In Kay's Kitchen

In Kay's Kitchen
copyright OCT 2008
Word count: 340
Flash Fiction prompt.


Kay's Kitchen was a haven, soft and glowing, scented with cinnamon, butter, and long simmering roasts. Everything was "Just So" and "Utterly Perfect" and "How Dear"...or so I thought before I heard the muffled thumps in the side cupboard.

I was only one of many house guests, but the only one who couldn't sleep. Well-worn boards sighed and creaked beneath my feet. Delicately lit grapevine wreaths and polished copper clamored in a most polite and Kay-like fashion for my attention, welcoming the expected flattery, but ready to deflect it prettily with the deft grace of a consummate actress.

The thumps continued, louder, insistent. I found myself wondering what kind of ghost could live in the Uber--perfection of Kay's fairytale home. Would she require them to have their 800-thread-count-organic-cotton-shrouds to be freshly starched and pressed after each night of haunting...perhaps lovingly spritzed with lavender linen water. Would they hang themselves up neatly in sachet-laden garment bags, on the off chance that some imaginary errant moth would make an appearance?

Louder then...and louder still. Even in this land of obsessively crisp antique doilies, something was off. My heart shifted into overdrive...and I could not tell which thumps came from my chest or behind the ancient wooden doors. I moved toward the cupboard, slow shallow breaths between bitten lower lip...noticing in spite of myself, that the brass knobs of the cupboard had been polished with to a soft, luminous glow.

The doors rattled again, and I could hear all six sets of Kay's unchipped Lenox china shivering in response. There was nothing for it. I ripped open the doors, and discovered
a bedraggled, snaggle-toothed-one-eyed fiend...its mouth dripping with carnage.
The ancient beast poured out of the cupboard, glaring at me with the contempt that only the very fat, and most Persian of cats could maintain.

As I watched it saunter awkwardly away, I breathed a prayer of absolute joy, ecstatic at last. Finally, I could sleep soundly. There were mice in Kay's Oh-So-Perfect kitchen...and life was now very good, indeed.