In the Soup

By Belinda


Every day my brother has a date--with a feisty woman in a long blue robe. This summer while visiting Rob and Mum  in England I noticed that no matter what, every day, he vanished upstairs to his flat when Judge Judy was about to come on t.v..


While Mum's carers were helping her get ready for bed, I would run upstairs to Rob's flat to take his dog Bruce out for his last walk of the day, and Rob would be watching the show.


I got into the routine of sitting down with him when I got back with Bruce--and watching the end of the program with her frequent rapid fire dressings down of hapless plaintiffs bringing flimsy complaints, and her ability to quickly sort out fact from fiction.


One day this week, Paul handed me the channel changer and while flipping through, trying to find something to watch while we ate supper and there was Judge Judy. I couldn't resist.


When the program ended, I said to Paul, "You know, she reminds me a lot of Irene," (one of my best friends.)


"Oh," he said, "I'll have to tell her."


"No! Don't you dare!" I laughed, thinking that if I was going to tell her that I would give a bit of context and an explanation.


Imagine my surprise, when the next day, I got an email at work from Irene. The subject line was: "Really...???? :-)"


The email continued: "Chatting with Paul today and he mentioned I remind you of Judge Judy.....really...?????"


"Oh, no," I thought! But wrote back, "Yes--really--but I can't believe he told you that! Of all the things Paul forgets--and I expect him to forget--he remembered that."


(When I am surprised at something Paul tells me that I didn't know, he often acts surprised back and says that he told me that before and don`t I remember? I am convinced he`s bluffing half the time at least. But I know that he forgets a lot of what I tell him. :))


Irene wrote back, "Lololol...it's funny because when Paul asked me "did Belinda tell you who you remind her of?".... I said "yeah, Cracker"....he looked confused and said Judge Judy..it was really funny on this end as well."


Now I had forgotten about Cracker, a criminal psychologist from a British t.v series, but it was true, and now I had to think about what Cracker and Judge Judy had in common! Irene said it was their ability to size people up, which she has an uncanny ability to do quickly, but I see that according to Wikipedia, Cracker, for all of his failings, was also cerebral and brilliant--a description that also fits Irene.


Meanwhile, between emails I called Paul's cell phone.


"I can't believe that you told Irene what I said about Judge Judy," I sputtered.


"I told you I was going to," he said.


"Yes but you forgot what I said, when you said that."


"I have to go," he said sounding nervous, "I'm taking someone out for some soup."


"That's because you're in it!" I laughed.


And I am grateful for understanding friends.