Palatable 2223

"Hey, Sam! Where did you buy this chopped bread?" "I was expecting that question from you." Sam said, eyeing greedily at his lunch, chopped bread.

"Because I've never ever smelled such an aroma from chopped bread." Tom's nostrils were growing bigger. "Buddy, it is the same place but with a new chef." He replied. "This would do well in chilling us during the university project. Ha Ha…" Tom guffawed.

It was a cold December in 2023. Tom and Sam were two university friends studying in the 3rd year. They were in the most hectic period of their university life as they were undertaking their final year project with a few other university mates. However, Tom and Sam were in a separate squat house.

The night was growing with two, three stars in the sky. "Buddy, that’s enough for today. Let’s draw a line under this and start it in the next morning." Sam continued. "Come on! We should rest." Sam’s words lead to a break in Tom’s search for nice cutting tools that ease the project and have a sleep for Tom and Sam as well.

It took only 20 minutes. Tom quickly fell asleep and began to snore, while Sam slept peacefully. The whole surroundings held a darker vibe.

“Christmas 2223.” It was displayed on the welcome board of a restaurant. Tom entered the restaurant just after getting off his BMW X176 M giving it access to the self-parking option to park the car in the right place. He wanted to have his favorite supper item, chopped bread, from this restaurant. He searched today’s menu of the restaurant and the outcome was sorrowful. There was no chopped bread on today’s menu. "Shit. Such a misery!" While he was murmuring, his eyes caught another meal which seemed like chopped bread. "Hey! Excuse me. What is this? Is it a new one?" Tom is full of curiosity now. "Well, sir, it is our 2223 Christmas special and it is called Trophzi. This December we are giving a special offer on your purchase with a 25% discount." "Hm! Well. I need a full plate of Trophzi to eat right at that corner." Tom pointed to a fine place in the restaurant.

"Huh! Thanks a lot. It would be the right choice for this Christmas." Tom showed a thumbs-up to the waiter. "It’s our pleasure sir. Thank you very much and come again!" Waiter said. Tom left the restaurant and drove away in his car.

After coming home, Tom engaged in some filling in his office and went to bed as he seemed nothing else to do.

The sleep at midnight was good. However, he suddenly got up around 5 am as he felt a weird nature around his stomach. Most probably, it was the first time he got up before his robot shouted near his ear. He just told the voice-powered light bulb in his room to be on and the bulb did as told.

"Oh! Who are you?" He was able to talk but his body was still. "What a nasty worm!" He said contrarily. A brown roundworm was on Tom’s stomach. It had nearly eight legs with fibrous fingers. He was appalled not for pain but for the menacing nature of the worm. Tom is extremely scared to pick the worm out of his body. Then he tiptoed out of the room and looked around. There was nobody in the parlor so he straightly headed to the kitchen. His wife was there and she was doing the dishes at the work surface. He did not show off to her as she could get afraid of the worm in the 1st sight. However, Tom wasn’t a good actor. His wife figured out his sudden changes. "Why are you twisting Tom?" Tom was wordless. "I don’t know how he is alive in my body." His tone was trembling. "He? Alive in your body? What are you saying? Why are you twisting?" asked the wife.

"Why are you pulling my leg? Help me to get rid of this worm! What a revolting guy he is?" "I can't see even a speck of a worm." His wife blinked amazingly. Now this horrible scenario only appeared for Tom. That’s why his wife doesn’t see a worm. Oh, Tom could see the number of worms was increasing.

What a surprise! Tom didn’t agonize though the number of brown worms was increasing but he was excited when they were increasing. "Oh my gosh! Is it a joke? Aaaaaaa……" Tom vanished from the kitchen while shouting and ran to and fro like a baby who had seen a ghost. "My heart is skipping a beat! Help! Help this poor fish!" Tom yelled without stopping running. The wife was running after Tom and the robot dog was doing the same. Neither the shouting of the wife nor the barking of the robot dog could pause Tom. Yeah! They could not realize why he was running.

Tom's strange behavior had caught the attention of his neighbors. The old man there was peeing from the upstairs window while the old woman was unlocking the gate to see what happened to Tom. "Save me, Mrs. Grey! I am in trouble." Tom said hopefully. "May I know why are you screaming Tom?" Grey asked with astonishment. "Why? you cannot see these worms? First my wife and then you Mrs. Grey. They are not minuscule."

Grey and Tom’s wife could not think about what they should do as this was the first time such a bizarre incident had occurred. They sat on a nearby garden chair, as running after Tom was illogical. Tom ran two or three rounds around his house trying to grab and throw the worms out of his body. Finally, Tom went into his house and headed directly to the bathroom shower with the positive expectation of removing the worms using water. Two, three, four water droplets bumped into Tom’s body and Tom was anxious. What a ridiculous result! Another worm creature is created from the head of an existing worm with the essence of water. Tom spent only two, three seconds to understand the situation and leap out of the bathroom wildly. Probably, a new bathroom door should be fixed as soon as possible.

Tom unlocked the door of the parlor while his robot dog was playing with Grey’s drone cat. He leapt to the courtyard and began waving his hands to Mr. Grey, who was upstairs. "Mr. Grey! Please try to understand me." Tom sighed but Mr. Grey suddenly closed the window, as he didn't want to deal with his seemingly mad neighbor.

The time was sharp two o’clock. Tom’s wife and Mrs. Grey were feeling crazy about Tom’s fast-growing illness. Thus, they decided to make an appointment to channel a mental health doctor. The hologram in their house showed them the premium mental health doctors around them, so they selected one. Immediately, the drone cat altered into a robot man and helped to put Tom into the car along with Tom’s wife. After about thirty minutes, they were in front of the doctor.

"Haaaa!! Haaaaa!!! I don’t need to play with these nasty worms. Tell me. Even you, cannot see the worms?" Tom tried to relieve his stress in front of the doctor. The doctor was tricky enough to identify Tom’s mind. "Calm down. Calm down, my dear. I can see the worm-like creatures around your tummy. See! They are moving upside and again downside of your tummy. I can see them."

"Is it the same color you can see, as I could?" The doctor made it a point to know the hue of Tom’s mind worm. "yeah! It’s brown." Tom answered a little bit controlled. "Ok. Ok." Doctor repeated. In the meantime, the doctor gave a hand gesture to one of his nurses to bring the relevant vaccine set. "My dear. Would you mind Pulling out the worms from your body?" "Why not, doctor?" Tom answered in an enraptured manner. "Then I need your help in acquiring this." Tom’s eyes caught the sight of the vaccines.

“Aaaaaa……..” The entire hospital room was shaken by the horrible shouting of Tom.

Tom got up in shock and was breathing deeply while he was in the bed. The alarm showed his time was 7 am. He left the bed with a pother. "What about Trophzi?" He murmured with a perplexed face.

He left the room and entered the parlor. His friend Sam was there, watching the news. "Hey, buddy! Good morning!" Sam greeted as he saw Tom. "Good morning." Tom repeated.

"On December 12th, 2023, a new research team discovered that our curious thoughts towards appetizing things have a greater chance to deposit at the bottom of the heart during sleep." The news reporter wound off the program by reporting that last news.

"Hey, Sam! Is it still 2023?" Sam could not understand anything and Tom too. Eventually, Tom realized that he was dreaming at night and he hated such nightmares forever!

"Are you okay? Hey! Pick up the pace for the rest of our uni project." Sam told Tom descriptively.