I pop my head through the doors to the bar, catching the last of Nick (the Gatekeeper)’s words “…how hard can it be…?” which, oddly, was my last thought as I looked at the instructions and ingredients for the quality food that is usually produced at the Six Sentence Café & Bistro.
Ford was playing some music, and Clark getting things ready on the bar for what, he said, was going to be a really busy night, what with the girls going off somewhere for a night out; I duck back into the kitchen and press the button to switch on the grills, instead finding it to be for the dishwasher… not the best start. Eventually, I find the control switch to the grills, burners and ovens, and as I wait for them to get to their required temperature, I look for the fridge, but in a room where everything is highly polished stainless steel it isn’t easy.
I find a door in one of the alcoves in a far corner marked larder, pull it open slowly and wince as the squeaky creak echoes around the quiet kitchen, and I’m showered in dust and cobwebs; inside, the larder is empty – no cupboards, shelves, fridges, and most importantly food.
I’m going to have to get really creative here tonight, I tell myself as I close the complaining door to Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard, and reach into my back pocket to retrieve my tattered copy of the Wizard’s Pocket-sized Handbook from 1984, which I knew would come in handy one day; I flick through the pages, randomly – and, I’d like to say by chance, but we all know nothing is by chance – stopping on the page headed Feeding the Five Thousand.
Although when done originally, there was something to start with, tonight in the kitchen I have fresh air… I turn off the grills (they won’t be needed now) and look at the incantation to create a feast out of nothing… once again, I hear the words how hard can it be?
Posted for Six Sentence Stories, where the prompt word this week is ‘Control’.
This is a ‘walk-on’, a parallel continuation of an ongoing scene from the Six Sentence Café & Bistro started over on The Wakefield Doctrine.
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