Monday, February 16, 2009

Addition, Subtraction, and Reese's Cups

Dominique, my downstairs housemate (who is British), really loves Reese's Cups. And me...well, I do too. However, Reese's aren't really a French thing. You can get them in some American-type stores in Paris, but you have to pay 2 euros for 3 of them, so it's really not at all reasonable. So, we just wait, and occasionally, someone travels to the US and brings back Reese's for us.
When I came to France, I brought exactly 3 Reese's Cups with me. They'd been a gift from the OM USA reps who came with us to Mosbach, Germany. About the same time, an OM France worker went home to the US and returned to France with two cases of Reese's Cups. She gave one to Dominique and one to my friend, Stephan. I didn't know any of this, however, so when I got to France, I told Dominique that I had 3 Reese's Cups and that we could share them. Stephan didn't realize Dominique had already gotten Reese's, so when we were at church my first Sunday here, Stephan gave Dominique one pack of 2 Reese's. So, with that addition, Dominique ended up with about 12 Reese's--something ridiculous like that--and was waiting for me to share mine with her.
I was talking to Stephan later, who asked me if Dominique had shared her Reese's with me. I said, "No, but you only gave her two." He said, "No, I gave her two MORE. I'd already give her 2 packs of 2 earlier that weekend." Well, after I found out how many Reese's Dominique had, I decided that I was going to keep my 3.
After I'd eaten 2 of them, Dominique came up to me, and she said, "You told me you were going to share your Reese's with me."
We'd just been talking about David's sin with Bathsheba in our literacy classes with the women in Paris. So, I said to Dominique, "Let me tell you a story." She looked confused, but I continued, "Once there was a very rich man who had a whole lot of cattle. He had a million sheep, and didn't need anything. Near him, there lived a very poor man who only had one sheep. The poor man's family loved that little sheep--he ate at their table. But one day, someone passed through to visit the rich man, and the rich man wanted to have lamb for dinner, so he took the one and only sheep of the poor man, and he slaughtered it."
Dominique looked at me with these huge eyes, and said, "Who told you?!"

But today--weeks after the "rich man/poor man" story happened--I came home and saw this big box sitting outside my door. I picked it up and saw it was addressed to me and not to my roommate (*sigh of relief*). I opened it up, and guess what? I am now the proud new owner of 6 heart shaped, special Valentine's edition Reese's Cups.
Now the question is--will the poor man share with the rich man? Right now, the Reese's are hidden at the bottom of my closet, so I can't tell you the answer yet.

1 comment:

Leanne said...

Amazing! I love it! You are too funny! Enjoy those reese's...they are mm mm good!