Baked beans, unkept flat and dinner lady.

Free writing exercise using an item, a place and a character

There it sits, under the kitchen sink , the tin of baked beans she is looking for.

 

Poor dinner lady, she has just come back to her flat with an empty stomach. It has been such a rush today at the school with the sports day, run of her feet and working well after her time.

The corner shop downstairs was already closed when she arrived back home.

“Dam”.  No food in the food in the fridge, none really in the cupboard either. Then her mind clicks “I must have some somewhere”

Like a smoker quitting smoking or a drinker trying to stop drinking, once the house is cleared of all temptations, the urge takes over. Here is is only hunger “ There must be some somewhere, I’m sure I have some around the flat”.

 

It is a hoarder’s flat, an accumulation of all the things she has bought to fill her loneliness and not even looked at or used since then. They are piled up everywhere, in the living room, the bedroom and even amongst the unwashed dishes in the kitchen. In this pile of treasures, there must be some food for sure. So, she moves, lifts, shifts things and digs into abandoned plastic bags. No chance, nothing to eat. And her mind wanders; “Oh, I didn’t even remember I bought this”, “ Oh my good, how long have I had that for”.

As she explores and discovers, time passes and the hunger fades as per magic.

 

And there, under the kitchen sink, sits a little tin of baked beans.