Popcorn

(Read by the author.)

[Note from the author: The bottom recording is the most recent, reflecting a story update. This is the last of the flash fiction pieces I was writing about a dozen years ago. Whatever I post going forward will be new stuff. Oh, no! I have to write new stuff!]

The aroma of popcorn drifts from the kitchen and mixes with the smell of the fresh, light-blue paint covering the walls of the family room, where Alicia waits on the couch. She and Adam are young, still in their 30’s, but they weren’t even sure they should look for another house with a family room. They were inclined to something smaller, not necessarily even a second bedroom, not any more. Well, maybe a second bedroom for guests, but small. A house that would wrap around them like the wings of a mother bird enfolding a nest high above predators roaming the ground below with alert and fierce gazes.

Adam enters the family room carrying the big wooden bowl. There was a time when the pre-movie popcorn conversation would flare into arguments about divergent tastes for salt and butter, before Adam and Alicia hit on the solution: separate bowls. Three hands, three bowls. Now Adam and Alicia again share the big bowl, which they decided to keep after a long conversation. They’ve had many similar conversations recently, about how much food to prepare for dinner, what to wear when they go out, when to leave when they go out, or even whether to go out at all.

What movie to watch is another conversation. There was a time when the temperature of the debate would rise: romantic comedy, action, indie. Who picked last time? But sometimes the choice would be automatic, when there were three hands in three popcorn bowls.

Adam and Alicia scan the categories on the television screen. A menu of children’s movies appears. Alicia holds the remote, frozen, staring at the screen, eyes brimming. After a long moment, Adam reaches out, removes the remote from Alicia’s hand, and navigates to another category. He chooses a nature documentary.

They dip into the popcorn. “Too salty?’ asks Adam.

“No,” Alicia replies. “It’s perfect.”