Lemon pie
Nina loaded the last lemon pie into the oven. Her friends were leaving for the lake.
“C’mon, let’s go!” Bike bells jingled.
Her mother called out. “Nina!”
“Almost done!”
“When I finish my cigarette, they had better be ready!”
Nina turned the oven to 500 and slipped out the door.
The Lemon pie backstory
I guess I have lemons on my mind! This is my second micro-fiction story based on the story prompt of “lemon.” I had drafted out a few. So I decided to post one in response to the weekly 50-word challenge, and one to a contest by @eveningart. The contest prompt is a monochrome window, which lent a dark edge to this story’s beginnings.
I thought of many possible directions I could go with with a story inspired by the delightful and multi-faceted lemon, as I mentioned in the first story, Unseen.
This little fruit can make you think of sweet pie or tart lemonade. You may think of a lemon tree, and remember the lyrics of the charming Peter, Paul and Mary song: “Lemon tree, very pretty! And the lemon flower is sweet. But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.” Or you might think of times when things go badly awry, and you feel like life has handed you a box of lemons.
Perhaps when you smell a lemon, it brings back a memory from childhood… a day sitting out on a sunny patio when your grandmother brought you the most delicious glass of lemonade you had ever tasted in your life. And then you found out it was Minute Maid.
Memories are excellent fodder for fiction, as are the odd interwoven bits of idea, dream and memory that seem to float about in our subconscious until they are unsettled by a simple word. Lemon. Or an aroma. Lemon pie.
I believe those tidbits are just waiting to be explored in some creative form. My chosen method is fiction. What’s yours?
The Lemon pie story is about oppression – when one person self-righteously maintains dominion over another. I don’t know the full backstory here, because it came to me on one of those whispers of idea, dream and memory and I am merely coaxing it along to see if it needs further exploration.
Perhaps Nina and her mother make the pies to sell at a local market. But all is not right here. Somehow, though very young, Nina has been coerced into doing all the work. And at some point, she snaps. Instead of doing what she is told, she ruins the pies.
Thank you for reading!
