Tuesday 10 November 2015

Sweet -Part ?

Is this the beginning middle or end of a story? I'm not sure yet :-) 
For audio click here
When the wind whistles around St Paul's it really blows. Vicky made her way through  autumn leaves swirling and dancing on the gusts and pulled her collar up to protect herself from the cold. She walked around the back of Cannon Street station and down towards the river.  The scrap of paper in her hand had a rudimentary map drawn on it and Vicky was doing her best to follow the instructions in the dark. The streets were deserted; no one had the strength to go out in the evenings anymore, especially when it got cold and dark. Lethargy was becoming a real problem these days. 
The wind that whipped the leaves in the labyrinth of the back streets nearly knocked Vicky off her feet when she hit the exposed part by London Bridge. She crossed the empty road while holding her hat on and turning her head away from the gale. A left into Fish Street Hill and she was next to the Monument. It was somewhere here. She looked around. A little red door she was looking for. She was in Celery Lane, years ago it was known as Pudding Lane but they’d changed it just after the ban, claiming you couldn’t remind people of the devil. She was looking for number 13, there it was. 
VIcky looked around, she was alone. She had butterflies swimming in her stomach. This was the moment, the time, the place. Once she knocked that door life would never be the same again, it could never be the same again. She was stepping off a cliff and she had no idea what was down there. 
She knocked. 
    “While Frank Sinatra sings “Stormy Weather.”” The voice sounded gruff, unwelcoming. 
Vicky looked down at her scrap of paper and read the words she’d been told to say. 
    “The flies and spiders get along together.” It meant nothing to her, but that didn’t matter, it obviously meant something to somebody because the door swung open and, after one last look over her shoulder Vicky stepped into the warmth. 
The smell brought back all the Christmases from her youth, vanilla, cinnamon, hazelnuts, walnuts, it sent a shiver down her spine. She took off her steamed up glasses and wiped them with the sleeve of her jumper. When she popped them back on, she gasped. In front of her was everything she imagined and more, cupcakes, cheesecakes, fruitcakes, sponge cakes, choc chip cookies, almond cookies, sorbets, ice creams, chocolate mousse. It was a veritable foodgasm. Marcia had told her, told her of the delights, but she hadn’t truly believed it until now that is, and even now she was worried she might be dreaming. After years of grey, bland stodge of tasteless uninspiring gruel, she couldn’t believe that such luxury still existed. She’d made her own of course, awful sticky toffee with powdery saccharin, the flavour was okay but there just wasn’t the hit and, of course, there was the bitter aftertaste. Now she looked at the array of goodies in front of her. She wanted to try it, to stick her face into a cake and not come up for air until she’d devoured the whole thing. She’d died and gone to heaven after so many long years of culinary, sugar-free hell.


6 comments:

  1. mmm.... Were there any lollipops? :-)

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  2. With this story you have reminded me of a cult Polish s-f/dystopia movie called Sexmission (it contains a hidden political satire for communism – I think you would find it interesting). In the film, which starts in 1984, two men volunteer for a cryogenics experiment, expecting to be revived in just a few years. Instead, they are revived in 2044, in a world with only women, which is run by the League of Women's Lib. Women reproduce through parthenogenesis, living in an oppressive feminist society, where it is said that women suffered under males until males were removed from the world:-)
    And there is specifically one scene in this film that I was brought to my mind: A young woman working for the department of archeology is having an informal meeting with an old lady. This lady is the only one at that age so we can say she comes from the past. When the young woman asks her questions about men (she is very curious what they were like, what were they used for) the lady is very tight-lipped but she is immediately chenging her behavior when the young woman is taking out the old-fashioned glass jar of the strawberry jam, which is a symbol and relict of the previous epoch (in 2044 all you eat is just tasteless pills) and the old lady has not eaten anything like that for ages!
    Here is the scene – but this is in Polish. Enjoy:-) hehe
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-a314k6dLU

    Your lovely story made me smile in the morning:-)

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    Replies
    1. Great, I like how women in a feminist future choose to wear such skimpy clothes :)

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    2. Of course you like it - you are a typical male: treating women as sexual objects, interested only in himself. That is why we, true feminists want to eliminate you, male species, and create a perfect world deprived of self-centered and arrogant individuals who are only interested in their own pleasure.
      Beware

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    3. I didn't mean like in that way. I meant it more, it is interesting how.
      The film was obviously made by a man who had some fantasy of being dominated by women.

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    4. I only joked:-) i am not an extreme feminist at all... This film was created by a very intelligent director, who also made the story a kind of satire on wrong-headed feminism:-) i think women need men, with all their masculinity, but it would be good if men were less self centered and not so vain sometimes :-)

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