This is my response to the Friday Fictioneers prompt for October 3. The challenge is to write a 100-word story inspired by the photo prompt. Play along by writing your own, reading others and/or commenting on the flashes we fictioneers create. My story this week weighs in at 104 words (I’m still making up for all the words I missed during my absence last month.)
Copyright Kent Bonham
Food on a Stick
“It’s Terah’s birthday! Wake up! I have a special treat.”
My three offspring scramble to get up. When they are dressed, I pull out a plastic package. Their eyes grow large. My grandparents were the last generation to purchase machine-manufactured products.
“What are they?”
“Bamboo skewers. We’re going to celebrate with food on a stick. In the old days, people held special events called ‘carnivals,’ and everyone walked around eating food on a stick.”
I help the children attach portions of mushroom and fish onto their skewers. As we roast our breakfast, I longingly recall the cakes Grandma used to make for birthday celebrations.
Being MG 
What a grand story about lost and remembered traditions. Well done.
This will be a memory for this generation. Just the other night we were sitting around a fire pit talking about how roasted hot dogs were the tastiest things on the planet.
Food on a stick is such a wonderful thing! I grew up in the town that hosts the Kansas State Fair each year. Life just wouldn’t be the same without impaled edibles.
Cheers!
MG
An.. I can see a future where we would miss those simple things.. Luckily she didn’t try to do porridge on a stick – it doesn’t work
Haha! “Porridge on a Stick.” You make me want to come up with a way to deep fry cinnamon-raisin oatmeal and put it on a stick. That might be the one way to get me to eat my porridge.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Bjorn.
MG
Dear Marie,
At least they have something to eat. A lot of people are not going to have that luxury and then, of course, there will be a lot less people. You captured hard times really well with this work. Good job.
Aloha,
Doug
Thanks, Doug. “Food on a stick” sort of stuck with me when I saw this prompt. I imagine that children living after the apocalypse might find eating food on a stick rather strange. Unfortunately, the word limit didn’t allow me to explore that side of the story.
All my best,
Marie Gail
Dear Marie Gail,
Hm. I wonder if I can skewer rice cakes on a stick.
I’m not sure what has brought them to this place where there are no longer machine made products but I’m sure it wasn’t pleasant. Feels post apocalyptic.
Nicely done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
Dear Rochelle,
Yes, post-apocalyptic. I have a few flashes here on my blog that deal with a set of subterranean dwellers. I envision this tale happening in that community a couple hundred years prior to the other stories.
As to rice cakes on a stick, Costco has packages of cylindrical rice cakes about the size and shape of a small corn dog. Every time I see them I think of putting them on a stick just to make them more fun to eat. You should try that sometime. (Do I see a Costco outing in our near future?)
Peace,
Marie Gail
A nice projection into a possible future.
Claire
Thanks, Claire.
love food on sticks! 🙂
but a world without cake!!! it’s a very bleak future indeed.
True horror, in fact, K.Z. Which has me wondering if there is a way to make flour from the lichens that grow in our heroes’ cave and some way to sweeten it. As long as humans survive, we will eat cake.
All my best,
Marie Gail
There is something almost sweet about this post-apocalyptic scene… like going back in time, rather than forward. Nice job!
Thanks so much, Dawn. Yes, often post-apocalyptic tales seem a bit like looking back. I especially enjoyed that aspect of John Crace’s Pest House. In fact, I think of him often when I write post-apocalyptic stuff.
All my best,
MG
It’s comforting to think that some small joys of life might still be there after an apocalypse. I hope that’s so. I suspect that cake might be the least of our losses. Well told.
Marg
Thanks, Marg. Yes, cake won’t be “reinvented” for some time yet, I imagine.
Marie Gail
Ha,perfect timing. I went to a Renaissance festival yesterday (my first one) and found this food ion the stick thing was indeed very popular.
Ah, yes, the evolution of food on a stick–methinks it anachronistic at a RenFest, but it works well for walking and eating at any sort of festival.
Thanks for reading!
MG
A well told tale of days gone by. I love a bit of post apocalypse.
Thanks, Sandra. I’ve begun a tiny collection of these stories of subterranean dwellers. There’s no particular plan to turn it into anything larger, but one never knows.
MG
I love the excitement you create about mushroom and fish kebabs, but what happened to cake? For birthday cakes to be a distant memory, that is truly post apocalyptic.
It is so sad, but without the sun, grains for flour don’t grow well, nor do most things that we currently use for sweeteners. So, my heroes are stuck with things that can thrive in caves for now.
Thanks for reading!
MG
Dear Marie Gail, This will happen – I’m convinced – sometime in the distant future (I hope). Nan 🙂
Oh dear! Well, hopefully it happens after you and I are long gone. A future without cake is no future at all.
Cheers!
MG