Sweet as Sugar

"You sure?" Mu asked, steadying her. "Do you need to sit?"

"Um, yeah," Melly answered. "That would be good."

Mu helped her to sit at the base of the tree.

"Sorry," she replied. "Never been very good at athletics. I prefer artistic things."

"Its okay" Mu smiled. "I don't mind"

Melly leaned back against the tree as her vision stabilized. "Hey, can I draw you? When I can see straight, that is?"

"Sure!" Mu chirped, back to grinning.

"Thanks," she replied. She took out the apple and took a bite out of it. "It's good. Kinda tastes like strawberries, which is weird for an apple, but I like strawberries so that's okay."

"I like sweet things" Mu shrugged. "So they're nice"

"Yeah they are," Melly replied, reflecting back on how her mother would always make her a chocolate-and-strawberry cake for her birthday. That used to happen every year, and then every other year, and now... "What kind of sweet things do you like, Mu?"

"I like all sweet things" Mu smiled. "They taste nice and sweet things make other people nice sometimes too"

"I like all sweet things but oranges," Melly answered, sticking out her tongue. "I hate oranges."

Now that she was feeling better Melly took out her drawing pad, flipping to the next blank page.

Mu, having been coaxed by his favorite topic, plopped to the ground next to her with his lags crossed and his tail curling around him loosely. "I like all sweets, especially fruit, but I don't like meat. Meat tastes bad. But vegetables are okay. Most of the time. I don't like cabbage. Or spicy food."

"Oh, I don't like spicy food either," said Melly, beginning to sketch him. "You know, one of my friends swapped out the usual jelly beans for spicy jelly beans without telling me. It was awful. I probably drank about three gallons of water."

"I don't like plain water. I always put a fruit slice in my water, then it tasted sweet." Mu's grin widened. "My favorite fruit is persimmons. Your's is strawberries isn't it?"

"Uh yeah," Melly admitted. "How'd you know? And what fruit is persimmons?"

"You looked all happy when you said the apple tasted like them." Mu smiled. "Persimmons are weird. They look like tomatoes, but they aren't! And they're real sweet."

"Huh, never heard of anything like that," replied Melly, still sketching away. "I hate tomatoes. I don't like celery either. Or carrots. But I like cucumbers."

"Cucumbers are sweet. So is celery. But I don't like carrots either" Mu confided in her.

"You know, I don't know why I don't like carrots. They're sweet for a veggie. But I don't," Melly rambled on. "You know what I don't like? Pickles. Bleh."

"What's a pickle?" Mu asked with a head tilt.

"It's a cucumber that's been fermented or something," Melly answered, realizing she wasn't quite sure herself. "Anyway, they're nasty. They're all sour and stuff."

"Ewwwwww" Mu grimaced and stuck out his tongue.

"Yeah," Melly agreed. "I've heard there's something called pickled ham. I don't even want to think about how that must taste like."

"The only sour things I like are plums and limes." Mu stated. "Other than that, sour things are yucky."