Not the Taste Experience We Were Looking For

Today my piece, "Not the Taste Experience We Were Looking For," appears in Short, Fast, and Deadly i44.

I'm thrilled to have this published. It's the creative result of something that bothered me for months before I got any validation that it was a real phenomenon. The eggs we would get from a certain local farm at a certain not-so-local store had a distinctly flowery taste to them. The chickens were pecking at wildflowers or something. If I had been anticipating it, it wouldn't have been so bad, but going to the breakfast table with only eggy expectations, it was pretty unpleasant. My husband couldn't taste the difference, but he was sympathetic that it must not be good. I thought maybe I was crazy. I thought maybe we weren't washing the soap off the cooking pans thoroughly enough. We tried disguising it with salt, pepper, and cheese, but the only solution was for me to eat eggs from another farm and another store. (Not having eggs at certain breakfasts was not an option.) Of course, the flowery eggs were slightly cheaper, and the other store was out of the way for us. My husband continued getting the flowery eggs for himself, and I got the special, normal-tasting eggs.

Until one fine day, my husband's face contorted into the very picture of dismay. Ever so faintly, he could taste the flowers! Validation at last! Double validation when "Not the Taste" was accepted for publication!

It's the story of an intrepid couple who try to eat very local, but are hounded by the powers that be until they have no choice but to go back to the food that tastes weird and processed to them. The story is very short to get all of that, but again, with microfiction, the seed of the idea can blossom into all kinds of interpretations in the readers' minds.

If anyone else has experienced the taste of flowers in their eggs, please let me know. We can approach the farms, but mostly we can feel taste bud solidarity.

Follow the link to enjoy:  i44