Disclaimer: Roswell, its characters and situations, are owned by the WB. No infringement intended.

Author's Note: This story is the part of an evolving future storyline. All the stories currently in this storyline are included in order on the Future Arc page.

"Grandma Nancy," Josh whined, hopping from foot to foot. "I don't wanna Siggy burger. Please, please, please can I have an Alien Surprise ice cream cone instead?"

"Josh, we talked about this," Nancy Parker said reasonably. "Ice cream is for dessert, and burgers are for dinner. Dinner has to come first." She urged him towards the booth. "Now sit down."

Sitting at the counter across the dining room, Max tried to keep his eyes on his New England Journal of Medicine while at the same time trying not to smile at his mother-in-law's attempt to use logic with his four-year old son. She always forgot how stubborn Josh could be.

Sure enough, Josh stuck out his jaw and folded his arms over his small chest. "I'm not hungry for dinner, Grandma," he said stubbornly. "I wanna have dessert."

Nancy frowned at her grandson. "Joshua Alexander Evans, this is not negotiable. Eat your burger first, then you can have dessert. Now sit."

Josh sighed in frustration but slid into the booth like the mostly obedient boy he was.

As soon as he was seated, Nancy placed a heaping dinner plate in front of him.

Josh frowned up at her as if to remind her that he wasn't giving in yet. Then he transferred his frown to his plate. Wielding his cutlery fork as if it were a pitchfork, he rolled some of the cherry tomatoes around, then prodded the lettuce in disgust. "But it's gucky, Grandma."

Max tried not to laugh. There was a trick that worked with Josh, a trick that got him to eat all his dinner, but Nancy probably didn't know it. Usually she didn't try to feed Josh without having Liz or Max there to help. But tonight Liz was guest-speaking at the college, and Nancy had invited Max and Josh to have dinner at the Crashdown because she thought they couldn't manage on their own. And when they'd arrived, Nancy had told Max that she wanted to spend quality time with her grandson, and that he should just sit and relax and let her handle everything. So Max was sitting and relaxing and letting her try to handle his stubborn son.

The Crashdown was quiet, a little emptier than usual for a school night, and Josh's voice was carrying across the almost-empty restaurant, clearly audible to everyone.

"It's really gucky, Grandma. Look at this--" Josh lifted a piece of seaweedy lettuce off the plate and held it out to his grandmother. "It's ... yuck! Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck!"

Several customers looked up. Some of them were smiling, but some were beginning to look a little alarmed.

Obviously not liking that they were becoming the center of attention, Nancy glanced pleadingly at Max. "He's your son. You try."

Max put down his journal and stared very seriously at Josh. "Josh, I really don't think that you should eat that. You're right. It's yucky."

Nancy's jaw dropped. "How is this helping, Max?"

Max winked at Nancy reassuringly. Then he turned back to Josh.

"Don't eat it, Josh. It's gucky, yucky, and bad. Don't eat it. If you do, I'm going to get really, really mad. I'm not kidding. Don't touch that plate even. If you do, I'll tell your mom."

Josh giggled. "Daddy, it's not so bad. Look. I'll try some." He bit into a french fry.

"Don't, Josh. I'm telling you that it's bad for you. Don't eat it."

"Daddy," Josh said soothingly, "It's good for me. Grandma Nancy wouldn't make bad food." And Josh took three big bites of his burger and ate five more french fries.

Throwing up his hands in pretend-annoyance, Max got up from his stool and marched over to the booth. "Josh, I told you not to eat that food. I'm sure your grandmother gave it to you with the best intentions, but I'm warning you that you shouldn't eat it."

Josh giggled again and ate four of his cherry tomatoes.

After another quick wink at Nancy, Max frowned fiercely at Josh. "Look. I'm going to count to ten. Then you'll just have to stop eating. Because it is very, very gucky. Are you listening? I'm going to count now. One ... two ... three--"

Josh shoveled in the rest of his burger and twelve more of his fries and the three remaining cherry tomatoes before Max finished counting to ten.

When his plate was clean, Josh sat back in the booth and shook his head sadly at his father. "Daddy, you're so easy to trick. You're too silly about it."

Max smiled and nodded. "You're probably right, Josh."

And Nancy sighed and shook her head at both of them. "How does Liz put up with the two of you?" she asked Max in exasperation.

He shrugged. "She loves us."

Laughing, Nancy shook her head again, this time rolling her eyes too. Then she smiled down at her grandson. "Well, I guess you can have dessert now, Josh."

Grinning at his grandmother and his father, Josh leapt out of the booth and ran over to his grandfather who had been tracking the entire conversation from the safety of behind the counter, and who was already ready with an Alien Surprise ice cream cone of Josh's favorite flavors.

Author's Note:

"Tricking" was inspired by a poem of the same title by the Canadian children's poet, Dennis Lee. Therefore this vignette is yet another of my affectionate homages to literature; no infringement intended.

This is the full text of "Tricking" by Dennis Lee:

When they bring me a plate
Full of stuff that I hate,
Like spinach and turnips and guck, I sit very straight
And I look at the plate
And I quietly say to it: "YUCK!"
Little kids bawl
'Cause I used to be small,
And I threw it all over the tray,
But now I am three
And I'm much more like me--
I yuck till they take it away.

But sometimes my dad
Gets terIFFickly mad,
And he says, "Don't you drink from that cup!"
But he can't say it right
'Cause he's not very bright--
So I trick him and drink it all up!

Then he gets up and roars;
He stomps on the floor
And he hollers, "I warn you, don't eat!"
He counts up to ten
And I trick him again:
I practically finish the meat.

Then I start on the guck
And my daddy goes "Yuck!"
And he scrunches his eyes till they hurt!
So I shovel it in
And he grins a big grin.
And then we have dessert.

Back to Area 51 (Section I)