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Submitted to writing contest "Demanding Satisfation".
Username: Niyari
Round : 1
Prompt: Your wife/husband can't cook. You have to list, prose style, 10 reasons why your character should eat the food.
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The Reason Why
“Ouch! Son of a—”
Michael Rawlins closed his eyes and sighed. He loved his wife, really he did. He wouldn’t have married Katie otherwise, but sometimes she was a bit of a handful.
From day one, Michael had known Katie was not a cook. She could burn anything and everything; soup, fish, pasta, burgers, vegetables, chicken, and even once…water. That one had been a mystery to Michael.
Anything that could be cut, chopped, sliced, diced, or grated had met its doom in their kitchen, including Katie’s fingers. They often went through a box of band-aids every week or two, and Michael had grown used to keeping three or four boxes in the house at any given time.
You would think that after four months she would give up on her dream of making home-cooked meals every night and would finally let Michael try his hand at being the chef.
Maybe the blood loss was affecting her ability to manage coherent thoughts.
Like the Energizer Bunny on crack, Kate had kept on going—even in the face of certain maiming. The number of times he’d heard the words “ouch” “damn it” and “oh no” had increased daily since they’d returned from their honeymoon. Dinner time at home meant listening to muttered curses, angry sighs, marathons of tears, and the occasional shriek of the fire alarm when the apartment was filled with too much smoke.
It was about two weeks ago, when Michael had found himself standing in the middle of a foam-covered kitchen holding a fire extinguisher, both eyes twitching manically, with Katie nearly in tears, that Michael had created The List.
The List was Michael’s memo to himself, a reminder of why he didn’t yell when Katie set something on fire or sliced open her hand, and why he bothered to swallow the burned, slimy, salty, congealed masses of food placed in front of him every night.
So that night, when the cursing and the smell of burned meat began, Michael took out The List and read it.
The List:
1. She’s put all her time and energy into making you a home-cooked meal. Put your time and energy into eating the damn thing.
2. You know if you don’t eat it, the water works are going to start. And you really don’t want that.
3. Even if she doesn’t start crying, her feelings will at least be hurt. And when her feelings are hurt, she gets angry. And when she gets angry, well…
4. Sleeping on the couch for a fortnight doesn’t really sound pleasant.
5. Men in the military and astronauts in space eat worse s**t than something that’s a little burned, a little salty, and covered in a little too much tomato sauce.
6. It’s hard to turn anything down when she gives you that smile…damn that smile and the way it makes your heart stop.
7. She’ll get better. Really she will. Cooking skills improve over time. Julia Child wasn’t famous in a day.
8. As good as fast-food and take-out may taste in comparison, the affect it has on your waistline is rather unpleasant. You are no longer a teenager, and no longer have a high metabolism…or really any metabolism. Its this, or diabetes.
9. You like the taste of charcoaled meat. No really, you do. Charcoaled vegetables can’t be much worse. Or charcoaled pasta. Never mind that it should be impossible to charcoal pasta.
10. Really, you love her, and eating what she puts in front of you is the least you can do to show her how you feel.
It was the last one that did it for him. He loved Katie with all his heart, bad cooking be damned.
With that thought set firmly in his mind Michael stood from his office desk, grabbed a box of bandages, and ventured into the kitchen to help with the cooking. If he couldn’t cook by himself without hurting her feelings, he could at least help.
"Oh for the love of—"
A lot.
 Niyari · Mon Aug 31, 2009 @ 05:03am · 0 Comments |
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