and Other Short Stories

Habanero

"Welcome to Turn Up The Heat! I'm Margaret Bailey, and I'm going to show you 2 quick recipes for some delicious salsa that will have you, your family, or your friends coming back for more! First, take 3 tomatoes,"
her thin hand reaches, lax, and picks up a plump tomato. She squeezes it gently, and her bright rings shine for the camera.
"This one looks just scrumptious doesn't it?"
She flashes a perfect tv smile. Goes for another tomato, her bracelets jangle and this time she grabs both remaining tomatoes at the same time.
"Just cut these up, diced, and then toss them in a large bowl." The knife makes heavy clunks as she briskly cuts the tomatoes.
"Next step, a teaspoon of salt,"
She dashes a small spoonful of salt and reaches over for an onion,
"Then dice this onion into small cubes, and toss it in too."
The knife clunks quickly once more, and she is promptly finished with the onions. She scatters the small shards of onion onto the crags of tomatoes and salt and then stops to talk to the camera a bit.
"Yknow, whenever I have a party or family gathering, I always make sure to set some of this out, and I'll tell you, it draws people like flies to honey."
She smiles once more, but something is off. Her eyes are distant, as though she's just remembered something. Something terrible.
"So," she breaks from her detachment, "now we'll add a little bit of pepper for the heat!"
She reaches under the counter and brings up a bowl of little orange peppers. She stopped, and her character broke. Her gaze shifted from a lovingly facade for the camera, and she stared, deeply into the peppers.
After some time of her continued staring, she returned, and smiled up at the camera. She acted as though nothing was unusual and continued on.
"Take a handful of the peppers and put them on the cutting board, but make sure you don't need to cut anything else first, because some of the heat of the peppers can stay on the cutting board and disrupt the taste of the other ingredients."
She reached into the big steel bowl of peppers, and pulled back nothing, her hand was an empty fist. She placed her hand down upon the cutting board, and began to cut. The knife began to vigorously chop through her fingers, in small heavy slicing motion. From the tips of her fingers, to the knuckles of her hand, she sliced each of her fingers, two at a time, never breaking her gaze with the camera and her crisp tv smile. Blood softly spurted from her injured hand, but her face remained statuesque, as though she felt nothing at all. She stopped cutting and moved the blade over when she hit her shiny ring. Blood pooled on the cutting board as her now stump hand bled profusely beneath the blade.
"Wow! These look delicious!" Her eyes were large, and her smile tight on her face as though she was clinging to it, the only thing keeping her whole.
With her other hand, she scooped up the tiny slivers of her fingers and tossed them into the salsa. "Now we stir!"
She took a wooden spoon in her right hand and stirred the mixture, letting her left hand bleed into it as she stirred. The salsa was a sick crimson color, and the bits of flesh spun like nightmarish ballerinas as the old wooden spoon beat the mixture into a unified creation.
"Thank you for watching, this has been Turn Up the Heat with Margaret Bailey. Tune in next week for another fun recipe!" Her face was growing pale, and it was obvious that with the amount of blood pooling on the counter, this would be her last episode. As the logo for the show popped on screen, she sank behind the counter and could be heard sobbing as a soft jingle tinkled and the credits rolled.