A Short Story for M

One of my most loyal readers (let's call her M) recently asked me why I haven't posted any fiction lately.  Here's a short story, just for her.

Turkey Dinner Special
Larry pushed the mashed potatoes around his plate.   Usually, the turkey dinner special at Donna's Cafe brightened his mood.   Today was different.   Larry couldn't concentrate on the wonderfully sticky smoothness of the potatoes or the extreme saltiness of the gravy.   All he could think about was SooAnn.

Larry remembered the first time he'd brought SooAnn to Donna's.   Even though he'd urged her to order the turkey dinner, she'd opted for a Caesar salad.   Larry had been coming to Donna's for years and had never tried a salad.   Right then he knew SooAnn was different than the other women he'd dated.   She was sophisticated and smart.

They had been inseparable.   She'd even invited him along when she went to visit her parents.  He was nervous; worried they would think him unworthy of their daughter's attention.   He needn't had worried, her parents loved him.  He had planned to ask them about the unusual spelling of SooAnn's name.  He thought it might make for a good story if the conversation stalled.  But, after meeting her parents, he realized that they were idiots and had simply spelled her name as best they could.   Sometimes two wrongs make a right and sometimes two idiots make a genius.  Her parents were smart enough to realize SooAnn was something special.   They'd urged her to go away to school even though they missed her dearly.   Their sacrifice and pain were not lost on SooAnn.   She did her best to call regularly and visit as often as she could.   Larry enjoyed his visit with her parents.   He genuinely enjoyed their simple nature and had even dared to imagine what it might be like to be a permanent member of the family.   He decided it would be good.

Things had been going so well, but now they were ruined, thanks to Thad.   Larry couldn't remember the first time he met Thad.   It was soon after he and SooAnn returned from visiting her parents that Thad started showing up.   Every movie, every dinner, Thad was there, insinuating himself into the evening.   At first, Larry was ambivalent about Thad.   SooAnn knew him from school or something and seemed to feel sorry for him.   Larry tried to feel sorry for him as well but found he couldn't.   So, instead he just tried to ignore him.   But it's hard to ignore someone you see every day and soon attempted ignorance turned into very real annoyance.   Everything about Thad irritated Larry.   He didn't like the way Thad dressed.   He didn't like the way Thad spoke.   He didn't even like Thad's name.   In his mind, Larry pretended that Thad's parents suffered from speech impediments and had actually meant to name their son Chad.   He always regarded Thad as annoying but harmless.   Now, he realized Thad was deceitful, sneaky, evil even.   If Larry hadn't seen Thad and SooAnn walking hand in hand, he wouldn't have believed it.   The look on her face when she noticed him staring told him everything he needed to know.

The thoughts of Thad darkened Larry's mood.   He tried to focus on SooAnn.   He put his fork down and picked up a spoon instead.   Using the back of the spoon, he pushed the potatoes into an oval mound.   He spent the next twenty minutes sculpting with spoon and fork.   Slowly, carefully a face began to emerge from the mound.   First, a nose, followed by a mouth and eyes.   Larry already had in mind that he would use gravy for hair - the color was perfect for SooAnn.   But first, he needed to get the face right.   It looked familiar, but there was something not quite SooAnn about it.   It was the nose, he decided, too flat, not perky enough.   But why did that nose seem so familiar?   Larry stared at his plate.   He felt a chill run up his spine as he realized what he'd sculpted.   The nose wasn't SooAnn's, it was Thad's.   The single eyebrow was decidedly Thad-like as well - he berated himself for not noticing that one sooner.   Larry had inadvertently sculpted a combination of SooAnn and Thad, their mashed potato love child.

Feeling nauseous, Larry left the cafe.   That would be his last turkey dinner special at Donna's.