Chocolate Truffles for the Human Spirit #1

This short story was published as part of Tellables' May 2019 Box of Chocolates stories centered on Mother's Day recogniton. Box of Chocolates is an Alexa skill you can install to sample monthly short stories narrated by digital, story-telling chocolatiers . If you have an Alexa device, I recommend you give the Box of Chocolates skill a try.

And if you like the idea of writing delicious, super-short stories (100-400 words) by all means check out the Tellables website for story submission guidelines.

The Orange Praline Surprise

The day I remember most fondly about my mom was back in the seventies, long before I pursued a career in chocolates. At the time I must have been ten years old and mom was organizing breakfast for me and my younger brother and sister. I was a devoted student who became anxious anytime I received a B, still I always seemed to be running behind in getting myself out the door to school. The bus stop was only five hundred feet away from the house, but I always seemed to be running to catch it.

Weekday mornings were cereal breakfasts. This morning was typical and raisin bran, cheerios and cocoa pebbles were on the menu. I preferred a mix of all three. Mom was in charge of pouring the milk to ensure we weren’t dawdling. I had my face buried in a puzzle on the back of the cocoa pebbles, so it was quite the surprise when orange juice plunged into my bowl disrupting the perfect mix of sugar-infused, processed grain.

I protested quite animatedly that my mom had visited injustice on my cereal bowl. My brother and sister laughed hysterically. Mom only smirked. In all honesty I don’t recall if I ate the bowl as is or created a new one from scratch. What I do know is for years I poked fun at my mom for making the mix-up, and she consistently groans sarcastically about how ill treated we kids were. It only occurred to me today that maybe the mix-up was intentional, a morning message to her eldest, most serious son to lighten up.

Here’s to hoping I did!