A Breakfast Proposal

The table is set with shaky hands. There are the scrambled eggs, the cups of hot chocolate with the melted cheese blobs already resting on the bottom, the sweet rolls, the smells-like-feet papaya, the banana, the instant coffee with the too much sugar. This is a fight! papa cries, clattering the silverware. Never ever go to sleep angry, mama says, ever. What a terrible relief! brother says, may god, precious little god, be with you in every moment. And sister just smiles, pulling tight her pearl necklace of purple stitches, smiles until little red beads form between the purple pearls.