Morning all and welcome to Tuesday. This morning the sunlight feels as sharp as glass. It almost feels like it is solid and sharp as if you don’t move just right then it could slice you to ribbons. Maybe it is because the sun is so bright and it is cold. Usually that makes the sun feel brittle. Today, it just feels sharp. Perhaps it is best we stay inside for a bit. So shall we avoid the jagged sun with a morning prompt? Good, I think that is best. Let’s begin.
I had a struggle getting a handle on this one. I started with one idea and then another one hit me broadside and decided that it wanted to be written. Clearly if I ended up using this somewhere I would smooth this out. It’s interesting and not what I usually write, but interesting.
Tuesday, December 14th: With the news, prices skyrocketed.
With the news, prices skyrocketed. The shortage caused everyone to purchase what remained to ensure they had a supply on hand. Soon shelves were bare and the shortage became a grim reality. Sam looked at the empty shelves. He looked at the line of people who strolled past the store, looking in, peering, waiting for a restocking.
It had been a bad year. A bad couple of years as far as agriculture went. While thins were difficult and prices kept going up, most of the shortages had been in items viewed as luxuries. Things that if necessary people could live without.
This was different. At first of course, no one really understood quite what damage it would cause. Then, the corn harvest failed. Bad weather had produced low yields but into the low yields a new threat emerged. The blight that took out the corn was virulent. It spread quickly and the results were catastrophic.
While some laughed and claimed sadness at no corn on the cob at summer barbeques, soon the laughter faded from even those with little understanding of the world’s food economy. Put simple, corn was in nearly everything. It was one of the most widely used plants and it’s lack was devastating.
It wasn’t merely the ears of corn in the produce section that went missing. Those of course went first. The cans on the shelves soon followed. Slowly items that required corn in their composition or used corn syrup in any way began to be scarce. Items disappeared. Shelves stood empty.
Companies tried to regroup. Some adjusted formulas. Some simply reduced the number of items they had available to only those that contained no corn. Some companies closed their doors completely.
The corn blight not only decimated the grocery store shelves it served up a heavy blow to the economy. Adjustments were being made, even as scientists and farmers did their best to find ways to deal with the blight. Sam ran a rag over the shelves, cleaning them off. There was rumor of a shipment coming in later this week and he wondered if that was a good thing or not.
While most everyone would be thrilled to see these shelves returned to filled, they never stayed filled for long. Any shipment they had was barely able to fill the shelves and the chaos that ensued when the items were seen was pure madness. During their last shipment, three people were hospitalized and twelve others needed stitches. A small triage center was erected in the back of the store to deal with the injuries. There was talk of armed guards arriving to keep peace during the next shipment.
Ten til Midnight 