on her tummy.

“Dan! Where is that epi?” Kit screamed. Dan ran into the kitchen, took one look at Kit and Suzi on the floor and one look at the partially eaten piece of cake and ran back out of the kitchen. In a few seconds he was back with the Epipen. He thrust it into Suzi’s outer thigh.

“Call 911,” he said. “and tell them we are bringing her into the emergency room right now. I’ll go get the car. We can call Sharon on the way. Depression rehab is going to have to be over.”

Suzi wasn’t aware of anything that happened after that. She woke up in a strange bed, a strange room with strange smells.

“Suzi? Are you awake?” Said a voice in the darkness.

“Mama? Is that you?”

“Yes, honey, I’m here.”

Suzi sat up and wrapped her little arms around Mama’s neck.

“I missed you so much!” Suzi sobbed.

“I missed you too, honey”

After a moment, Suzi said “What happened to me?”

“You ate some chocolate cake, that’s what happened. I suppose I should have told you that you are very allergic to chocolate.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that you will get very sick if you ever eat chocolate.”

“Ever?”

“Ever.”

“Oh no. It is so good!” Suzie sighed with the memory.

“Yes it is. But not for you. Are you feeling better?” Mama asked

“Yes. Can we go home now? Are you back for good?”

“Yes I am. I’m back for good.”