Fortune Cookie
"What is the point of this?" I sighed, frustrated. Cameron and I were left to fend for ourselves while Derek and Mom went to City Hall so I ordered Chinese take-away. We had eaten slowly, just making conversation. I had cleaned up the mess and put the leftovers in the fridge. I had reached for the complimentary fortune cookies. I had tossed Cameron one and she just stared at it.
"It's a dessert. It has a piece of paper with your fortune on it. You snap it open, eat the cookie, and read your fortune." I watched her break the cookie with too much force, crumbling it into sawdust particles. "You can't apply so much pressure, Cameron. Here, there's an extra, try again." I took the paper, tearing it up, and tossing it in the trash, like Mom and I always did with dud ones.
Cameron snapped it carefully this time, cutting clean in two. I watched her pull the piece of paper away and slip the cookie into her mouth. I worked on my own. She chewed slowly so that we swallowed at the same time.
"I'll open mine first and read it too you." I turned the paper over. "You have the weight of the world on your shoulders. Be prepared to accept a wondrous opportunity in the days ahead."
I laughed at the irony of it. Cameron looked at me as if I'd grown another head. "It's ironic." She still looked strangely at me. "You know what irony is, yes?"
"Irony, from the Greek εἴρων (eiron), is a literary or rhetorical device, in which there is a gap or incongruity between what a speaker or a writer says, and what is generally understood (either at the time, or in the later context of history). An intentional contradiction between what something appears to mean and what it really means. Irony is normally conveyed through contradictions between either what is said and what is meant or appearance and reality. The three kinds of irony used most often in these standards are situational, dramatic, and verbal."
"Why did I teach you how to use the internet?"
"I do not know. How is it ironic, John?"
"Savior of the world, the future world, weight of the world. Any of that ring a bell?"
"Oh I get it. It is ironic." I sighed again.
"What does yours say?"
She studied the paper, memorizing it for whatever reason. "Your best quality is your ability to be human."