It was not a question–more like an exclamation of disbelief. Alma had just sat his food tray down next to you on the table and was in the process of sitting on the bed. He had one leg hooked over the smooth wooden plank before your words stopped him momentarily in his tracks. He glanced down at his tray questioningly.
“Noodles?” He answered questioningly. Surely you had seen noodles before? He didn’t want to seem rude, though, and thus did not ask.
“No, I know that,” you huffed. “I meant the pile on top of them.”
Alma lifted his other leg over the bench and sat down. He beamed brightly at you, taking up his pair of chopsticks and breaking them apart smoothly.
“Mayo! I love the stuff.”
You stared at the mountain of Mayo. You stared, and stared, and stared. Alma did not notice it and dug in to his meal. The movement of his hand snapped you out of your daze.
“You sure do,” you replied dryly. Alma’s chewing slowed and he watched you for a moment. He slid over closer to you, bringing his bowl along with him, and pinched some noodles, twisting them around the chopsticks in order to keep the Mayo from falling off, and offered the bite to you.
“Here, try it! It’s good!”
Your eyes widened and you quickly met his gaze. You weren’t entirely sold on the idea of sticking that mess in your mouth. You could respect his tastes–or at least tolerate them–but that did not mean you wanted to try them. You opened your mouth to let Alma know as much, but he took it as a sign for him to stick the bite in your mouth and proceeded to feed you. You made a startled noise and closed your mouth around the chopsticks on reflex to keep from spraying food everywhere. It felt like you had a big glob of Mayo in your mouth, and you couldn’t taste the noodles at all. He removed the chopsticks and you had no choice but you chew and swallow. The act sent a shiver down your spine and you closed your eyes a moment to recover.
“It was good, right?” He asked hopefully. Without opening your eyes, you weakly responded to him.
“It wasn’t quite to my liking.”
“Aw. Too bad. More for me, then.”
Alma ate on, happy as ever, totally unaware of the horror you had just experienced.
Toad's Cave 