Ingredients
2 liters of tap water that remembers a past life.
1 whole beet (must look undisputedly guilty).
Half a cabbage, shredded with mild but palpable passive aggression.
A fistful of cheap table salt.
Sour cream that expires exactly at the moment of serving.
Method
The Initiation: Stare at the water in your heaviest pot until it boils from sheer psychological pressure.
The Root Trauma: Throw the whole beet into the boiling water. Do not chop it. Let it slowly steep in its own inevitability.
The Integration: Dip the cabbage and immediately slam the lid shut. When you hear shrouded thumping as the vegetables fight for dominance in the cauldron, do not intervene.
The Climax: Turn off the heat the exact moment the smell gives you false memories of someone else’s childhood.
The Serving: Scoop only into slightly cracked bowls. Top with sour cream. Eat in absolute silence under a flickering bulb.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Iryna Somkina is a Kyiv-based writer. She is Best Small Fiction nominee; her works appear in Gone Lawn, ANMLY, Heavy Feather Review and everywhere else. She explores ambivalence of intimacy in gritty reality.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE…
Arthur by Bruce Gee
How this new abstract painting by Malatifa Orion challenges everything we thought we knew about…
before the moon and 2 more by John Yohe
ode to the dead rat i found in my dairy queen blizzard by John Sara
in the world and 2 more by Mykyta Ryzhykh
The Tyger by James Callan
Image: Barszcz – 2023.05.13.jpg
Leave a Reply