By Francesco Sarti
FIRST PLACE in April Competition
‘I’ll have the waffle, thank you.’
‘No he won’t.’
Margaret quickly scans today’s specials.
‘Black coffee for him. Tea for me.’ She reaches for the sugar bags and hands them over to the waiter together with the menu.
‘Jesus,’ Paul says. ‘I thought the point of the checks was to make me live longer, not make me wish I was dead.’
‘When will you take your health seriously?’
‘Mental health is health.’
She ignores him. Behind her back, a 5-year-old is not touching his waffles.
‘Look at that. I can smell the whipped cream from here.’
‘You’re not a child, and we’re not celebrating.’
‘My score was pretty high.’
‘You’re talking about your fucking cholesterol.’
Margaret never swears. That’s enough to make Paul freeze.
She sighs, looking out the window, far into the city.
‘You think I want to see a tiny paramedic struggle to load your limp body into an ambulance again?’
Paul’s cheeks and ears burn. His wedding ring is stuck in place, buried under decades of bad diet. He doesn’t ask where Margaret’s ring is.
‘Maggie,’ he says, but then stops. She’s weeping.
‘It doesn’t mean I forgive you,’ she says. ‘But listen carefully because I’m not going to repeat myself.’
A blinding flash wipes away her words, and squint at the horizon. Where the city was just a moment ago, they see a gigantic mushroom cloud.
The families around them scream and run in all directions, but they’re too old and tired and shocked to move.
Paul gasps. Margaret doesn’t. Slowly, deliberately, she grabs the waffles from the table behind her, now deserted, and shoves them under Paul’s chin.
‘To be fair, your score was pretty high,’ she says, and they both laugh.
Judges Comments: I chose this as the winner because I thought the dialogue between the two characters was believable and fun. The unexpected ending certainly was about as unexpected as it gets, and I liked how twisted their reaction was to it.
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