A PURE, LINGERING TASTE

By Dan Miller
February 9, 2007

The taste of homemade divinity is hard for me to resist.

When I arrived home Tuesday night around 11 o'clock, following our late newscast, it's the first thing I spotted.
There it sat -- on the kitchen island -- in a spot where my wife and daughter occasionally leave candy or cookies, or some other goodie they might have cooked up.

They'd not mentioned that they would be fixing candy.... but I guessed that perhaps they left it there as a little surprise.
So.... I popped a piece in my mouth.
One quick chew and I realized it wasn't divinity...... it was soap!

I hurried upstairs.... with the unbitten portion of soap in my hand, minus the part that was still stuck in my teeth.

Karen looked surprised that I was climbing the stairs so fast.
"I think I just ate some soap in the kitchen!"
"Oh yes," she calmly related, "McKensie was carving soap today at the children's crafts workshop at Cheekwood, and that's what's left over."

"Why did you eat it?"
"I thought it was divinity.... it tastes terrible"
She nonchalantly responded, "It's Ivory, it won't hurt you."
Then she left the room.
Maybe it's just my imagination, but I thought I heard a snicker of laughter from down the hall.

I couldn't help but wonder if this 'divinity-looking soap' had been planted there in the kitchen on purpose, as a cruel experiment in human behavior.

The next morning as McKensie was eating her breakfast, I told her how I had inadvertently eaten the Ivory soap.
"Wow... well, you won't say anything bad, " she laughed, "since your mouth has been washed out with soap."
It struck me.... how quickly she came up with that little quip.
Had it been rehearsed?

She wanted to know how it tasted.
I told her it was really disgusting, and that I could still taste it.
McKensie just smiled and watched me.

Did she know something?
Maybe not.
Maybe she was just hoping I'd blow a bubble.

__________________________________________