| These very short essays or stories have been called "memorable meditations," a "pleasure…delight, and sometimes a joyful kick in the heart." Sally says this about them:
In Spain they're called tapas, in Greece mezes, or mezethes. The West Coast names them small plates. They are small helpings of interesting foods. You pick and choose from a varied menu, eat only one if you're not hungry, or try several. These small plates are not appetizers, but are complete in themselves.
I call my short pieces miniatures and they, too, can be sampled separately or grouped. Here's the title piece from my latest book.
Tea pie, or Word Recognition Disorder
Mom?
It was Charlie, four, inheritor of long, dark lashes and a way with women.
Mom? Can I have some tea pie?
Earnest, hopeful, blinking the lashes.
Tea pie? What is that?
His tone changed from supplication to firmness. A little louder, as if she hadn’t heard, emphasis on each word—tea pie.
His mother squatted to his level, looked into the pleading brown eyes, then understood.
She’d made coffeecake that morning.
October 2005
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