My Newbie is Showing

Day 19: On a Mission for Fish Sticks

Prompt: Write a story that includes fish sticks in some central way. Yup, that's right. Fish sticks. Frozen, fried fish sticks.





One could tell she was a young mom with lots of kids. Yes, her hair was a mess, dark circles under her eyes, blank expression, feet dragging, lounge pants, baggy sweatshirt, all attesting to the fact that she had little sleep and was functioning on auto pilot. In this store she walked past all the produce that would look inviting to most patrons. She found the peanut butter and put three large jars in her cart. She moved to the bulk foods section and grabbed the feed-an-Army size of Mayonnaise, then made a quick stop at the bakery section to pick up a couple loaves of bread. With the basics in the cart, she was now on alert to find the object where this mission led her and almost ran to the frozen food section. Marnie scanned the many selections of frozen fish sticks and started putting several different kinds in her cart.


An elderly woman was watching her with curiosity. At her age, it was in the head, out the mouth. “Honey, how many kids do you have that will eat that many fish sticks?”


“Three.” Marnie kept loading frozen fish sticks in the cart.


The gray-haired woman was surprised, “Is that all they eat?”


“These are for me.”


“You have eight boxes of frozen fish sticks in there!”


“I’m pregnant. Again. Twins. They like ‘em.”


The older woman was still curious, “What do you do with the peanut butter?”


The young mom’s eyes lit up as she explained, “Peanut butter melted on fish sticks is sooooo good. Then you smear mayo on some bread and make a sandwich with them? Heaven!”


The older woman chuckled and patted her on the shoulder in an understanding way. “I know, sweetie, I know.”


“You, too?”


“Not exactly. Mine was Braunschweiger and peanut butter on rye toast.”


Marnie’s eyes lit up again and she took off for the deli section.