Richard & The Beautiful Thing

Once upon a it- seems- like- no- time- at- all- to- Granny time ago, when Maya's Mama was a little girl named Julie, and Maya's Uncle Richard was a little boy named Richard, and Maya's Granny was a young woman called Mom, and they hadn't a single wrinkle between them, they all lived together in a number of places, because they moved around a lot. But this story happened when none of them had ever been to Alaska, after they left Berkeley, and before they moved to Redwood City, when they lived in Stockton the first time. And Richard was 4½, and Julie was 2½, and Mom was 26. Yes they were, even if Maya doesn't think they were ever that young, indeed they were.

Now, as it happens, Richard and Julie always went shopping with Mom, just like Maya goes shopping with her Mama today. And, indeed, the story I am telling you started in Safeway, although it was not the same Safeway where Maya and her Mama go. For one thing, it was in Stockton and not Walnut Creek, and for another they never gave away balloons and cookies to the children in those not-so-terribly-long-ago days, which they do now.

Well, one day Mom had taken Julie and Richard to Safeway with her, and she had Julie in the cart, because Julie was still pretty young, and Richard was walking along, because Richard was older. Mom was in the produce section, where all of the wonderful fruit and vegetables are, and she was trying to decide if she should buy some asparagus, or if maybe one of Aunt Flo's friends would be giving her (Aunt Flo, that is) some (which, of course, she always shared) this week. If Aunt Flo's friend was giving her asparagus, then it would be a waste for Mom to buy it also, but if he didn't, then Julie and Richard and Mom would do without, and so Mom had to think about this carefully. While she was discussing this with Julie, Richard pulled on her skirt (in those days Mom wore skirts all the time, because those were the olden days, even if they weren't all that long ago).

Mom looked down, and Richard pointed to a magnificent, deep purple eggplant, and said "Mom, please buy me this beautiful thing". The expression on his face was rapt, and his voice was amazed. Now, Mom always wanted her children to eat their vegetables (which they always did, because they loved them so), and she remembered that when she had been a little girl called Joy Baby her Grandmother Herndon used to send her out to Grandfather Herndon's garden with a little basket to choose her own vegetables for dinner, and those vegetables always tasted the very best. So, Mom had Richard help her choose just which eggplant he wanted, and she put it in her cart, and when they got to the check-out stand she paid for it and then they took it home.

Well, let me tell you, Mom was excited that Richard had chosen a new vegetable for dinner! And Richard was excited that Mom had bought him his beautiful thing. The only trouble at all was that Mom had never cooked eggplant. But that wasn't a very big trouble, because Mom's Grandmother Herndon had often cooked it. So, Mom called her Grandmother and her Grandmother (who was Richard and Julie's great-grandmother) told her exactly how to cook the eggplant. So, Mom sliced the eggplant, and dipped it in milk, and rolled it in cracker crumbs, and fried it in the pan and served it with dinner. Oh, how lovely! And Richard and Julie sat down at the table, and Richard took one bite of the eggplant, and Mom was waiting for him to say how good it was, and he said, "I hate this stuff!"

How disappointing! After liking how it looked, and buying it, and Mom cooking it, it turned out that eggplant was one vegetable that Richard didn't like! Well, so it goes. So, Mom and Julie ate the eggplant between them, and Richard (having tried it, after all) had a sliced tomato, and that was that.

Until the next time they went to Safeway! There they were, Julie in the cart, Richard walking along, Mom choosing some ripe ears of corn, and Richard came up to Mom and pulled on her skirt (it's a wonder it stayed on, the way those children pulled on it to get Mom's attention, because Julie did it, too, you know --— just not when she was in the cart) and pointed to the eggplants, and said "Mom, please buy me that beautiful thing!" Now, Mom already knew that Richard didn't like eggplant, even if he didn't remember, so she said, "Remember the last time we bought an eggplant? Remember that you didn't like the way it tastes?" But that didn't matter, Richard still said, "Please." So, Mom thought, well we can give it one more try, and so she bought it. And took it home.

This time, when Mom cooked the eggplant, she had Richard stand right beside her and watch, so that he would know that the vegetable on the table was the eggplant he had wanted. She let him dip the slices in the milk and roll them in the cracker crumbs. She let him watch her fry it in the pan. And when she put it on his plate and he took a bite, he said, "I hate this stuff!"

Well, if he did, he did, and that didn't surprise Mom, because it was still the same stuff, and the taste wouldn't have changed. Mom figured that now he knew that the beautiful thing he saw in the store was that stuff he hated on the plate, and that would be that. How wrong could she be?

The very next time they went to the store, there they were in the produce department, Julie in the cart, Richard walking around, Mom choosing a nice bunch of broccoli for dinner, and Richard pulled on her skirt, and pointed to the eggplant, and said (oh, yes, indeed, he did), "Please, Mom, buy me this beautiful thing." And Mom finally understood! Richard didn't want to eat that stuff. He wanted to have the beautiful thing. So, this time when Mom bought the eggplant and took it home, she didn't slice it and dip it and roll it and fry it. No, indeed not. This time she found a lovely basket to put it in, and she found a soft cloth to put with it, and she put it on the toy shelf in Richard and Julie's room. And Richard polished it with the cloth every day for as long as it lasted. It shone with the loving care he gave it, and indeed it was a beautiful thing.

And yesterday Maya's Mama posted a recipe for eggplant on her blog and reminded Maya's Granny of this story.