Devil on my Shoulder, Easter Egg in my Tummy

They really do exist.  Really.  Believe it.

All those cartoon shows that had the little devil pop up on the characters shoulder, holding a pitchfork and telling the "hero" not to be a hero and indulge, in fact do the wrong thing, which will be much more pleasant than doing the right thing.  For some reason it is usually a wolf as the bad devil.  But that is beside the point.

The point is, he does exist. I saw him just a week ago from this writing on Easter Sunday.   He really did pop up on my shoulder.  Here is what happened.

We were out at my Mother in Laws little cottage, luckily sans Mother in law, for the Easter weekend, just the Sunday and Monday.  Easter is on Monday here.  Sunday night I was sleeping by myself in a little room.  Everyone else was asleep.  I don't think this has ANYTHING to do with anything, but I had just finished watching one of the all time best movies ever made,  "The Big Lebovski" for the 4th or 5th time in my life.  Nope nothing to do with anything.  Except that I had my late night hankering for some snack.  Preferably Chocolate or potato chips.

I really don't know why my body metabolism is so lopsided, but it is.  I am never hungry in the morning and cant stop eating in the night.  I just like to eat when the day is done and you can relax and, well, eat in peace.  And a dessert is the most necessary part of that eating.  I mean I do have a sweet tooth, but it comes out the most in the late evening after a meal.  I need a dessert. It is like closure to the day.

So what is staring me in the face in my bedroom as a logical conclusion to the days end?  Of course my youngest daughters bag of chocolate Easter eggs wrapped in different colors of tin foil.

Pop!  That little miniature devil dressed up as a wolf with a pitchfork appeared on my shoulder.  Was it my left or right shoulder?  I think it was my left shoulder.

"Eat the chocolate dude.  Just one chocolate.  So what.  She has a whole bag of them.  So what if she misses one.  It is just exactly what you need right now for the end of the day.  Eat one chocolate egg dude.  Mmmm, chocolate.  Just one egg."

It was so wrong.  It was the wrong thing to do.  I knew that.  Way wrong.  Where was the good angel?  I guess my conscience was there and that was good enough to tell me that it was the bad choice and show some restraint. Parents always have to show restraint and patience.  C`mon show your strength and DON'T eat the chocolate and do the right thing!  These small incidents really mean a lot to little kids.  Missing one chocolate egg  DOES make a difference.  They notice it, it hurts them.

I just ask myself even now, maybe even next year, or years in the future, for crying out loud why did I have to pick the most obvious chocolate that she would notice was gone?  Stupid.  I had to have done it on purpose, like I wanted to be found out.  I took the only egg wrapped in green tin foil.  There were so many other eggs wrapped in yellow tin foil, she might not have noticed if I had taken one of those.  But I didn't.  I did the dumb ass, devil thing and took the only chocolate egg wrapped in green tin foil.

I took it out of the bag.  Unwrapped it.  Put the green tin foil wrapper in my pants pocket and ate the whole thing down.    Yes, I have to say, in a matter of fact, intellectual tone that I can hear my Father speaking in,  it was a good egg.


6 o clock in the morning my youngest daughter comes into my room.  Why she came at this time, I have no idea.  But she did.  Could the missing egg have been calling her, like a ghost calls the living from the grave? She noticed the bag of chocolate eggs on the book case and she noticed... the missing green egg.

"Where is the green egg, Daddy?"

"I hid that one.  You will have to find it".

"Did you eat it?"

"No no.  I hid it for Easter. That one.  You have to find it".

And she ran off and woke up her Mother and promptly went into a monologue on how the green egg was missing and how Daddy said it was hidden, but where was it?  Phew.  I got out of that one.

But I didn't.  All morning she asked me where was the green egg.  She couldn't find it.  Where was it?

The devil popped up on my shoulder again - why didn't anyone see him? - and I went to the kitchen and came back to the living room and gave my youngest daughter the chocolate egg wrapped in green tin foil as if I had taken it from its hiding place.  She opened it up and ate it and it was gone.  End of problem.  Um,  No.


Long about 5 in the afternoon, my older daughter came running into the living room where again we had gathered.

"My only chocolate egg in green is missing.  Has anyone seen it?"

If ever there was a case of two wrongs DO NOT make a right, this was it.
Shame, shame on you bad Daddy.