I Ate All The Cake

I Ate All The Cake - This title was created through terribleminds flashfiction challenge and the credit goes to the person who writes this  blog. https://geletilari.wordpress.com

I chose this title out of many on terriblemind flashfiction challenge. I thought I was going to write another Yggdrasil/Nanna tale. Then, this came to mind. It is a stretch for me to write something like this and I may chock it up as a failed experiment into modern everyday story writing.



Two acolytes took turns pulling on the rope to ring the bells. The bells signaled the completion of a wedding  ceremony. The wedding party and guests filed outside where a white tent was set up under trees turning various shades of yellow and red. It was a fairytale wedding and Reverend Margareta was ecstatic having presided over her fifth wedding and this time it all went smoothly. She hoped one day her wedding would be as pretty though perhaps a little less extravagant.

The couple and the wedding party posed for the photographer.

“Margareta!” yelled the groom, Daniel, and beckoned with his hand for her to join them. “We want you in this picture.”

Margareta smile and looked at her vestment. They were cream colored and had a delicate decoration down the front. It hid her female figure.

“Yes, of course, I would be glad to be included,” she said as she reached the happy scene.

With pictures done, everyone mingled and were oohing and awing over the served hors-d'oeuvre. After several pictures were taken, Margareta went back to her office in the church to hang up her vestments. She straightened her hair in the closet mirror and rejoined the reception.


“Reverend Margareta, I would like to introduce my son.” A woman dressed in lavender approached her with a man in his mid-twenties. Margareta chuckled to herself because this happened every Sunday and at every ceremony, even at funerals.

“Harold, this is Reverend Margareta. Isn’t she pretty!”

The man smirked at his mother and then faced Margareta and extended a hand.

Margareta shook it. “It’s a pleasure to met you, Harold.”

“Umm, yeah. Umm.”

“Harold, ask her, you said you would.” The mother jabbed him the side. Margareta knew what was coming next and she could tell that Harold wasn’t the least bit interested in taking a priest on a date.

“Yes, Umm. Miss Margareta would you like to go to dinner with me tomorrow night. I know it’s short notice, but I, umm, leave to go back to Detroit on Sunday.”

The mother scowled and Margareta knew he probably wasn’t leaving on Sunday, but it was a way to make sure he didn’t have to go to church.

“Oh, it’s too bad that it couldn’t be another night. I have an obligation this Friday.” Margareta noticed instant relief crossed Harold’s face. He smiled at Margareta and wandered off.

“He’s a good boy and has a good job. Next time he visits, I’ll have you over for dinner.” The mother watched her departing son.

“That will be great and I hope it’s peach pie season.” Margareta knew all the older ladies favorite things to make and bring to church coffee hours. She could tell it pleased them when she slipped in a mention of  the food into the conversation. “Excuse me.” Margareta  headed towards the wedding couple who were in conversation with the best man whom she hadn’t met. He was absent during the rehearsal.

The second, Margareta was close to the couple Daniel grabbed her into a hug. “I’m so happy.”

“Let go of her,” said Scott the other groom. “and introduce her to our best man.”

“Oh, yes. They haven’t met. Fiske, this is Margareta. He’s been my friend since second grade and when I met Scott…”

Margareta had heard this particular tale of Daniel’s already and it floated above her head. She was instantly drawn into Fiske’s face by his dancing green eyes. He was smiling at her with warmth and not the normal how-can-I-get-away-so-I-don’t-have-to-talk-to-a-priest most men in their twenties smiled when they met her. She concluded that he must also be gay since young gay men had never been shy about talking to her.

~

Fiske reached out and took Margareta’s hand and shook it. He waited patiently for Daniel to finish his story after all it was his day and if he wanted to tell how Scott and he were fishing buddies then who was he to stop him. He glanced from Daniel to Margareta and wondered if she thought he was gay. Most people assumed so when he was around Daniel and Scott, but he wasn’t.

Fisked noticed Margareta staring occasionally at him while Daniel talked. He thought about during the wedding ceremony and the confident way Margareta stood in front of the crowd and the joy that came through her words as she pronounced Daniel and Scott married.

“...and that’s why Fiske had to be our best man,” finished Daniel.

“Ok, husband of mine, we need to get food and mingle.” They walked toward the elegantly laid out table teaming with fine food.

“I’m so happy they dumped the idea of a formal sit down dinner,” Fiske said hoping to engage Margareta in a conversation.

“Yes, I can’t see Daniel sitting for that long.”

“He used to drive the teacher’s crazy with his fidgeting. How many gay weddings have you done?” Why did he ask that? How did that question come across as I’m not gay and I find myself attracted you?

“This is the first official wedding ceremony. I have..”

“That’s right. Rules have been changed recently.” Damn, he thought, I just cut her off and, of course, she knows the rules have changed. Then he thought, I’m attracted to a priest.

Margareta nodded.

He mentally took a deep breath. “Would you come with me to the bar? I haven’t had a chance to get a drink and it looks like neither have you.”

“Yes. Scott said they would have my favorite wine.”

With drinks in hand, Fiske, looking out at the scene of  wedding goers, flowers, and Scott and Daniel each holding a plate of untouched food. “I’m not gay,” he blurted out and noticed Margareta stopped mid-sip.

“I, well, I did think you might...but I wouldn’t...I think I would like to get some food to go with the wine.”

“Good idea.” The walked to plates at the end of the table.


~

Margareta felt a giggle welling up inside of her. Was Fiske trying to flirt with her a little bit, she wondered. She glanced at him while putting a slice of smoked salmon on her plate. He’s tall and those green eyes and do I detected muscles beneath the tux; she noticed in her quick glance.

She glanced away quickly because he was staring at her and had only one slice of bread on his plate in comparison to the mound that was accumulating on hers. What should she say, she wondered and unfortunately, her next sentence was more motherly than what a young woman attracted to a man would say.

“A piece of bread isn’t a healthy meal.”

He laughed, “I’m, well, distracted.”

“Distracted?”

The quartet stopped playing and the wedding planner announced that everyone should get a champagne flute for the toasts.

“Best man, toast and all. That means me, right.” Fiske smile and headed towards one of the server’s with champagne glasses and grabbed one.

Margareta headed for an empty seat. When she had set down her plate and wine, she was handed a glass of champagne. She wandered if Fiske would bother to talk to her again or would he be distracted by another girl. There were a many pretty, and not priests, girls as quests.

People mingled around her and several quickly told her how lovely the ceremony was. The crackly of the mic stopped everyone's conversation. The toasts began and the stories about the couple were what Margareta had heard at other weddings of humor, kindness, and love. She enjoyed them all and finally it was Fiske’s turn.

“Those who know me here, know that I’m not much of a words man.”

“Hear, Hear,” broke in a man holding a beer and a champagne flute.

He ignored the man, “Daniel, Scott, to your long and happy marriage may it always be as exciting as hooking a sixteen-inch rainbow trout.”

The crowd cheered and Fiske handed the mic to Scott. Margareta watched him walk straight towards her.

He smiled when he reached her table and said, “Let me have another go at filling my plate and then can I sit with you.”

With her reply of yes, he practically sprinted to the table and filled a plate quickly. She watched his every move.

When he sat next to her, “I was about to say something about being distracted…”

Oohs and awes came from the crowd as the caterers brought out the enormous three-tiered cake.

Margareta laughed. “I don’t think I could eat all of that cake in a year.”

“Who could or who would even try.”

Her smile broadened. “It was my first wedding as a priest. The bride had come to me two weeks before she wanted the wedding. Her groom was going to be on leave and she had just found out. Fortunatley, the day she wanted the wedding the church was available.  It's a popular church for wedding. " She stopped and was about to quit telling the story.

"This sounds like a good story. And..." Fiske egged her on.

"I was so nervous that day. I didn’t know the bride well and she didn’t have a rehearsal. The churched filled up on her side and I did know a few of them, but the groom's side was empty. Before the ceremony was to begin, I went out and announced that half the guest should move to the grooms side. People were in the midst of rearranging themselves when the bride stormed into the nave. And I mean stormed. Both fists had hand fulls of her dress hiking it up, so she wouldn’t trip."

Fiske laughed loudly, "I can see it."

 "And, You could see venom in her eyes. When she reached the front, she grabbed a vase of flowers and smashed it in front of her and said, “He back out! We’re done and this wedding isn’t happening. Go home.” She left the church in the same manner with her mother and father running after her. Everyone left. The decorations, the reception meal, everything was left. While a the epistles cleaned up the nave, I went into the parish hall and in the kitchen was a homemade wedding cake. I cut myself a slice and… well, I ate it and then another slice.”

“And then the whole thing!?”

“Yes, good god. Why did I tell that story?”

“It's funny. Margareta, will you go out to dinner with me?”

She stared into his green eyes and noticed the smile that played around them. “Are you sure?”

“Episcopal priests can date, right? I know the one I knew growing up had a wife and family.”

“Yes, It’s just that,” she looked toward the cake and them back at Fiske. “Yeah, I would like that.”














2 comments:

  1. That was quite good, Alice :)

    Admittedly, I ignored the fact that this was a 'modern everyday story' and had my fingers crossed for Cthulhu to show up. Still, even without his appearance, the piece was interesting and made you want to to read until the end to see how you worked the title in.

    The only thing that I can gripe about is the gay couple. Perhaps it's just because I've seen it in stories frequently these days and I'm somewhat jaded by it. It seems that everyone is throwing gay/lesbian characters into stories and labeling it 'modern'. In many cases, although not in this instance, it can feel forced, as if a story without anyone homosexuals will be seen as 'politically incorrect' or 'outdated'.

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  2. Yeah, I can see that about "throwing in" a gay couple. I really wanted to have it as background because of the changes that the United State Episcopal church has made to its liturgy. Then, with the Pope's visit to the US, it was on my mind.

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