Book of Bulmash, chapter 103
- The mother peered into her coffee cup, trying to name the peculiar experience in which she found herself.
- Had her soul left her body without her notice? Had she awoken to life in another universe?
- Was the Apocalypse truly upon the family?
- For the nine year-old had arisen from his bed with very little resistance that dawn.
- The child recounted to his mother that he had resisted the temptation to sneak downstairs to the kitchen at midnight;
- He had consumed a snack, but not one forbidden to him at that hour;
- And further, the child announced, "I refrained from eating my snack upstairs in my bed --- nay, I ate at the kitchen table as I should.
- "And then I cleaned up after my snack and returned to my bed to sleep."
- The mother's eyes scanned the kitchen, but found no evidence to disprove the child's tale.
- With some effort, she closed her slack jaw.
- Meanwhile, the boy proceeded to consume his breakfast and morning dietary supplementation.
- Then a great and nearly-incomprehensible revelation dawned in the mother's mind:
- The child was Following Directions... without being goaded into this behavior by maternal rage and frustration.
- The family was witnessing a morning ritual that would nourish all, body and soul.
- The mother made sure to thank her son with genuine gratitude, bestowing a kiss to the forehead.
- Then she returned to her caffeine and thanked the Almighty for what was surely a hallucination that would vanish with the rising sun.