The Power Of Food And Music – myshortstory.

And so, the time has come. I decided I’m going to write a short story in English. Please be understanding as it’s my first one, so it may not be perfect stylistically or grammatically, also my vocabulary in English is still much less extensive than Polish, so my skills are limited, and I wanted to start off with something very simple and uncomplicated, probably even quite superficial, but I hope it will be enjoyable and still of bearable quality. i came up with this idea on Tuesday, and I based it on some writing prompts for Tuesday that I found on WordPress. Opinions are more than welcome. 😉

 

 

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The Power Of Food And Music

 

It was a gloomy,

Tuesday

afternoon, and Eleonora Greene, known as Ellie among her friends – a young chemist – has just come back home from work. She was knackered. She spent most of the day doing all sorts of experiments in her

laboratory.

Ellie loved her job, but today nothing seemed to go well, and her opinion was that on days like these – rainy, foggy and cold – everyone deserves a break. The weather was also affecting Ellie’s mood, and she felt slightly dejected. It wasn’t a normal thing for her. Ellie was an energetic and level-headed person with an optimistic, but very practical

angle

on life. When something didn’t satisfy her, she immediately looked for ways to change it. She just wasn’t used to feeling sad. Therefore, as soon as she came home, she thought: “It can’t be like this any longer. I need to find some

solution

for this and cheer myself upright now”.

There was only one thing in the world Ellie loved as much as chemistry. This thing was cooking. Not only because she liked food, as most humans tend to do, but also because her own view was that cooking is also chemistry. So there was only one way she could think of at the moment to make herself feel better. Make some good food! Ellie carefully examined the content of her fridge. Apart from many other edible products, she found there a lot of Swiss cheese. After some good thinking and flicking through her huge collection of cook books, wondering about an ideal comfort food and a way to utilise all the Swiss cheese piling up in her fridge, she decided to make Swiss cheese enchiladas. They sounded delicious, and she had all the ingredients

close at hand.

Moving around the kitchen, mixing and stirring the ingredients and baking, together with all the enticing smells filling the house, helped to shift Ellie’s attention to more positive things. Completely absorbed by baking, she forgot about the passing time. She found the whole activity of cooking so enjoying that in the end, there were many more enchiladas than she intended to make. Nevertheless, Ellie relished her meal thoroughly and ate away as much as she could. The feelings of joy and pleasure have

magnified

greatly and her previously low mood has become only a vague memory.

Just after she finished and cleaned up the kitchen, the doorbell rang. It turned out to be Ellie’s neighbour – Nadia. – Nadia was a single woman in her late 20’s, and both neighbours were good friends, despite all the differences in their personalities and tastes. While Eleonora was

curious

of the world, energetic and down to Earth, Nadia was pensive, refined and subtle. They both were quite deep thinkers though so liked each other’s company a lot and, paradoxically, had a good understanding of each other and complemented one another.

“Oh girl!” – Ellie exclaimed excitedly – “What a perfect timing! I’ve just made tons of enchiladas and don’t know what to do with them, come in and help me get rid of them!”

“It’s so nice of you, Ellie” – said Nadia slightly confounded – “but I’m afraid I can’t. I’ve just popped in for a second to ask you whether you would like to go with me for a chamber music concert. I have a spare ticket and don’t know what to do with it either. I don’t feel like going there alone, but I love this band”. Nadia explained to her friend briefly why she was left out with a spare ticket by a guy she had been dating for a while and what a big disappointment their breaking up was for her. “Chamber music?…” – Ellie thought – “That must be rather boring”.

But she really liked Nadia and felt for her at this moment. She knew her friend was very enthusiastic about chamber music and she wanted to do something kind for her. So although she felt much better listening to something a bit less sophisticated, without further ado she simply said: “OK, when does it start?”

“In an hour. Would you really do it for me? It’s so sweet of you, I know you said you don’t like chamber music, but I really don’t have anyone else to go with.

“I’m happy to go with you if it makes you happy. And to be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever listened to chamber music, so who knows, maybe I’ll like it”.

Twenty minutes before the concert was meant to start, the women found themselves in front of a large, noble-

looking building, which as Nadia explained to her friend was a medieval palace.Ellie felt both bewitched and dazed by grandiosity of the building.

Finally, they found their places in the chamber, and the concert started. Ellie graduately started to feel as if a warm wave of serenity floated through her body. It wasn’t one bit boring. She wallowed in sweet sounds of piano, violin, cello and other instruments, feeling all the bad emotions of the day going out of her mind, and being replaced by calmness and peace. Between one music piece and another she promised herself to NEVER EVER judge anything before trying it out.

By the end of the day she felt not only much better, but it even stopped raining, and the world looked just like a much better place to live in. On the way back, Ellie thanked Nadia for the lovely evening, and asked her to come over to her and finish it with enchiladas. Once they were both stuffed and Nadia went home, Ellie smiled to herself and said: “I would never thought such small things like chamber music and Swiss cheese can change your day entirely”.