Feb 22, 2013 Original Short Stories
Alice and the Strange Situation
By Vijaya Sundaram January 24, 2012
The food seared Alice’s tongue, and she gasped, trying to politely hold it in, but not quite succeeding. She grabbed a napkin and spat it out, turning away.
“Such bad manners,” huffed the fussy old lady at the head of the table. Her least favored granddaughter, the one who was the product of a marriage between the rich old lady’s daughter and her erstwhile chauffeur (now working for someone else), glared around at everyone.
“Sorry! I had no idea that you would serve boiling hot food for your grandchildren!” she said forthrightly and rather rudely. Her grandmother glared back at her.
Into the stunned silence which fell in the dining room, the other grandchildren tried not to giggle or smirk. They, after all, had an advantage. Their mothers, who were Alice’s mother’s two sisters, had made good marriages, following the old lady’s wishes every step of the way, and were now living in grand mansions. They got American Girl Dolls for their birthdays, and plenty of pretty dresses, toys and frilly things whenever the holidays came. Their baskets were always full of candy and stuffed bunnies during Easter visits, and their birthdays always took place on Grandmama’s large, sloping lawns, with catered food and marvelous games, pony rides and clowns.
Alice’s mother got up and, ignoring her mother pointedly, poured her daughter a glass of lemonade.
“Drink this, and we’ll go home right away, darling,” she said, glancing coldly around the room. Her husband had quietly declined the invitation to the old lady’s 70th birthday dinner.
Alice drank, got up, looked around the room, dropped a stiff curtsey to her grandmother, in her frilly dress (her cousins’ cast-off clothes), and said, “Good bye! Thanks for having us. Happy Birthday!”
They left.
Everyone looked at their plates. The chicken on the plates had started to move. Before their disbelieving eyes, the chicken bits assembled together, sprouted feathers, beaks, feet, and other appurtenances, and started to cluck plaintively.
There was a massive commotion and screams of consternation.
Meanwhile, Alice and her mother drove away in the car they had summoned – Alice’s father was driving it. The car rose smoothly into the air, and into the clouds, turned into a UFO and disappeared in the depths of the darkening evening.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The End~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tags: alien allusions, snobbery, Surreal story, Transformations