Lady Horse had a thoughtful expression on her face. She proposed, “Do you know what I think? I believe it is easier to not eat a cake after you've already eaten a cake.”
Bootsy Bat declared, “How do you mean?”
Lady Horse responded, “Well, let’s say you craved cake.”
Bootsy interrupted, “What kind of cake?”
Lady Horse replied, “For the sake of this anecdotal argument, let us suppose Homemade Chocolate Chip Brownie Cake.”
Bootsy interrupted again, “Mmm! Could there be peanut butter cups on top?”
Lady Horse did not like to be interrupted, but she humored the bat, “Yes, with peanut butter cups on top. Now, may I continue?”
Bootsy remembered his manners and nodded his head in assent. This nod released several crumbs from his whiskers that fell upon the table. The prim and proper Lady Horse looked away as she continued her postulate. “So, let’s assume that you craved cake—cake was on your mind, and you just had to have some cake.” Bootsy nodded, and Reginald P. Lizard just watched. “Now, fast forward in time a bit. Let us say that you finished eating a rather large piece of Homemade Chocolate Chip Brownie Cake—with peanut butter cups on top. That large piece was delicious!—but it did not quite scratch the itch, if you get my drift. That is to say, it didn’t slake the thirst.”
“Didn’t slake the thirst. Gotcha,” agreed the bat who then added, “In fact, at that point, you might crave cake even more! You primed the pump! You broke the seal!”
Lady Horse nodded her head up and down several times, “Yes, yes, yes yes! Exactly! Now, let us suppose that you ate another, oversized, piece of cake. And then, you went ahead and ate a third piece of cake. Yes, a third! By that time, only a smallish sliver of cake is left on the plate, so you polished that off, too, even though at this point you probably didn’t crave cake any longer.”
The attentive bat responded, “Polished it off. Indeed. I’ve certainly been there.”
“So, thus far in our scenario, you have now eaten an entire cake in one sitting! Are you with me so far?”
The bat nodded in agreement, “I’m with you.” Reginald continued to watch in interest with sparkling eyes.
“OK. So . . . I contend that if you ate a whole cake in one sitting, then you would no longer crave cake any more. You would lose your taste for cake. Even the smell of cake would be cloying to you. You might crave antacids, but you surely would no longer crave cake.”
Bootsy nodded.
Lady Horse concluded her speculation, “And this brings us back to my original theory: I believe that it is easier to not eat a cake after you've already eaten a cake.”
Bootsy Bat paused for a moment to consider this line of reasoning. Reginald P. Lizard blinked. Bootsy finally said, “Now that you have unpacked your argument, it seems sound, and I agree with your conclusion.”
Reginald gazed at Lady Horse with hopeful, expectant eyes. Would she put this dual-cake theory to the test? If so, she would need volunteers, and he would bring the coffee! He had never eaten two whole cakes before, but . . . for the advancement of science, he would take one for the team. Of course, Homemade Chocolate Chip Brownie Cake, even with peanut butter cups on top, didn’t taste anywhere near as good as flies—but what does? He then dropped to the ground to perform a set of push-ups, for he loved to keep fit. He did a second set just in case two cakes were in his future.