✏️📚 The Big Little Bus

Day 2, 11:40. Disobedience

I didn't even see the spoon coming; Rob moved too quickly for me to follow. I closed my mouth automatically when I felt the warm pressure on my tongue, and then there was no way I could have resisted swallowing.

It wasn't quite porridge. It was more like some kind of rice pudding, thick and soft. It tasted like chicken, though there were no pieces of meat in it, and slightly nutty. Any other time I would have said it was delicious, and I'm sure I would have asked for seconds. But I'd decided I was going to have the same stew as Daddy, and I wouldn't betray my decision by eating what I was given. I wasn't a little kid now, I was grown up enough to know that was a pretty dumb line of thinking, but I wanted that stew with its enticing smells. So when the spoon appeared in front of me again, I kept my mouth firmly closed.

"Open up, sweetie," Daddy prompted. I answered with a shake of my head, and a determined "Uh-uh," lips firmly pressed together.

"What's wrong?" he asked, and the spoon vanished to the side of my vision. "Is there something wrong? Do you not like..."

As soon as he paused I turned to look up at Rob's face, and it seemed he was helping himself to some of the porridge from my bowl. He had a thoughtful look on his face as he returned his fork to the tray, and he started into space for a long heartbeat before he carried on speaking: "Some kind of turkey congee, I think?"

"What's a conjee?" I asked, trying to remember if I'd ever come across the term before. I immediately discovered that even when he was trying to identify what he was eating, Daddy still gave me his full attention. The spoon was back in my mouth, carrying another load of poultry-flavoured mushy rice. I closed my mouth and bit down on the spoon this time, to hold it still while I thought about how I was going to get some of the stew. It smelled so good, I knew I had to have some. Even if Daddy wanted me to have baby food, and even if the baby food was surprisingly tasty, I'd got my heart set on having the same lunch as Daddy now.

"You don't like it?" he asked, and I shook my head just a little, still trying to hold on to the spoon.

"What'sha..." I started, trying to speak without opening my mouth, but I was as helpless as a real toddler. Daddy was stronger, and he easily pulled the spoon out as soon as I started talking, leaving me with a mouth full of rice. He was probably right, I could tell. This tasted like turkey more than chicken, but I really wouldn't have been sure if he hadn't said it first.

"Congee?" Daddy asked, "It's a kind of Chinese gruel, made with rice boiled in broth until it soaks up all the water. It's delicious, keeps all the flavour that the soup had to start with, and it's perfect for giving little babies like you a balanced diet, even when you're too young to chew properly. You don't need teeth, you see, because it's all mushy. But you've got all the flavour of a roast dinner, with chicken and veggies, and all the carbohydrates, protein and vitamins from the veggies as well."

I nodded slowly as he said it, and then opened my mouth to protest that I was old enough to eat proper food. Of course, that was just the opening he needed to put the spoon back in my mouth. We repeated the same pattern several times, ande Daddy never missed his chance. Every time I spoke, I'd be cut off by a spoon in my mouth. And every single time, he seemed to know what I was saying even without me finishing the sentence. That was the really amazing part. There was nothing I could do to stop him, but he wasn't ignoring what I was saying either.

I tried keeping quiet, folding my arms and just shaking my head to his questions. But he was so charming, he always managed to come up with questions that I felt I needed to answer, or say something interesting enough that I was responding before I even realised.

The red-orange spiral in the middle of the bowl turned out to be a slightly vinegary redcurrant and cranberry jelly. I wouldn't have known that, I just knew it tasted like berries, and it was sweet and bitter at the same time. But Daddy sampled a little bit by dipping his finger in the empty pot, and he said he was confident in recognising the taste.