Vegetable Soup

Nobody could tell Richard and Leslie what to do. They were the youngsters of the new generation, the fighters that would create a new world. They had set up their Facebook pages for activism and did regular meetings with the townspeople to ensure the perfect fate they felt they deserved.

And perfection was what they sought. How could perfect humans neglect the infinite possibilities around them? "Ethics", they say in one of the town meetings, "are so ephemeral that our children will probably condemn us for the most unexpected of reasons". Nobody clapped or agreed. They were the pariahs and they knew it, but that could not stop them from fighting.

"Then they came and took our Willy to the county hospital!" a woman complained in agony to the only people who would hear. "I told them I'd take care of him but no, they had to push their agenda. And now the doctors didn't listen to me about his allergies and they drove him into a coma!"

"Oh no!", said Leslie, "that's so horrible!"

Richard agreed and nodded. Then he pulled Leslie away from the woman and whispered in her ear. Leslie suddenly burst into laughter and covered her face to hide her blush. She whispered to him and he whispered back, and none of them noticed that they had broken the whole atmosphere of tragedy and the woman was glaring at them.

They kept joking and laughing and excused themselves from the house they were visiting.

They drove home and picked up the secret ingredients for the tastiest soup they knew. This was going to be the best moment in their lives and they knew it. They wanted it to be perfect, exactly what they sought.

The birds chirped unlistened around the red sedan that flew at about 100 miles over the speed limit toward the county. Richard and Leslie had smiles that they would find charming in each other, but this complicity in strangeness was what pushed others away. Their hearts were beating fast and the world seemed to be in slow motion.

They slowed down when the county town was in sight. The impatience was killing them.

"I've always loved your vegetable soup, Leslie," Richard murmured in his seat of the car, "I really hope this is the tastiest one as of yet. We need the strength"

They quickly drove into the quiet garage and ran into the otherwise bustling hospital. They knew this place like the palm of their hands. They found their favourite closet, grabbed a couple of white coats and ran into the intensive care wing wearing them. There were paper holders on every wall. Their eyes browsed every one of the room descriptions as they hurried until they found one with a William Palmer.

From the stretcher, they carried William onto the back seat of their sedan. He was fortunately small and could lie there without much discomfort (not that he would mind). From the darkness of the garage, they drove into the bright street and sped through the streets like there was no tomorrow.

"Hurry up, Richie!" Leslie exclaimed, "soon the froth will start leaking from the cauldron!"

And hurry he did, speeding up even faster than before. The car trembled through the highway as if it were excited too. Leslie's knee bounced up and down with her hand on it. She looked back at Willy every couple seconds as if he were going to disappear.

Willy was lying on the kitchen table. A strong smell of soup invaded his nostrils. It was so strong that it pervaded his every sleeping thought and his brain seemed to be in overdrive. An fMRI scan would have shown activity comparable to a jolt of adrenaline. He slowly opened his eyes and found a shiny vertical oval with an irregular surface. His brain adjusted to his position and the smell and he realised that it was a bowl of soup being held right in front of his face. It was the tastiest one he had ever smelled.

-- The End --

I don't know if the point of this story comes across, but I was listening to a song and asked myself "what's so strange about a vegetable soup?" and at once felt the need to write this story. What did you think of it?