1.1 The First Newspaper

Rolling over in bed, Henry’s arm searches for Jazmin’s body on the other side.  His hand, swimming through blankets fails to find her.  Not finding what his hand was searching for, he slowly opens his eyes, pulling the covers tight around him.  The sound of dishes and cooking could be heard coming from across the house in the kitchen.  Slowly the smell of pancakes reached his nose helping him make the decision to get up.

Sitting up, he moved his legs over the side of the bed, and he reached down to get a pair of sweats that lay beside the bed.  Pulling on the sweats, he walked across the room to a wooden dresser lit by the sunlight shinning through an east facing window of the bedroom.

Dressed, Henry walked out of the bedroom to the sound of pots and pans in the kitchen.  Walking up behind Jazmin, Henry wraps his arms around Jazmin whispering into her ear, “Good morning.”  He follows up with a kiss on her cheek.

“Good morning.  I didn’t know when you were going to get up.  After last night I thought you would be out for a while.”

Smiling and releasing Jazmin, Henry responded, “I did enjoy last night.”  Looking at what Jazmin is cooking, he continues, “So pancakes?  That will be a nice change from cereal.”

“Chocolate chip, banana pancakes to be precise.  We had some ripe bananas so I thought I would make something special.  They are about done as well, so if you would want to go set the table, “, Jazmin hands Henry some plates, “and get the Sunday paper.  I think I heard it hit the screen door this morning.”

Henry grabs two plates and two glasses.  Walking out of the kitchen he stops at the dinning table putting the plates and glasses in their correct places.  He then walks across the room to the front door.  Stepping out onto the porch to grab the paper, Henry breaths in the spring morning air.  Looking around, the neighborhood seems silent and deserted.  Sunday mornings tended to be as such in the small town of Hancock Kansas, a town settled in the Midwest of the United States.  Breathing out a slight mist forms as his breath hits the morning air.  Grabbing the paper, he walks back in to find Jazmin bringing in a stack of pancakes to sets them on the table.

Looking at Henry as he walks back to the table reading the headlines of the morning paper.  Reaching the table, he places the paper on the table and Jazmin speaks up, “We still need flatware and juice.”

“I can get it,” Henry says as he walks past Jazmin into the kitchen and grabs the orange juice out of the refrigerator. “I see that there was another terrorist attempt aimed at a passenger train on the east coast?”

Jazmin back at the dinning table, reaches over an picks up the paper reading the main article on the front page. “Well it looks like a person tried to derail an Amtrak train as it was passing through New York.  He tried planting an explosive to go off as the train passed over.  The maker of the explosive has yet to be caught.”

The sound of forks and and butter knives can be heard as Henry grabs the flatware for the two.  “Targeting of random people just makes things crazy.  With so many people in the world, it is hard to protect us from everyone.”  Henry states while walking back into the dinning room and up to the table.

Skimming over the rest of the front page, Jazmin stops on an article in the bottom right and read further.  Out of the corner of her eye she see Henry pouring juice in his cup, she grabs her cup, handing it to him with her eyes never seeming to leave the paper.  Henry speaks up as he pours her glass. “What are you reading?  Still more about the Amtrak indecent?”

“No.  It looks like their was a reported case of mad cow desease in the US.  The paper said it was found in a feedlot not far from here out by Dodge City, Kansas.”  Henry sets down her glass as Jazmin starts reading from the paper, “Sense the removal of the cow suspected to be infected, others in the heard have started to become sick.  The state animals of Kansas have been place in quarantine, while state officials investigate the incident at the feedlot.  Currently the federal government is helping track down where the cows where shipped from, and where any of the cows already shipped out have gone.”  Stopping reading and looking up from the paper, Jazmin adds on, “That is horrible.  Things like this make me glad to be a vegan, but the though of these poor animals.”

“And I bet most of these animals will be killed and discarded.”  Henry adds. “What a waste of life.”

With the table set, the two sit down to eat their breakfast, getting up only to get some forgotten condiments and talking about why they no longer eat animal products, and how the recent outbreak only affirms their choice.

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~ by sofreyr on January 4, 2010.