…the strange gray ‘foodstuffs’ kept filling the Jones’s household refrigerator, only for these strange foodstuffs to be found in the Smith’s family refrigerator, the Vernals, until it was found across the entire continent, to move quickly across the world. The catastrophe had a quick spark, with plenty of hunger, as the people seemed forced to look the other way …
Susan, a teacher, now centuries later, tells her students, Her-Story, of the events where love, in every sense, completely unraveled …
She continues with a piece of chalk in her hand. She’s done this many times---many times …
Nobody even knew where it came from, this food, she says ---but it was accepted gladly. The food was quick and easy, quite reasonable ---but only in price? She’s dressed eloquently, perhaps even a little provocatively. She continues teaching, doing her thing …Eventually at every grocery store if you weren’t shopping specifically for these foodstuffs, your shopping-cart, as you walked through every aisle, remained empty.
And then, she says …The grocery stores cut back their hours …Because they could, they could do whatever they pleased. She tried her best to look …stupefied. She talks louder now: You ate what you were given ---at a reasonable price!
She protects her dress as she sits down in a lush garden, under an arbor, with jasmine hanging-on. She has her students sit down as well. She motions them to make a circle around her. She takes a breath, and continues …The artists in the kitchen serving good healthy food to smiling faces took a slow fade to black. They were forced-out! She says, and shakes her wavy brown hair.
Her students are all men, who don’t know what that means, to be a man, which is her job to teach them, she continues … They were no longer cared for, these artists of the kitchen, she pauses ---no longer cared for; “Artists not cared for!”-She almost screams.
She sits upright to further punctuate that, and continues …those artists, she says, they quickly turned to the ghosts you fearfully pass on your city streets. The restaurants boarded up their doors windows and cancelled their leases. She stands up and adjusts her dress. She sits back down …
It seemed, at least back then, she says, the eaters of this strange gray ‘foodstuffs’ were …pulled away from each other. How horrible is that?-she says, and then she gets specific …Gross domestic product dropped by unprecedented percentage points. Energy output flat-lined. I mean absolutely, absolutely nothing was going on. It spread, eventually, EVERYWHERE! It’s not clean and quiet like in this garden. She continues, teaching …
You see, she says, the human species was losing, as the foodstuff crept into their D.N.A! The people were constantly hungry, with a Tub of Goo as a substitute for a belly, she laughed, changing the mood, and her students laughed too, she continues with a slight laugh in her voice, relaxing everybody …The people were tired and hungry as they lengthened their belts? Can you believe that, she says …Could it be possible to be overfed, slightly portly and malnourished?
Genetically, she says, these foodstuffs traveled deep into the molecular level of all human-kind, and the result, she says, the human species stopped caring, they stopped making love! She punctuates this particular fact. They stopped loving, she says, as she looks at her students with her head turned at a certain angle … she pauses longer, and moves closer …They had no libido!
The thought of intimacy was too much, disgusting, and still is today, she says. Why is that? She asks her question? Don’t you guys know it’s okay? She stops her class with that thought. She looks into every eye, of each and every student, and then she continues …The human species was in jeopardy of dying back then, and still is today. No one loved, she says, as finally her students, again, all men, finally take notice of her.
Her students are being taught how to be men, her goal, and they finally sit up. She continues …There were no more seats available at the lover’s table. You see, all the bars shut their doors. It all came down so hard, but almost unnoticed ---down with a whimper, she says.
The men form an anxious circle around her, moving closer. One student seems fascinated with her hair. She shakes her hair and laughs …
The student fascinated with her hair asks a question, she says ---Love!!-With two exclamations. The circle is now very close to her. But most just stare. Another student is also fascinated by her soft brown hair. She takes off her dress and stands up. She’s naked …
She holds her hands out ---is this so atrocious to your eyes? Huh?-she asks. She sits back down and laughs. She lies down and breaths in and out. Her breasts rise and collapse as she breaths. But then …her students, again all men, MAN-up, and begin exploring ---a woman.
Seven hours later: Class dismissed ...she says with a tigress moan!
The End
