“Well, there’s just one button.”
“Push it, push it!”
“What are you, five? Fucking chillax.”
Mikayla took a deep breath, brought both hands together and pressed down, in a vague approximation of Tai Chi.
“Okay I’m calm. Now push the fuckin button!”
Brooke rolled her eyes, and pressed the button.
The box chirped with an electric chime, then somehow doubled in size. The sides spread apart and it was suddenly a bigger box. Then this happened again. And a third time. Panels on top of the box flipped up, then up again, telescoping into an increasingly large box.
Eventually, the clicking and whirring died down, and the Wider sisters stared at a black box with a small touch screen, and what appeared to be a drawer with a single vertical handle.
“What…”
“It looks like an air fryer!”
“What the hell is an air fryer?”
“Oh my god Brooke are you a fucking boomer? Marley got one for her wedding, they’re great. You can reheat pizza in it and it’s crispy like you used an oven, but it’s fast like a microwave.”
“Okay but like, that’s not frying. Are you frying the pizza?”
“No…”
“Okay then. I mean maybe you call it roasting, or toasting… but you can’t fucking fry something with air.”
“Ugh you’re such a goddamn nerd. Anyway, how does it work?”
Brooke tapped at the screen.
“Looks like there’s a menu, and it’s all food so it must be some kind of cooker like you said. Hmm… pizza, popcorn… cupcakes? What’s this ‘pod missing?’ What pod?”
Mikayla poked at the menu while Brooke consulted the tiny manual.
–knock, knock, knock–
Both sisters jumped slightly at the unexpected knock, and Brooke crossed back to the door. The same delivery person was there again.
“Sorry ma’am, had another one here for ya. No need to sign for this one.”
The delivery man handed Brooke a soft sided package about the size of a folded sweatshirt. She thanked him and he left yet again.
“What’s that?” Mikayla asked when Brooke returned.
“I don’t know, let’s see.”
Brooke ripped open the package and found it full of tiny cups. About the size of K-cups, maybe slightly larger, they were white with orange lids and the Dyna-Corp logo on top. Mikayla had found a receptacle on top of the machine that would accept one of the pods, so Brooke pushed one down into it.
Fans in the device kicked on, and a meter on the display changed from an empty bar to a full one, with `100%` displayed beside it. Brooke leaned in to inspect the display more closely, but before she could do anything, Mikayla tapped a menu item.
“Hey what the hell!”
Before Mikayla had a chance to defend her actions, the fans in the device whirred faster, and the whole box grew warm. The Wider sisters stepped back, as the machine got louder and louder, and bright light shone out of the gaps around the drawer.
A full 40 seconds later, the device chimed loudly, and the whirring died down. The fans continued running, but somewhat softer.
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“Pop it open.”
“Me?”
“It’s your beta-test thing or whatever.”
“Fine.”
Brooke touched the handle gingerly, then when she was sure it wasn’t hot, slid the drawer open. A picture-perfect double-cheeseburger rested in the large drawer.
“Holy shit.”
“Woah…”
Brooke carefully lifted the burger out of the device.
“It’s like, some kind of food synthesizer?”
“No way, I mean, was it empty before?”
“I guess we didn’t check.”
“One way to know for sure.”
As Brooke grabbed a plate and began to inspect the burger, Mikayla turned the device back toward her. Shoving the drawer back into place, she selected another item on the food menu.
Fans whirred, light shone, and the box got hot. While Brooke was still looking between layers of lettuce, orange cheese, and something that was at least visually indistinguishable from beef patties, Mikayla lifted an identical burger from the drawer.
“Holy shit this is amazing!”
“I’m not sure, this is super weird.”
“Why?”
“I mean it makes food from nothing.”
“Not nothing, it uses that pod thingy, like a Keurig machine.”
“Did you have to change the pod?”
“No. Hmm…”
Mikayla looked at the screen again.
“This meter at the top says 96% now.”
“Four percent, so like, two percent of a cup makes a whole burger? That’s not physically possible.”
“Well, possible or not I’m hungry.”
“Mikayla, wait–"
Mikayla lifted her burger with both hands and took a big chomp out of it.
“Wha?”
“How do you know it’s safe?”
–chew chew, ulp–
“They wouldn’t give it out to employees if it wasn’t safe Brooke…”
–nom nom–
“This is amazing, it tastes just like a real burger!”
As Mikayla continued devouring her synthesized burger, Brooke tentatively lifted her own. Peering at it closely, then sniffing the burger, Brooke’s hunger got the better of her and she took a small bite.
And promptly dropped the burger back on the plate.
“Bleh!”
Brooke spat the bite into her hand, crossing to the trash.
“Mmm, what’s wrong?”
“It tastes like soap! Yours doesn’t taste like soap?”
“Nope.”
Mikayla had only a third of her burger left.
“Let me try.”
She slid the plate toward herself, set down the remnants of her own burger and picked up Brooke’s. Taking first a small bite like Brooke had, then a larger one, she chewed and swallowed.
“Tastes just like mine.”
Mikayla shrugged and went back to her own burger.
“Well, we can try some of the other recipes. Even if it only makes stuff you like we can save some money on food anyway.”
Brooke tapped through the menu screen as Mikayla ate. After a few short minutes, the smaller blonde was licking grease off her fingers.
“So, you want this other one?”
“Uh, no, I’m not gonna eat a soap burger.”
“Yeet, more for me!”
Despite having just finished an entire double cheeseburger, Mikayla tucked into a second.
“Hey, see if it can make fries…”
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