Gullible

I took the kids and their friend to a pizza place today — the first buffet we’ve visited in a very long time. In fact last time, it seems Mary was too short to even read the signs, so this was a new experience for us.

Today she ate a salad, got herself a breadstick, and then decided she’d go after the desserts. She came back with a slice covered in red preserves, a cream cheese icing, and graham cracker crumbs. I said, “Oooh, is that strawberry cheesecake pizza? That looks delicious.”

“Actually, this is peach cobbler pizza,” she asserted. Ethan and DJ snickered a little, so she shrugged and said, “Well, that’s what the sign said! But it does KIND OF taste like strawberry cheesecake.”

Next she brought back a slice of something that was obviously covered in cinnamon and apples, and sighed, “I reaaaaallly wanted to try the apple pie pizza, but they were all out.”

This time all of us laughed out loud, even Mary, though I wasn’t sure she knew why we were laughing. “So what’s that you’re eating there?”

“Raspberry.”

I wish my camera hadn’t run out of juice, because a picture is worth a thousand words and all. Maybe I’ll go back another day just so this post can be properly illustrated. Suffice it to say, the pizzas were very obviously mislabled, but she defended her point of view so passionately, Ethan went back with her to check. They asked the guy behind the counter what was going on, and of course he quickly switched the plates around so they were in the correct order. Only then was she convinced.

Trouble is, I know exactly where she gets her gullibility. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, smells like a duck, but says it’s a horse… well, that’s when you call the circus, or make a youtube video. But I’m starting to wonder whether I’d believe the horse.