FILES FROM THE PAST

Hi. I haven’t done anything in a while. I’ll re-phrase that: I haven’t done anything directly related to this blog. And so, finally, here we are.

The truth is, I’ve gotten side-tracked and gone back to working on a short story for adults that I began a while back, maybe a year ago. As in many projects, I had the beginning of something but I wasn’t sure which mountain top to take the story to in order to continue it. (I’ve been avoiding mountain tops of late but it’s probably time to start climbing-I do hear that’s where the best view is, haha...) 

Anyways, after critique dinners with friends, fried chicken, and lattes with hipsters, I’ve decided to give the rest of the work a try. It's funny how some projects need to lie in waiting for quite a while before we can get the right amount of courage to continue them. 

I'm sharing the writing, here- the intro. Please feel free to read it and provide any kind of feedback you like.

I hope you enjoy it. It’s the beginning of a tale about Axl Rose and his quest to better the world by giving out free cheese cakes. And it’s about enlightenment in Toronto.

Here's a summary:

Direct and to-the-point, Lilly’s leadership and trailblazing skills have served her well, leading her far away from the sticks and tumbleweeds of hick town. The traffic lights of Toronto’s city streets now make her happy and she plans to keep it that way- what with a sane, faithful husband at her side, a bottle of filtered reverse-osmosis water on her desk, and a pair of feet planted firmly in the international downtown business world. Life couldn’t be a happier thing. Her family's bewildering antics and hippiness are well out of reach. But all of that's about to change when a new adventure sets in, with an aim to bring all the craziness back. And it all starts backwards- with dessert first.

   

                             *                                     *                                 *

                                                         Some Dessert 

                                                                                        

                                                                               by 

                                                                  Victoria Simpson

     “Hey, who brought the cheese cake?”

     Tom was sitting with his feet up on the desk near the printer, when a tall woman in a smart orange blouse marched around the corner, ready for her morning. Lilly stopped short in her tracks and visibly brought her mind to the present situation.

     “What cheesecake?”

     A blank.

     “The one that’s sitting there, next to your husband,” said Tom. He made a nod towards her desk.

Lilly put her laptop and attaché case down on the chair in her cubicle and went over to the box that was sitting beside a framed photo of Greg, her husband, that had been taken hang gliding over fields off the escarpment in southern Ontario, last summer. The box had a neat pink bow tied around it and a triangular sticker. Pink and blue- a classical font. It read: “Kurry’s Kitchen-Proper Cakes since 1889.”

     “It was here when I got here,” said Tom. He shrugged. “I thought maybe you’d come in early or something. O.K! So, here’s to another glowing round of who can underscore Walter’s prices first and put Strathcome out to sea before lunch, having them begging..BEGGING for…”

 Lilly turned the box around and picked it up. It was heavy-heavier than a bunt at least, and much more solid. She placed it back down.

     “Well, who put it here?” she asked, her back to Tom.

     “No idea, my friend. C’est un mystere. Why ME askin’ CHEW.”

     Lilly hesitated.

     “But was anyone in the area? Someone must have seen someone.”

     “Nada. No clue,” said Tom. He started in on his computer. A small envelope lay behind the cake, close to Lilly’s electric pencil sharpener and she hadn’t seen it before. And so, she picked it up and opened it.

     “Dear Madam,” it read. It was scripted in Word; an Edwardian font. Not hand-done, but Lilly could appreciate the fancy curls and swirls, nonetheless. She continued:

     “Good morning. You are the recipient of my twenty-fifth cheesecake. We’re on a bit of a trial        

      run, and trying cherry this time. I’m starting a campaign on embracing the ‘sweeter things’ in     

      life and cheesecakes are first on my list. Basically, I feel that the world needs to slow down

     and savour what it’s got. I’ll see you soon to find out how it went.

     Eat slowly,

     Sincerely,

     Axl Rose

                                        

Lilly closed the card. She wasn’t sure, entirely, WHO Axl Rose was. She knew he was in a band, one of those heavy metal ones, big rock sounds- head wraps, long hair, lots of black on their posters, that sort of thing-but, when put on the spot, she didn’t know really exactly where he fell. But she felt safer now about opening the box, even if it could have been a rather false sense of security. A tad bit more snuggly. (Was Axl Rose snuggly?)

     “You know, I was thinkin’ you know, what if it’s a BOMB-“ said Tom. He chuckled and kept on typing.

     “You open it…and KAPOW!! All of us are blown to smithereens,” he laughed more loosely. “Yowsers! All of that for a cheesecake!”

     Lilly ignored him. Standing next to the box, she felt a closer kinship with Aerosmith or Guns’n Roses, or Metallica. She cut the seal with her nail.

     “You want some? It’s cherry.” She lifted the lid and took a lick with her finger. Mmmm…rich and creamy.

     Tom failed to turn around but logged quickly into Facebook.

     “Wow-O.K-! Umm…no thanks. There’s always poison.”

     As a hungry employee who’d skipped yet another breakfast, Lilly felt differently. She took the dessert from the box and cleared a space for it on the metal filing cabinet and let the

sweetness of sugar and vanilla creep upwards for a moment, spreading itself out in the air and caressing her nostrils with the slightest wave of enduring aroma.

     She took a serviette from her drawer and with the help of a ruler, (which had never in its desk life, actually, as of yet been used,) Lilly cut a small sliver from the pie and placed it neatly on the napkin in her hand. She broke off the end and tasted it. A tangy sweetness; a bit of zest mixed with cheese and waves of custard-filled dreams inundated the senses like a welcome spring meandering through town on a hot Iowa afternoon. The experience wafted down her throat, massaging the esophagus as it went.

    And that’s when he appeared. And not as Lilly had expected. He didn’t jump up from the product development department or come forth from the hallway planter, oozing out from the tangled ferns and the dying bamboo. Nope. He simply sauntered gently around the corner. He admitted later that, in fact, in future circumstances, yes, he would provide more time for reflection. It was difficult for the recipient to give any kind of detailed feedback on the food with such a small window of opportunity to taste. But she’d swallowed, and there he was.

Axel. Or rather, Axl.

     “Hey there, m’lady- how was it?” he’d asked. Lilly’d searched her mind for an answer.

     “It was rockin’….man,” she replied. As if trying to fit in-crowds and crowds of Axl Rose.

     “No, but the cherry- you know, did it come across?” he’d sounded uncertain. “Because we’ve

 been trying a new recipe, and”- Lilly had cut him off, words come tumbling out.

      “It was fantastic! It was wonderful. It was- I’ve never had such fruit

sensations...It was as if-”

And that was all it took. Over the course of a conversation and through the simplest mention of orange rind, not only did what some would type-cast as the best entertainer of all time meet

Des Moines’ top project manager of 2009, but it was at this point that a particular path was begun for both. A path down which there would be a simultaneous discovery-in different rooms, and in different time zones, mind you, but a discovery nonetheless-of one of life’s little mysteries. Which could solidly be classified as the divine connection they both shared through Great Aunt Helga.