Battling Wits

I laugh. Hub is always battling wits with the little twins from next door that love to come to walk the dogs with us. After our walks they usually stop in for a visit and some juice. Yesterday I had fresh cookies so they had cookies as well.

Now Girl-twin doesn’t eat raisins, never has. So, although she asked if the cookies had raisins in, Hub didn’t think they did, so he said “No, just chocolate chips.”

So twin-girl took two cookies and immediately said “Ewww. These cookies have raisins in them."

Of course she badgered Hub for telling her there were no raisins in those cookies. But in the end she ate them while slowly and cautiously extracting every raisin. Two cookies and out of those two cookies, an unbelievable 15 raisins. Now there she sat across from Hub with a messy pile of cookie crumbs and 15 raisins on the table.

And that’s when the sparring of wits began. “I’ll give you two dollars if you eat those raisins,” Hub said. Of course, Girl-twin said eating 15 raisins was certainly worth more than two dollars. So then some serious negotiating began. They went from one dollar up to ten dollars and then back again. Finally girl-twin upped the ante by agreeing to eat the 15 raisins in front of her plus another cookie for an agreed on fee of three dollars.

And so then the debate began that in this ‘survival test’ of raisin eating whether she should eat them one at a time, two at time, or three at a time. Hub said it was her choice so she decided to eat them two at a time.

She asked if she could be permitted to swallow without chewing and Hub said she must chew them. So she put two raisins in her mouth, made an awful face, and chewed them gingerly and swallowed them. Hub said that wouldn’t do. That she must smile and look like she really enjoyed them and say “Yum, Yum.” So she grimaced a smile and said “Yum, Yum.”

Next two raisins, here comes that face again. “Wait, wait, wait,” Hub yells, “get on your pleasant face. Yum, Yum, Yum.” And again with more too-doo than anyone could imagine, with much grimacing and painful pulling of her face from sad to glad and mutters of “yum, yum,” twin girl continued.

It was a long process with much banter about her doing it the proper way and in the meantime I laughed and laughed. Half-way through twin-girl begged for a drink to wash down the nasty taste, and of course Hub got her one while shaking his finger at her yet again because of the flash of I’m-going-to-be-sick look on her face.

Occasionally she turned her back to Hub and heaved her shoulders as if silently retching and of course he responded by saying, “Oh, we’ll certainly have none of that or the deal is off.”

Eventually through much process, delay, and resetting of her countenance, interspersed with a less-than-convincing "Yum-yum", the raisins and the extra cookie were all down the hatch and Hub handed her the money. She told him it was the hardest bit of cash she ever worked for.

And then, as she pocketed her money, her face lit up like morning sunshine, and she laughed and laughed. “Guess what, Mr. Smith, I’ve always eaten raisins. I’ve always loved raisins. I can eat a whole bag of raisins without even blinking!”

I knew that wasn’t true, that she really does hate raisins. But I didn’t say a word. Hub, on the other hand, believed her. Felt ‘taken’.

I laughed some more. Not sure who won this round.