The hot plate. I’d bought it in Chicago over Thanksgiving break. I hauled it over in the extra-large suitcase that weighed exactly 49 pounds at the airport, almost toppling over with it on the escalator. It nicely paired with the new wok that my brother had bestowed upon me as if it was a precious family heirloom (it was bought at the grocery store just days prior). I had big plans for the hot plate—in my single dorm room, placed neatly in front of my monitor, water boiling in the common room—I’d take a sip of Pure Leaf® zero sugar peach tea as I’d crack open a raw egg, the sesame oil sizzling with a satisfying symphony of oily rain, and the egg would become, as Redditors call it, a “slidey moment of perfection” as I tip the wok around and around the glowing red surface. Soon, the reality was clear: no money to buy eggs, problem set after problem set piling up in the last stretch before winter break, losing time to even put a new trash bag over the bin, too busy to throw away the empty shell of cup noodles at the side of the desk, tea receipts littered, a silent treble clef of an orange peel dangling from the edge—the hot plate lost its place and, like an abandoned and unloved infant in an orphanage, or perhaps a lost dog in the middle of a highway, silently took a section of a haphazard IKEA rolling cart underneath a forgotten corner of the dorm bed.
-
Prompt from Daily Themes Week 2: Syntax
Write a theme about anything at all in which you vary your sentence length from beginning to end. You can either start short and get longer or start longer and get shorter. Base your decision on which you think best suites the substance.