Fiction
Table of Contents


Brian the Writer
Home

Remembrances of Things Pasta

Brian McCorkle

The Fox Valley Writer's Club fines members who show up for a meeting with nothing to read. To alleviate the pain of write or pay, we instituted a five word challenge. Each meeting we pick five words for a short wring exercise for the next meeting. The exercise is writing that will prevent the fine.

I got a bit carried away with the words and enjoyed writing this short‑short story.

The words were: ravenous, unforgettable, paranoia, lederhosen, noodle

At first sight, Gunther fell madly in love with this ravenous and unforgettable beauty. He was attending one of his favorite events; an all you can eat spaghetti buffet. They bumped plates, mixed their strands, and shared their sauce. Soon, he discovered their common adoration of things from angel-hair to ziti.

Soon, he shared her delights intermingled with pasta feasts devoured in ecstasy. They married and, of course, orzo was thrown at the couple as they marched to their waiting stretch limo. So smitten was Gunther that he didn't observe his growing girth. But, his love did and she smiled to herself.

He finally suffered from belated paranoia when he discovered that his darling had thoroughly soaked his lederhosen with water as he napped away a meal.

Only then he realized that he mistook lust for love, and he had been thinking with the wrong noodle.

As poor Gunther was squeezed into a glutinous mess, his beloved wasted no time. She was off to the pasta buffets prowling for another prey.
First Appeared in Ego Trips Number Seven (Autumn 2008)
Experimental Literary Journal of the
Fox Valley Writers Club (Wisconsin)