french toast.

I roughly remember my parents together before they got a divorce. I remember the nakedness. It wasn't like living in a family of nudists... I think they did it as a form of "the exposure effect" form of education for their offspring. We talked about sex, and used proper names for genitalia ever since I can remember.

I don't remember my father being around much before the divorce, he always traveled so much. But I know he was there... because by the time I was three, my portraits of people were all anatomically correct.

I remember the morning my parents decided to tell my brother, sister, and me that they were getting divorced. Or I have been told so many times, I have created my own memory of the event in my mind. In my mind, we weren't all dressed yet... my father was in his underwear, and my mom was wearing an oversized T-shirt without pants. My parents sat down on the hideous floral printed couch in the family room, and told us the news. Everybody started crying. Everybody except me. I was three, and hadn't been fed yet. It was the weekend which meant somebody might make a real breakfast so that I didn't have to eat cereal like every other morning. I asked my father if he would make me french toast... (my favorite) and he said he would. But now everyone was crying and didn't seem to care about breakfast anymore. I persisted that somebody should make french toast, but nobody seemed to care. It was so frustrating. Nobody would listen to me, and nobody seemed to care that their three year old was dying of starvation rolling around the floor with anxiety and impatience in front of them. DYING RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM. Then I decided to try an approach my mother used all of the time when threatening me with imaginary consequences if I didn't do as she said... I decided to count to three. I stated loudly to nobody in particular, " By the time I count to three, somebody better be making me french toast! 1..............2..............3!" I counted to three countless times to no avail. They all just stayed where they were, as if they couldn't even hear me.