Tuesday, January 4, 2011

One Word~Success

She’d had a life long relationship with food and its colors--it defined her moods, her place in the world, her status with life.  Joy was something covered in chocolate...it was a taste of which she’d never grown fond.  Golden roasted chicken, cooked long and slow, surrounded by bright green vegetables served on a deep blue plate heralded a time of prosperity and luck.  Ah, but, it was the foods in the white palette that gave her creative success in cooking, its shades comforting and familiar.  She'd awake deep in the night,  finding her way around the kitchen by the light of the gas ring on the stove....she knew proportions by heart, never hesitating as she moved to boil and stir and bake.  Bowls of cream of wheat, varieties of rice in main dishes or deserts, tapioca pudding, grits topped with an egg....oh, and potatoes! Potatoes boiled then smashed with the skins still on, potatoes scalloped with thick cream...potatoes baked until they burst, rich with sour cream and swiss cheese; each of these helped hold off the black.

She seldom thought back to the hours she’d spent as a child, made to kneel on raw rice or grains, for transgressions real and imagined.  The memories surfaced when she’d absently scratch a rough patch on her knee, and find a small grain of rice or a bit of corn meal had worked it’s way to the surface--she put them aside, in a special jar, planning the pudding she’d make one day....using those pieces, sugar, cream and hate.

19 comments:

  1. That's very powerful and painful too.

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  2. I really like the hurt that comes through in the end. Powerful writing. Next step, 3WW.

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  3. I'll take a baked potato! Yummy writing.

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  4. Yow! Your gems are few and far between, but always worth the wait. Earlier in the day, we were discussing how long gravel took to work its way out of old wounds...

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  5. Is it wrong that I'm starving now???
    Great descriptions! Really good!

    ((Hugs))
    Laura

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  6. Wow!! Quin, you stay away for a while and BAM, you hit us with a really powerful piece like this! Glad you did and good to see you back!

    Regards, David.

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  7. Found your site via Cormac Brown's blog, and glad I did. Was wondering where it was going, but the powerful ending answered that big time. Really excellent read and my knees hurt now.

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  8. Quin--
    Very evocative writing with that gut-punch of an ending. Outstanding writing.

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  9. Holy moly that's some powerful writing!

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  10. whoa... cormac sent me....ah, this is nice. really nice.

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  11. The last word kicked me int balls!
    Profound write, Quin.

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  12. This is mighty effective, Miz Q. And written as if you never got out th’ saddle! In line with Mr. Reardon, I enjoyed finding out where your trail of rice and cream of wheat bits were headed. *POW* straight into “…sugar, cream and hate.” Yum : )

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  13. Richly seductive gastronomic prose with poison in its sharpened tail. Great stuff.

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  14. Great ending. You are amazing with words.

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  15. Thanks everyone... it was scary writing again. I'm not sure if it'll move forward...but, I know I can still do it, and that in itself is a blessing.

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  16. Very powerful. I've heard of the rice kneeling, but the Words "real or imagined" brings it into focus: something that will never be clear. But now, it can be seen.
    Well done.

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