MY FIRST BOWL!
ABBY'S STORY
CHAPTER 1:
WHERE ALANNA MEETS HER.... RAMEN?
Alanna rubbed her hands together, eager to try the new Ramen stand that everyone had been talking about. She had waited for hours on end, hoping that the cooks would decide to turn out some ramen today. Word was, they were a finicky bunch and didn't cook ramen every day, only when the time was right, or some mumbo jumbo like that. Either way, Alanna knew one thing: she loved ramen, and if this place was as unique as others had made it sound, then dangit she was going to get a bowl if it killed her.
With a contented sigh, Alanna looked down at the beautiful bowl in front of her. "Such fine craftsmanship, and what beautiful chopsticks!" She chimed. Her stomach growled, and she smiled as she reached for the chopsticks sticking out of the bowl. Before her hands could close around them, the bowl.... chimed? What? No, it couldn't be.... She shook her head and looked down at the bowl, reaching once more for the mouth watering meal. "STOP!" Someone yelled out. "You can't eat that!"
"Well why on Kami's green earth not?" Demanded Alanna. No one came between her and her food and lived to tell the tale.
"It's not food." Explained a bystander.
"Sure looks like food to me." Alanna quipped. She sniffed the bowl, her mouth watering from the aroma. "Smells like food too."
"You CAN'T eat it! You have to take care of it, and soon it will grow."
All right, now Alanna was sure the strange woman was smoking something.
"Right.... my bowl of soup... will grow... into what, a chicken?"
Alanna rolled her eyes. "Geez, what is everyone looking at? Why are you all so obsessed with me not having lunch today? It's a bowl of noodles!!! Noodles don't grow into things, they just get cooked and put into my stomach! Have you people been hitting the magic mushrooms?"
As she spoke, the bowl chimed again. Alanna shook her head. "Ok, this time I'm sure I heard something..."
The young woman shook her head and jumped as a beautiful fox walked by, licking his paw.
"That's not food, that's a fox. That's an animal."
As she spoke, Alanna's own bowl finally chirped up in a happy voice,
"And thanks to the wonders of science, I too am an animal. I just don't look like it yet."
The nearby fox happily translated the bowl's chimes for Alanna.
"Right.... science..." Alanna mumbled, shaking her head. "Well all right... wouldn't want to be called a monster or anything.... you win for now, oh bowl of soup.... We'll see if you turn into an animal, or if I wind up in the nuthouse for talking to my lunch."
"Well at least I talk back! By the way, the name's Abby.""Just great.... the bowl of soup has a name..." Alanna mumbled.
By midday the next day, Alanna was set to lose her mind. Abby (the bowl) had been chiming on and on since yesterday, barely taking a break. When Alanna had tried to leave the bowl on the table to go get a shower, Abby had wobbled across the table, much to Alanna's dread, and would have gone crashing to the floor if Alanna hadn't caught her at the last minute. The young woman groaned tiredly. "Can't you please be quiet for like, an hour so I can get rid of this headache? I wish I knew what on earth you were talking about... Oh Kami, I'm wondering about the inner thoughts of a bowl of soup! Someone just cart me off to the funny farm right now."
For her part, Abby
had been chattering incessantly to her new companion, but that was only because the young bowl was so full of excitement about life. She loved figuring out how things worked, and she would chatter to herself as she puzzled out in her mind the mechanics of anything new. At the present moment, Abby was going on about her newest discovery: bicycles. She chimed on and on about them, from the gears, to the way the wheels moved, to the breaking mechanism on them (how DID people stop with just that little handle-thing on one handlebar?)
