1 @StoryADayMay Steffie at the Stove
Today is the first of the month, so I have a new Hot Flash. It’s also Wednesday, so I have a food post for you. It’s also the first day of Story A Day in May, so I have the first of 31 short story attempts. I got up at 6:00 this morning, so I hope you appreciate it. That’s 6:00 in the AM!!!
One of the writing groups I belong to had a writing challenge I hadn’t done yet, so I took that as my prompt. Write a story using the words: caramel, binder, Stonehenge.
Steffie at the Stove
Steffie was an international spy, but sometimes she liked to pretend she was the star of a cooking show. Nothing calmed her down at the end of a mission more than messing about in the kitchen.
Today, she didn’t even need to take down the old blue binder, its denim covering faded and threadbare, filled with the recipes she’d been collecting since high school. She knew what she had a taste for.
“There are many uses for caramel,” she said aloud, smiling for the imaginary camera. “One can make caramels, of course, which make lovely gifts, wrapped in twists of cellophane and piled into a pretty box.”
She measured equal amounts of butter and brown sugar into a ceramic saucepan, turned the heat to medium high, and began the stirring that would continue for three minutes after the candy came to a boil.
“One can pour it over popped corn, one can use it to make Soda Cracker Candy, one can top ice cream with it.” Or one can cook it longer than three minutes, producing a substance so hard and sticky that, had Stonehenge been put together with it, Stonehenge would still be complete.
Caramel needed attention. That was why she didn’t realize Donhoff had infiltrated her home base until she felt his Glock at her temple. She granted him the right to his triumphant grin.
“I have caught you unaware! Few can claim that. Now, where is –”
She tossed the pot over her shoulder, wiping the grin off Donhoff’s face with a coat of scalding, clinging (but delicious!) syrup.
He screamed and dropped his gun. Fortunately, she never went anywhere–not even to the kitchen–without her own. She fired twice: once in the heart and once in the head.
As she waited for the Agency clean-up crew to arrive, she said, “Yes, one can always put caramel to some good use. Till next time, this is Steffie At The Stove saying, Let’s get cooking!”
~ * ~
During May, the daily writing prompt will be the one I used for my story. You’re welcome to use them yourselves. You’re also welcome to drop a link to your Story A Day post so I can come read yours. 
MA
