Crumble

Written 55-G20 [2024-01-24], Edited 55-G20 [2024-01-24]

Image credit: Twitter Twemoji

“Wow, this is the best apple crumble I’ve ever had in my life!” I said.

“Why thank you,” said the total stranger who had offered me food. “But just to be clear it isn’t apple crumble but rather apple-flavoured pear crumble with artificial apple substitute,” she said.

“Do you have any ice cream to add to it?” I asked.

“No,” said the stranger.

I took another bite of the crumble, it was delicious, when my tongue touched the starch and sugars I immediately felt like the world still had hope and life still had meaning. I felt like the sun was shining even though the skies were grey. I felt like I was home even though I was in a park in a suburb in the middle of nowhere. The flavour of the apple-flavoured pear with artificial apple substitute was the perfect balance of sweet, tangy and mildly alcoholic. I was elated.

“Never mind,” I said. “This art, this monument of cuisine doesn’t need to be sullied by mere ice cream. Say, what was your name again?” I said.

“Oh I’m Doctor Maleficent Nefario.” she said.

Something about that name caught my interest.

“Are you a medical doctor?” I asked. I raised my arm to instinctually make an emotive but redundant hand gesture, only to watch my fingers crumble like sand.

Notes

This was written in 15 minutes during a Joy of Writing meetup.

In this particular Joy of Writing meetup, the other writers had many fantasy and otherwise mystical stories.

Feedback from The Joy of Writing group

• Is Nefario from Despicable Me?
  • This isn’t Despicable Me fanfiction I swear.
  • I was actually thinking about Doctor Nefaro from How Not to Write a Novel
  • Maleficent is from Sleeping Beauty, not to be confused with Cruella from 101 Dalmations
• Is the hand gesture a Hitler salute?
  • No (I then proceeded to do a bunch of random hand gestures)