Emma hadn’t been to church for a few weeks because of poor health so the local parish priest decided to visit her. The eighty-five-year-old heard the knock on the door and Father Pete announced his presence. She opened the door and invited him into the lounge room.

“How have you been going, Emma?” Fr Pete asked.

“I haven’t been too good of late. I had quite an extensive root canal two weeks ago and the dentist is trying to save the last of the few teeth I have left.”

The phone soon rang and Emma excused herself to take the call in another room. Father Pete picked up a copy of a magazine and started flicking through the pages. After ten minutes he was getting bored and noticed a bowl of peanuts nearby, so he reached over and started to eat them, one-by-one. After five minutes the bowl was empty.

Just then Emma returned and said, “I am so sorry. That was my sister in Darwin. She only calls once a month and I don’t like to be too abrupt. She loves to chat. In fact, I can hardly get a word in.”

“That’s quite alright,” said Fr Pete. “But I must apologise. While you were gone, I ate all the peanuts in your bowl.”

Emma replied, “That’s okay Father. Since the root canal, I can only manage to suck the chocolate off the peanuts.”

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