Amuse bouche... Screen meals

‘Will you please ring Granny?” Colette said to the kids, Rory and Alice.

Both children groaned.

“Do we have to?” 10-year-old Rory asked. “We saw her at the weekend.”

“We should do it every day,” said Colette. “She’s lonely.”

“Did you say ring her?” said Rory. “A voice call? Yeah, we’ll ring her.”

“I mean video,” said Colette. “She never sees anyone.”

“She does,” said Rory. “She saw us on Sunday. As previously mentioned.”

“Rory!” said Colette, weary now of the nitpicking that used to make her imagine, proudly, that her son was destined for a career in the law.

“Ugh,” said Alice. “She’ll make us look at her dinner.”

Colette had meant to make the children video-call her mother-in-law earlier in the day. The days went by at such speed, though, she wasn’t sure how, and Colette had forgotten.

The video calls had been amusing way back when all this started. Granny had clearly been aware of the fact that young people liked to show off their picture-perfect meals, and when they all started video-calling each other and it was still a novelty, she started showing off her “meals of the day”, as she called them.

Granny might have had a notion that the meals would catch on beyond the immediate family, and might have been disappointed in this regard. In fact, Granny might have been a bit disappointed that they didn’t catch on much within the immediate family, either.

It wasn’t personal. Rory and Alice loved Granny.

Rory and Alice also loved Granny’s lasagne and her shepherd’s pie and her ‘chicken in the pot’, the new potatoes soft in the cooking juices that were rich with garlic and lardons.

They loved her sponges and buns and crumbles.

At the beginning, the kids had laughed with Granny as she’d set the table properly, just for herself, and tucked into her grub as they watched.

Now, they were groaning at the mere suggestion that they invite her to join a meeting, and the thought of there being food involved seemed to turn their stomachs.

Alice came over to Colette and slipped close for a hug.

“I want to see Granny, but I don’t want to see her on a screen,” said Alice. “Will you tell her that?”

“I can’t,” said Colette. “That would make her sad.”

“But it makes me sad to see her when I can’t see her,” said Alice. “And her dinners make me sad, too. I’d like to eat them. With Granny.”

“I know,” said Colette, “but for now we can only call. So will you call?”

“OK,” said Alice, “but if it’s anything to do with cabbage, I’m out of there.”