The Dinner Game

Fictionalized version of events that don't completely follow what happened, but close :)

“So, apparently, some people put pineapples in salt water because it makes them taste sweeter.”

Thus began the period of experimentation.

“Really? Okay, fine. I’m going to get pineapples and pour salt all over them.” Mora got out of her seat. The rest of us looked at each other.

“Do you think she was serious…?”

Apparently, she was. Mora came back a few minutes later with a plate full of pineapple. She sat down and dumped some salt on an empty portion of her plate. She picked up a piece of pineapple and dipped it in the salt. Stuck it in her mouth, smacked her lips a little.

“I can’t taste any difference.”

“Maybe there isn’t enough salt,” someone suggested. Mora rolled her eyes and picked up the salt shaker again, this time dumping salt directly onto the pineapple.

“Wait! But I said they soak the pineapple in salt water,” protested Rebecca. “Not directly on the pineapple.”

Mora gave her an exasperated look. “Okay, fine,” she said, picking a piece of ice out of her water and rubbing it over the piece of pineapple. After waiting for the ice to melt a little and doing the same salt treatment to the other side of the pineapple slice, Mora deemed her experimental setup ready. She picked up an unsalted pineapple.

“Control,” she said, holding it up for everyone. She took a bite. Then it was time for the salty pineapple. Mora picked it up with both hands and looked at it for a second before sticking it in her mouth. Her expression changed from apprehension to disgust.

“Salty!” she exclaimed after swallowing. “Ew!”

“Here, let me try,” came a voice. With her eyes still tightly closed, mouth pursed, Mora slid the plate diagonally across the table to David. We watched as he dumped a generous amount of salt onto another piece of pineapple, then stuck it in his mouth. Throughout the process, he kept his expression serious and neutral. After chewing and swallowing, he looked over at Mora.

“Do you not taste that?!” she yelled out.

“Yeah, it’s salty,” agreed David, looking as if he hadn’t eaten anything particularly interesting. Mora looked disappointed that the salty pineapple had gotten so little response out of David. She got out of her chair again.

“When I asked the counselors why salt would make a pineapple sweet, they said it’s because you get more of a response from your taste buds. You know how when you eat something really sweet, like ice cream, and then you eat something that’s supposed to be sweet, like a strawberry, the strawberry won’t be sweet anymore? It’s kind of like that.”

With that explanation, she left for the ice cream machine. She came back with a small bowl of vanilla ice cream.

“I’m going to try this.”

This experiment went down similar to the previous one. Verdict: salt in ice cream makes salty ice cream, an unhappy Mora and a seemingly indifferent David. Things seemed to be ready to wind down, but not before Mora noticed the other condiments on the table. She picked up the pepper shaker and dumped some on the ice cream. Unfortunately, like the salt, results weren’t very favorable. David volunteered to try the pepper as well, and again seemed unaffected. Salt and pepper taken care of, only the bottle of ketchup remained on the table untouched. Mora looked at the bottle of Heinz for a while, contemplating on whether she should try it. Curiosity got the better of her, and she uncapped the ketchup. Squirted a small amount of it into the ice cream. The rest of us sitting around her recoiled slightly at the sound of the ketchup coming out the bottle. No one else looked remotely willing to try ketchup with ice cream. With the exception of David, of course, who was eyeing the mixture with interest.

“Oh my god, this is disgusting,” Mora said as she turned the ice cream over the ketchup a few times. She took up a spoonful of ice cream and ketchup. It was barely in her mouth when she made a face and reached for a napkin, spitting the ketchup and ice cream back out.

“Ew! Ew! Ew!” she exclaimed. “I had ice cream, and then the ketchup all at once!”

David beckoned for the bowl with his finger. Mora looked surprised that he wanted to try it.

“Really?” she asked as she slid the bowl over to him. He nodded once, then took up the bottle of ketchup on his side of the table, squirting a very generous amount onto the ice cream. He mixed it around a bit, then took a spoonful. We watched apprehensively as he put it to his lips. Once again, he kept his neutral expression as he swallowed and put his spoon down.

“How do you do that?!” Mora squealed. “It’s so disgusting!” She left the table once again, this time to get some unaltered food for actual dessert.

“I win,” said David when she came back with a slice of vegan carrot cake.

Now that was something Mora couldn’t take.

“Oh my god. NO. I can’t lose this! I already lost to – No! I have to win this!” she yelled. She pointed to the carrot cake. “You choose what to put on this. If I eat it, then I win,” she said. At first, David refused, but eventually agreed to take the plate. He had a smile on his face as he left to wander the cafeteria. It was only after he left that Mora seemed to fully realize what she had gotten herself into.

“Oh no. Oh no. I’m scared now. I don’t know what he’ll put on it. It’ll be strawberry sauce. Yeah. Strawberry sauce,” she said, trying to reassure herself. David was gone for a few minutes.

“Where is he?!” Mora was getting more nervous by the second. We were all starting to wonder where he had gone off to. After a few more minutes, Mora had had enough. She went over to Corey to tell him of her predicament and to see if David had asked him for ideas. Corey was laughing when Mora led him back to our table. He denied helping David, but decided to stick around to see how things would turn out.

When David came back, the carrot cake was unrecognizable. It was covered in different colored sauces, much of which looked spicy. A lemon seed was on the side of the plate. Mora took one look at the mess and covered her face with her hands and groaned. All the same, she was determined to win her challenge. We all watched as she eyed the plate and poked the used-to-be-cake with her fork, unsure of what to do. Eventually she gained the courage to take a forkful and stick it to her mouth. Before it could go all the way in, she slammed it back down onto the plate, spluttering.

“Disgusting!” she cried, grabbing a napkin to remove the taste from her mouth. David and Corey laughed, while everyone else looked mildly disgusted and quite sorry that Mora had put herself through such torture. After she had gotten rid of most of the taste, comparing it to the taste of vomit, Mora slid the plate over to David.

“You eat it.”

Corey looked delighted at this turn of events. David took the plate. He asked for a clean fork, and went to get a glass of soda. We watched as he, in his customary calm manner, cut a piece of the cake with the fork. He covered its surface more thoroughly with the sauces at Mora’s protest, and stuck it all in his mouth. And swallowed. Mora was amazed.

“How did you DO THAT?!” The rest of us wondered as well. David just shrugged.

“What did it taste like?” Grace asked him.

“Well, of course it’s disgusting,” David replied, “it’s just that I still ate it.”

Mora looked very unhappy, but fortunately, had had enough and didn’t give another attempt. She asked David exactly what he had put on it. Sour cream, orange juice, lemon juice, green salsa, hot sauce, and salt, came the answer. Corey admitted to having helped with ideas. Mora seemed disappointed with herself, and found it hard to admit defeat, though she did so in the end.

“I don’t respect you anymore,” she told David. He just smiled.

With that, it was time to put our plates and cups to the dish return.

Just another typical day at the Dining Commons.    

At the Zoo

Prompt: If you earned the same salary and were treated with the same respect no matter what you chose, what would be your dream job and why?

I wake up in the morning to the sound of chirping birds and chattering monkeys. I roll out of bed, put on my work clothes, grab a quick breakfast, and head out the door towards the San Francisco Zoo, only a short walk away from my house. I’m greeted at the gates of my second home by several peacocks and nod hello to the zookeepers as I make my way towards my office. The simple plaque on the door reads, “Veterinarian”.

I love this zoo. Ever since fifth grade, I wanted to be a vet. Interest in smaller pets (growing up, I always had a dog) gradually turned to larger, more exotic animals. I love spending time with animals. Though it breaks my heart to see them ill or hurt, it makes me so happy to help them and watch them get better. Fortunately, the animals here are generally very healthy. During my free time, I like to go on rounds around the exhibits, saying hello to my favourite patients. As the only full time vet here, most of the animals know me and are comfortable with my presence, having been treated at least one time or another. Today is a quiet day. I finish up with some paperwork, and head out to the exhibits.

First, I go over to the sea lion pool to greet Silent Knight and Henry. It never ceases to amaze me to watch the two companions, both completely blind, play together in the pool. I spent much of my time watching, caring for and studying them when they first showed up. Both had had experienced traumatic situations that cost them their eyesight, and, after spending some time in the Marine Mammal Center, had come to live at the zoo. Though it had taken a little longer for them to become accustomed to the pool and their lack of eyesight, now the two sea lions can rush towards a fish so fast you’d never know they couldn’t see. I laugh as they speed towards me from the other side of the pool and stick their snouts into my hands, trying to eat their fish while figuring out which pleasant person has come to give them food. Henry gives a bark of approval after swallowing his treat, and dives back into the water. Silent Knight follows closely behind.

Next, I go to see the chimpanzees. They approach cautiously, clinging to branches, as I enter their caged home. It’s a little saddening to see their living quarters so limited, but it was good to have had some say in how big to make all the exhibits, so that the animals would be comfortable. Today, I come with a salutary bunch of mini bananas. The chimps here know me the best; I came here almost every day this past year, doing the first half of my research project on chimps in and out of captivity. Working with these animals was much more exciting than my earlier job in a lab, where I spent much of my time pipetting my specimens from test tube to petri dish. I spend a little time playing with the chimps. The bananas were also a form of thank you. Soon, I’ll be packing up and going on leave for a year, traveling around Africa to study the chimpanzees there. A small chimp, who I spend much time with due to complications during birth, is happy to try to climb up my back to reach a leaf that’s fallen into my ponytail. I pull him off and give him a quick hug before returning him to a waiting relative. I had named the chimp Kanzi, and, as a sort of side experiment, had tried to teach him the lexigram language that had made his namesake famous. It made me proud when he began consistently pointing to his name when he heard it, a few months after I started working with him. Now, as a two year old chimp, he had a vocabulary of almost 100 words. The bright little guy was definitely my favourite. I would miss him during my year away, but I was still extremely excited for my upcoming trip to Africa.

For the rest of the day, I wander among the various exhibits, checking up on the different animals, making sure they’re all feeling well. The little wonders and achievements of the creatures are what keep me here. It makes me feel like a parent watching a growing child: the newborn giraffe taking her first wobbly steps; the little polar bear finally reaching the meat at the center of the ice cube; the snake that nearly got killed by a car now coiled up contently around a thick tree branch. Watching all these amazing creatures, it’s like living in a dream. 

Jump

She stood at the edge of the cliff, harness in hand, and looked down. The canyon was so deep, she couldn’t even see the bottom even though it was the middle of the afternoon. It had seemed a much shorter drop in the picture of the brochure. Katie took a deep breath and backed away from the edge. She hadn’t gone this far just to freak out. It’s no different from diving, she told herself. It’s just like jumping off the high board. It was just a farther drop. A longer time in the air. No friendly swimming pool at the bottom. Only hard, unforgiving rock. Katie groaned and nearly threw up. Why was she doing this?

“Katie, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” a friendly voice called out. Katie looked up from her doubled over position to Sam, who was already strapped into his own harness, staring at her in concern. Katie pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes and stood up straight.

“Nah, I can do it,” she said, trying to believe it. “We agreed. No backing out after coming this far.” She sat down on the gravel a good distance away from the edge of the cliff and tried to feel confident.

Too soon, Katie was back at the edge, this time with an instructor and inside the harness. Katie nodded patiently as the instructor told her what to do. She listened closely, careful to keep her composure. You can do this, she told herself. You’ve done everything else so far… this shouldn’t be too hard. It won’t be hard.

Once everyone was ready, the instructor told them they would go one at a time. Katie would go first. In the split second before jumping, Katie’s mind went blank. She forgot everything the instructor had said, and didn’t hear what he was saying. All she knew was one moment she was standing with her feet on firm ground, and the next she was falling, no, flying through the air. She was dropping straight down, but it felt like she was flying. Katie spread her arms out and would have yelled with joy if she didn’t remember that opening her mouth would only make a lot of air rush into it. Then, all of a sudden, she reached the end of the bungee line, and was flying back up at full speed. This time she watched as the canyon walls blurred past. The rock seemed to change color, as if she were watching a sunset on fast forward, as she zoomed up towards the sun.

 

And then, without warning, she was back on earth, sitting on the ground, still in the bungee harness.

“Oh my god!” she exclaimed to Sam, who was looking at her with an amused expression. Katie leaned back and lay on the ground. She pumped both fists into the air. “Let’s do that again!”