A Last Taste of Sweetness
Alone in my kitchen, I make pancakes. I shake flour from its plastic container, watching until it forms a mountain of white in the bottom of the bowl. As I put the container down I wonder, did I watch the way the flour shifted and fell? Did I see it explode into the air, float through the band of sunlight?
I cannot let myself worry about such things. The moment is gone; let it go.
Though I knew the title to this very short story from the beginning, I've fondly referred to "A Last Taste of Sweetness" as my "pancake apocalypse story." I've been told time and again (in person and in reviews) that the apocalypse "has been done to death" and yet the end of the world still fascinates me. "Sweetness," which arrived in a rush of inspiration and then needed serious rewriting to be readable, grew from the thought: if you suddenly had moments left to live, what would you do? What would you think of? Who would you be?
If you're about to die, why not make pancakes? Why not fall in love?
Published in Issue #13 of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, November 2003.
