The Vegetarian

"I can't believe that you still eat meat," Brian said to Stephanie as she cut herself a piece of juicy steak, seared to perfection. "The thought of biting into something that was living not so long ago, I find, just repulsive."

Stephanie hated Brian's supercilious tone. She liked meat. It was true she didn't like to think of it frolicking playfully in a field and she was never going to look for a career in an abattoir, but she recognised meat as something she needed for sustenance, she could acquire ready-packaged, fit for the grill, and it tasted good.

Brian was always trying to guilt her and it was starting to get tiresome. The mouth-watering tenderness of her medium rare steak, a taste she normally enjoyed now made her feel like an ill-educated savage.

She vowed to get Brian back for this.

*

Next time they met, Stephanie was prepared.

"I found this interesting article, Brian," she said as they waited for their starters.

"Oh, yes? Who was it about?" Brian loved gossip.

"Not who but what. Sentient vegetables."

Brian was sipping his wine and almost spat it out.

"Pardon?" he exclaimed and laughed.

"You may laugh," Stephanie said, hoping she had got the facts right, "but scientists have found evidence that vegetables talk to each other and think that they are more aware than we give them credit for." Stephanie nodded to emphasise her point.

Which caused Brian to launch into a scathing speech about Stephanie trying to justify her murderous ways and vegetables not having feelings, which went on through the starters. Stephanie defended herself valiantly, whilst wondering why she spent so much time with Brian when he really was a prick, the small radishes and cherry tomatoes in Brian's salad agreeing wholeheartedly, although Stephanie was entirely unaware of this.

It was a disagreeable night and Stephanie wasn't sure she wanted to meet with Brian again.

*

Luckily, a confrontation was taken out of her hands as Brian disappeared quite unexpectedly. However, his next door neighbours were exceedingly surprised when their vegetable patch yielded a bumper crop of parsnips and potatoes even though they'd done nothing different this year, and an enormous amount of bones.

***

364 words

I like to think of the picture I've chosen as "The Four Parsnips of the Apocalypse". A daft little story from me really but one I rather enjoyed writing. Vegetables have feelings too, you know. And yes, cherry tomatoes are a fruit, but have been vegetable-ised for the purpose of my story.

Thanks for stopping by! If you do read this, please leave a comment as I love interacting with my readers.

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