just your (not so average) collection of short stories

Short Story #3

"You are just a small fly on the wall, looking down on the scene and taking note of it."-Maria Konnikova, How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes (pg. 148)

Link: https://www.writersdigest.com/prompts/a-book-of-chance

You were in the kitchen of the home you lived in. It was a delightful little kitchen, with green walls, brown wooden cabinets, dark faux granite countertops, and wooden chairs with a matching table. The black fridge next to the doorway was covered in magnets and drawings from the children who lived there. Often, you would sit on the ceiling, observing what the humans of your house do. Today, you were sitting in your favorite corner when one of the children walked in. You couldn't exactly tell what the child was doing, but she was definitely up to something. She dragged one of the kitchen chairs up to the pantry and climbed. She stepped off the chair with a big box in her little hands. She put the box on the countertop and dragged the chair over to the cabinet. She stepped down with a bowl in her hands. Then, she grabbed a spoon and sat it next to the bowl. When she grabbed a jug of milk, you figured out what was in the box:

Cereal.

Since you had never seen one of the children do this before, you decided to fly down to get a closer look. Keeping your distance as to not bother the child, you watched her get to work. She clumsily poured her cereal, filling her bowl with way more than you'd ever seen a human pour. She sat the bowl down and proceeded to pour the milk-

everywhere...

Her tiny hands weren't coordinated enough to pour the milk in a specific direction, so she really just poured down the side of the bowl. Milk ran over the countertop and dripped down the cabinet to the floor below.

You watched as she put the jug of milk back down on the counter, not putting the cap back on. She grabbed her bowl and tried to gently put it on the table. Milk spilled onto the floor from the bowl being overfilled. She set it down on the table and grabbed a spoon so she could enjoy her hard work. When she was in the middle of a bite, the child's mother walked in. You decided it would be best to hide in the corner since the mother would often shoo you away. When the girl saw her mother, she held up her bowl and had the cheesiest grin on her face.

"Look Mommy! I made cereal!" she exclaimed in her light, childish voice.

Smiling, the mother proceeded to grab some towels to clean up the mess of milk and soggy cereal.

"You sure did!" the mother said cheerfully even though she was understandably a little irritated.

Even the joy of a little child can warm a cold fly's heart.