Random reminder

Press, 30 June 1982, Page 28

Random reminder

TAKING THE CAKE Her sons are at the hungry stage and they can eat unbelievably huge helpings of cake without any ill-effects. She is not at all fond of baking, which to her mind is an unnecessary chore. On a recent week-end, out of sheer sense of duty, on a rainy, stormy day she set to and baked her fruit cake which her sons found always irresistible. She had planned to visit her old parents in the afterno'on for a short while. She got her car out of the garage, but remembered just in time: the fruit cake. She was not concerned about her boys being alone in the house — they were reliable and would not come to any harm — but her cake! It might disappear without any trace during her absence. So she hurried back into the house,

fetched the cake, carefully put it in the back seat and drove off. Her parents, very glad to see her. gave her a sack of nuts from their tree. Happily she carried it out to her car parked on the drive by the back door. Then and there a fearful, agonised scream pierced the air. Her father dashed outside as fast as his old legs would carry him. Had she slammed the car door on her fingers? Her mother came running outside as if on the last lap of an Olympic Marathon race. Was there a murderer? Their daughter enlightened them with a face distorted by rage. The neighbours’ black cat, a frequent welcome visitor to the old couple, was sitting on the back seat of the car wolfing the fruit cake.