Tug-o-War
Willi’s kitchen looks nothing like she remembers. The once clean and tidy kitchen where she and her parents would all cook together is now a complete and utter mess. There’s the expected type of kitchen mess: flour and water and soup and crumbs scattered all over. But there’s also some unexpected messes, such as broken glass in the corner, thumbtacks spread all over the counter, every turn seems to have a marble hidden somewhere, and there’s something indescribable splattered on the wall. Willi can’t even pinpoint the color. Brown? Green? Yellow? It seems like it changes every time she looks at it.
Most interesting, of course, is the person—er, creature (she gets the feeling none of the beings here are people) that is animatedly dancing around and having the time of their life cooking in her kitchen. They take a banana out of its fruit bowl and, leaving it completely unpeeled, tosses it into a pot that is most definitely boiling over.
Little Mushroom Man claps at the trick, bringing the creature’s attention to them. Like many things here, Willi cannot make out a face on them, covered completely by their chef hat, and Willi half suspects that it may be part of the skin. In fact, there isn’t a single part of the creature’s body that isn’t covered by some type of chef clothing.
“Visitors!” Again, like a lot of things here, they don’t seem to need a mouth to speak. They rush up to Willi and vigorously shakes her hand before moving on to Little Mushroom Man.
“Your timing is perfect! So perfect!” they continue. “I have something in the oven just about to go off! You can be my first taste testers, yes!”
“I take it you are the Strange Cook?” Willi asks, feeling both, somewhat dumb and rude asking it.
Strange Cook doesn’t sneer or laugh, however. They genuinely nod their head and take a bow.
“That is what I can be called, yes yes yes!” they say. “I cook the marvelous and odd and I never cook the same thing twice! If I do, you are legally obligated to kill me!”
Willi’s eyes widen. “I couldn’t do that!”
“I could!” Little Mushroom Man beams.
“Thank you, Little Tiny Mushroom Man!” The oven dings. “Ah! It is finished!”
Strange Cook dances to the oven and opens it. Puffs of blue and black smoke come out, not looking especially appetizing. Willi winces as she watches Strange Cook take out a pan with no oven mitts. The heat doesn’t seem to bother Strange Cook, however, and they drop the pan with a clatter on the counter.
“Aha!” the Strange Cook announces. Willi and Little Mushroom Man both go to the counter to peek at what has been made, Little Mushroom Man standing on his tippy toes to get a better look.
It…doesn’t look good. Willi’s not even sure what it’s supposed to be. It almost looks like brownies, but there’s so many swirls of blue and green, it seems like they’re made of algae instead of chocolate.
Even more odd, Strange Cook doesn’t bother cutting into the dish. Instead, they hand Willi and Little Mushroom Man each a spoon.
“Go ahead!” they say, their entire soul beaming. “Have a taste!”
“Shouldn’t we allow it to cool first?” Willi asks. “It would be bad to burn our tongues.”
“No no no no no!” Strange Cook pressures. “You must have it while it’s hot! It doesn’t taste the same cold! A burnt tongue is a small price to pay for such a unique dish!”
Still, Willi hesitates, but Little Mushroom Man is quick to climb onto the counter and stick his spoon in the middle of the dish. As soon as he does, the spoon starts to get pulled into the pastry and Little Mushroom Man has to hold on hard to keep from losing it.
“That’s it!” Strange Cook cheers as they and Willi watch this odd form of tug-o-war. “Pull harder! You’ve almost got it!”
However, Little Mushroom Man’s hand eventually slips off of the spoon, and it sinks completely into the blue and green dish. It bubbles where the spoon disappears and Willi can almost imagine a little burp.
Little Mushroom Man flaps his hand, even giving his wrist a small massage. “I want to try again.”
“Hold on, Tiny Mushroom Man,” Strange Cook says, giving Willi a little shove. “Let Little Missy have a try first.”
Willi is still certain she doesn’t want to eat whatever this thing is, but she is intrigued to try the spoon tug-o-war game. She adjusts the grip on her spoon, making sure it’s tight and not too awkward, then sticks it in the corner of the pan.
The suction starts immediately. Despite somewhat expecting it, Willi still didn’t realize how much force it would have and the spoon is immediately sucked in—along with Willi’s hand.
Willi winces, her hand searing in what she hopes is a Burning Pain and not a Getting Eaten Pain, and tries to pull it out.
“Oh dear!” exclaims Strange Cook as they rush forward to aid her, grabbing hold of her wrist and lifting it out of the pan.
Willi quickly brings her hand to her chest, attempting to rub the pain away. She expects it to be tinted red from the heat, but instead, her fingers seem to be turning an odd blue-green color.
She looks to Strange Cook. “Is my hand going to stay like this?” she asks, showing them the odd color of her fingers.
“I’m not sure,” Strange Cook says. “This is my first and only time creating this dish, so I can’t say what possible effects it may have and for how long.”
Willi frowns. “I don’t want to have green fingers.”
“I’m sure there’s ways to get rid of it,” Strange Cook assures her. “For example, a good bucket of brown paint should bring your fingers back to the rest of your lovely complexion!”
Of course! Such a simple, but brilliant idea.
“All right,” Willi says. “Little Mushroom Man, will you look for paint with me?”
“No, I want to try to eat the thing again!” Little Mushroom Man says, making grabby hands for another spoon.
“Very well. Do be careful.”
As Strange Cook hands Little Mushroom Man a spoon, Willi turns away from them, wondering if and where her parents would keep a bucket of paint.
Thank you so much for reading!
This week, I commissioned my sister to draw Willi for me and she did SUCH a good job! I love it!!
