He spilled his hot creamy tea practically on his mom's pristine white uniform. The mom was careful enough not to have applied the brakes too suddenly as a result. "What is this nonsense? Is the tea too hot?" asked the bewildered nurse.
By 7:00am breakfast is usually ready at the home of the Johnson's. It is often a light meal of bread, two slices at most with margarine, and a cup of hot tea. Mr Johnson will always prefer two Lipton tea bags in his tea cup, with natural honey to taste. The only baby of the house, Bolu, however enjoyed a lot of milk and sugar in his tea and his mom indulged his excess sugar intake. On this particular day breakfast was rather too late because the house help was sick. She merely managed to fix breakfast. So Bolu had to take his breakfast with him to school. Rather impatient, hungry Bolu breakfasted in the car en route to his school.
"No, ma!"
"Then, why did you spill your tea?"
"Mom, the taste of the tea is awful!" he grimaced.
"Awful?"
"Yes, ma."
"Is that why you had to spill hot tea on my body?" The mom chided.
"I'm sorry mom," he said apologetically.
"Let me have a taste."
The mom tasted the tea and felt something was wrong with the taste. It had never been the case before. Bolu had always enjoyed tea. If he complained about tea, something must definitely be wrong. He was a tea connoisseur. The mom had a second taste, this time carefully, but still couldn't figure out why the tea had a bland taste. Bolu suspected the milk was sour but his mom felt that it was the tea that had expired. It was neither of the two. What mother and child did not know was that the house help had mistakenly added salt to the tea, instead of sugar. The sick innocent house help didn't even suspect she added salt to Bolu's tea when she was questioned later in the evening.
I have always wondered why sugar cannot serve the purpose that salt serves in meals. Of course, I also tried imagining what sugar will taste like if added to egbusi soup! What we usually fail to acknowledge is that when two or more things are different, none is better than the other. Rather, they complement each other. It is called the Law of Difference!
I explored the thematic inevitability of celebrating the distinction and uniqueness of persons and things in and around us in my new title, Tales & Essays. It is set for release by the end of May this year.
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