BlogFEAST

It's a blogFEAST - that's right, a blogfest centering around food.  And who among us doesn't love food?  I know the warm cookie-brownie combination I just downed with a big glass of milk is now on my list of things I love in life.

This blogfest is hosted by Angela McAlister at Jaded Love Junkie.  Simply put, to be part of the blogFEAST, you have to do a post about *food*  It could be a scene, a poem, a gratuitous moldy piece of bread.  Just keep it to 500 words or less.  And check out some of the other good folks who've put themselves out there and shared their own food-loving writing with you.

For me, my scene comes from DESTINED.  This YA novel is a retelling of the Cupid & Psyche myth.  The main character, Sadie (formerly Psyche), has just been married to "man" she's never met because a prophecy foretold that she must.  (Ancient Greeks were suspicious like that.)  It also told her the groom would be a monster.  When Sadie arrives at her husband's palace, she's greeted by invisible servants, one of whom (Alexa), quickly befriends her.  This scene is the wedding feast, after Sadie's had time to clean up and meet Alexa, but before she's met her husband (who, of course, is Cupid, but Sadie's not allowed to know that).

**Image from A Cake a Day Blog**

        The banquet hall would have been large enough to hold forty tables and couches, but only one grouping stood in the center. Chandeliers of hammered brass dangled from the ceiling and their thousands of candles danced light across every inch of the room. I paused before crossing the threshold, as if the enormity of it all might suck me in. Alexa nudged me forward to the dining couch.

The room pulsed with life even though I couldn’t see anybody. Tentatively, I reclined across the pillows. I wasn’t used to eating on a couch, since at my home, they were reserved for men. But that’s where Alexa had guided me, so that’s where I sat. 

As I settled in, musicians began playing lyres and flutes. The songs were so much happier than the ones that’d been played during my procession up the hill that morning. Had that really only been a few hours ago?

Plates of food and a goblet of wine floated down and landed on the square table in front of me. I recognized the traditional wedding foods: slices of pomegranate, baskets of bread, honey and sesame seeds. But there was so much more. My invisible servants brought plate after plate of delicacies, each better than the next. As I ate, invisible tumblers swirled ribbons around the room in a hypnotic dance of color.   

When I thought I was too stuffed to continue eating, a miniature cake danced toward me on invisible hands. “Oh, I can’t eat another bite,” I protested.

“You’ve got to try this,” Alexa piped up right behind me. I’d been so engrossed in the food, music and dancing that I’d forgotten Alexa was still with me. “This cake is truly divine.”

Who was I to refuse dessert? “If you insist,” I sighed, forking a huge bite into my mouth. The cake seemed to melt in my mouth. It was sweeter than honeysuckle and dripped with liquid caramel. I rolled my eyes as I indulged.  

When only one bite of the tiny cake was left, I pushed it away. “I can’t eat anymore. I’m about to burst out of this dress,” I said, patting at my full belly.

But my fork rose from the silver plate and stabbed the one remaining bite. “I insist,” Alexa said, pushing the soft dessert between my lips. 

As she set the fork back on the plate, Alexa said, “There now. How’s that for an easy wedding?”

Thanks for dropping by!  Don't forget to check out the other foodies on the blogFEAST.