A two present day

My friend Jill, who, with her husband runs the Family Kitchen, is one of the true saints of today. I won’t go into the particulars of that – you must just believe me. She has given me two presents lately. The first was a Sparkletts water bottle from the 30’s. This company is still delivering water, but as you can see, their style has become significantly more prosaic. This bottle is a little work of art. It has a lovely lid – a sort of glass stopper such as one finds in cruets. It belonged to one of her ancient aunties who actually had water delivered in it. Jill knew I would like it because I was so pleased to find a glass milk bottle at the Kitchen, and wanted to use it for a vase, which I thought would look well in my funky house. The other present was a box of chocolates, which she sent home from the Family Kitchen with Rachael. (Rachael and her friend Lillian, good girls that they are, volunteer there on Fridays, while Rebecca and I go on Thursdays, but I didn’t go that week because Tom was so ill.) I am sure Rachael initially said the chocolates were for me, but Rachael now tells me they were for Tom, who wasn’t up to them, and therefore they are hers by default.
When Rachael was small, someone, probably my mother, gave her a box of very nice chocolates. Everyone was interested in them, but Rachael passed them around once or twice and then kept them to herself, as would we all. One day, Rebecca and Lillian’s father Bill came home and found the box of chocolates. They peeked inside, and lo! Every chocolate had a bite taken out of it. “Well,” they thought. “Rachael has tried all these chocolates and rejected them. That means we can eat them!” Eminently logical, I would say. So they ate them. Rachael arrived on the scene, went to check on her chocolates, and there was a dreadful shriek!! They had utterly misinterpreted the bites. The bites were there to discourage anyone else from eating chocolates previously tainted by human lips! Rachael didn’t realize that we are not as sensitive and finicky as she is. This morning I took a peek into the disputed box of chocolates and this is what I found!