The Hero @ Dinner

My mother used to play a game with me at the dinner table when I was small.

I guess it was out of boredom (or maybe so she wouldn’t kill me because I was such a picky eater!)

Anyway, it went like this:

She would take a paper napkin, scrunch it up in the middle to make it look like a bow (or mustache) put it to her upper lip and in a gruff voice say, “You MUST pay the rent!”

Then she would switch the napkin to her head, as if it was a bow in her hair, and in a high squeaky voice say, “But I can’t pay the rent!”

She went on this way, back and forth between the two characters,

“You MUST pay the rent!”

“But I can’t pay the rent!”

“You MUST pay the rent!”

“But I can’t pay the rent!”  as I would squeal with laughter.

She reached the climax of the game when she put the napkin to her throat, as if it were a bow tie, and in a heroic voice said, “I’LL pay the rent!”

Then the napkin went back to her hair and she would sigh and say, “My hero!”

Sometimes, if I was lucky, she’d throw in one last line as the villain, with the napkin to her lip she’d cry out, “Foiled again!”

It still makes me laugh!