Speaking into a cup is a defeatist purpose, Tom said. It is like scraping the last bit of milk out of a bowl after you have finished your cereal. Better just to pour it into your glass, even with the leftover pulp from the orange juice, and drink it that way.
That is where you’re wrong, Jack said. You just give up and throw it out.
That’s not a good idea, Tom said, unless you double-bag your garbage.
Who double-bags garbage, Jack asked.
You are both crazy, Heidi said. Everyone knows that you just drink the leftover milk from the bowl.
Like animals, Tom said. I suppose soon you won’t even set the table with spoons and forks, but have us bury our faces in our bowls. Well, even then there will be a little milk left over, because you are such a messy drinker that you won’t be able to get it all. And then what will you do.
I am not a messy drinker. She was adamant about that point. And you’re changing the subject.
Emerson had said nothing throughout dinner. Now he roused himself. The subject is not what you do with the leftover milk, he said. The point is that you were talking about speaking into a cup. Who on Earth would do such a thing.
They all stared.
Sometimes I don’t know what to do with you, Emerson, said Tom. You say the oddest things.
