Friday has been reached. I can’t lie this has been a hard week for me. It has helped having a regular routine and set tasks to accomplish but nonetheless it has been a hard week. I’m sorry I haven’t been as upbeat as usual. And thanks for bearing with me on that. I am going home for the memorial this weekend and hopefully that will provide a bit of closure.
But enough about me, shall we start with the morning prompt? Good. Timers set to fifteen minutes? Then let’s go.
Not my favorite this week. I’m kind of curious, but it isn’t my favorite story possibility of the week.
Friday, May 13th: Please taste both Sample A and Sample B and let us know your thoughts.
“Please taste Sample A and Sample B and let us know your thoughts.” The woman conducting the tests said. She smiled at me and stepped back so as to look unobtrusive. I smiled back. The testing department always left me a little leery. It wasn’t that I thought that they would have me taste something nefarious, but whenever my name came up in the testing group I was always aware that I was only one step removed from the lab rats.
‘Or maybe monkeys,’ I thought as I turned to the samples. ‘Or do they still test on chimpanzees?’ I wasn’t sure. I thought that was now against regulations and wondered how I could be asked to test something that wasn’t deemed safe for chimps. Not that I wished the chimps any ill will. I didn’t think they should be used for product testing any more than I should be.
But that wasn’t an option. Every employee at Wilmer Tech knew that as part of their employee contract they could be called up for trials if they fit the researcher’s profile. Most people accepted this as part of the standard package and contented themselves with the fact that as there were a lot of employees, it was rare that their name would be picked. There were people who worked for the company for twenty years without ever once being called to participate.
I had been an employee a little over eight months and this was my fifth trial. I wasn’t sure what made me such a good test subject, but apparently I fell into everyone’s testing parameters. Simply wanting to get it over with, I reached for the first sample. I lifted it to my mouth.
I sniffed the innocuous white square and got nothing in the way of scent. I took a small bite. It tasted like drinking from my mother’s perfume bottle. I looked around for a place to spit it out and found a trash can. I spit the small bite out and wiped my tongue with my hand. It wasn’t graceful, but the longer it sat on my tongue the more the scent and taste of perfume filled my senses. I reached for the bottle of water to cleanse my palette. I took a big swig, rinsed my mouth as though it was mouthwash and spit it into the trash can.
I looked up at the examiner. She was looking at me with a neutrally pleasant expression. It was as though she hadn’t witnessed my performance. “Are you sure that is supposed to be food and not laundry soap or perfume?” I asked.
“Please try Sample B and then share with me your thoughts.”
I nodded and went back to the samples. I picked up the second white square and took a tentative nibble. The scent of ammonia filled my mouth and I spit it into the bin repeating my mouth rinsing procedure.
“What is this?” I asked.
Ten til Midnight 