“I don’t know about this,” my friend said, as she stood in line to order a sub.
My gaze followed hers, down to a nearby bin. I blinked a couple of times, reminding myself I need to wear my glasses.
“Does that say …?”
M. nodded. “It does.”
I just shook my head in disbelief.
Because I wasn’t ordering, and because this was still the Time of COVID, I felt like I was in the way, so I told my friend I was going to look around the convenience store a bit.
I was wandering the various displays of junk food — pondering several bags of Doritos, eventually choosing none of them — and rounded a corner.
There it was. Again.
I stood on tip-toe to see if M. had picked one up — she hadn’t — and so I gave in to impulse. A nano-moment later, I put it on the counter, before I changed my mind.
Some things one just has to do — for science.
A little while later, as we resumed our road trip along Route 8 up to Miramichi, I pulled it out of my cooler bag.
“I did it,” I confessed. “Are you in?”
M. — with an expression of curiosity, skepticism, and horror which I was certain mirrored my own — agreed. Sink or swim, we were in this together.
I opened the package carefully, and broke the contents into four pieces. Two trials each. I handed M. her first portion, and simultaneously we put the pieces in our mouths.
Silent, thoughtful, and confused chewing ensued.
“What do you think?” I asked M.
“I … don’t know,” came the uncertain response.
“Me either. … Want to try again?”
Even after the second trial, we remained mystified and befuddled. Besides not being able to parse our reactions, we both had the same, unspoken question hurtling in our heads.
Who thinks to put a thin layer of popcorn in a chocolate bar?!
We may need to do more trials to decide whether it was a good idea or not.
For science.
This post was created as part of Two Writing Teachers’ Slice of Life Challenge.
You can view other writers’ contributions via the comments here.
This was funny. I was trying to figure out just what it was throughout the entire post. I did not expect that. I thought it would be a new flavored chip. Now, I must go find one and join in on your trials.
The pursuit of knowledge is never a bad idea. You definitely another go ’round with this one!
I love your build up and I’ll bet it was delicious, but you might need to try again to be sure!
Well. You know. EVERY valid experiment needs to be replicable. (So how did further experimentation go?)
You know, it’s funny – we had our own popcorn experiment. My son (an avid key lime pie fan) just came back from Trader Joe’s with a bag of key lime kettle corn. Verdict: tasty but we think we’ll stick with the pie, thank you very much!
Love the suspense and mystery you built into this post! I enjoyed it to the very end…as did you! 🙂