Monty didn't really have much to do. He was off work with no real chores, and his son was off playing with his friends. As much as Monty liked spending time with his son, and made a point of scheduling some sort of quality time together every week, he was glad Nigel also had friends to spend his free time with. His brother was celebrating one of his adopted children's birthdays. Monty wasn't exactly been close to his nieces and nephews, and taking their father away from their birthday party did not seem like the place to start. He had already visited his pappy this month, and visiting his pappy was always sort of a choir. Finally his wife was out grocery shopping.
Monty was bored so naturally he grabbed a snack from the cupboard, a drink from the fridge and sat down to watch television even though it would be mostly kids shows on. When he turned on the television what he saw made him throw up what was in his stomach. His nieces and nephews were eating a giant cake on television, seriously it was bigger than them combined.
Cake under normal circumstances made Monty feel a little ill ever since he could remember. Monty supposed he was born liking cake as much as the next kid but his father ruined cake for him.
When he was a child, on his birthday, every year until his father's mind started to go his pappy would always make a giant cake just for him.
Apparently it was a family tradition. His great grandma made a huge cake every year for her triplet's birthday. His grandma did the same for his pappy, and now his pappy would do the same for him, no matter what Monty wanted.
Apparently the tradition required him to eat the whole thing by himself, no sharing, no throwing it away. From what Monty could tell he tradition should allow him to at least give his brother Benedict a slice, but pappy wouldn't allow it. Pappy didn't just favor Monty over his brother Benedict, he wanted to make sure Benedict couldn't forget it. On the bright side pappy's aggressive favoritism at least meant Benedict wouldn't suffer like this on his birthday. Benedict did suffer like this the one time he refused to eat broccoli though so not much of a victory there.
By the time Monty was half way through the cake. Monty was way past the point of being so full he'd no longer be tempted to eat something even if it looked delicious. It wasn't fun but pappy was never the type to let his son's wishes get in the way of tradition.
What made the tradition that much worse was his pappy would make starving kids watch as he ate the cake, because apparently the point of the tradition is letting other children know they can't have any. Having a bunch of hungry kids drooling over the cake made him feel guilty about the whole thing in addition the stomach pain he already felt.
Monty didn't follow the family tradition, but after realizing exactly what was going on Monty realized his brother Benedict did. The giant cake, the lack of guests, the freaking television broadcast. Those poor kids, he hopes they wouldn't be forced to eat that whole monstrosity.
Takes place during caked three one of the two times they actually got to eat their cake.