The Sound of Love

"What… What… What is that noise?!?" Chara leapt out of bed and hurried out of her room, bare feet slapping against the hardwood floor.

The loud grinding and whirring sound got louder to her ears as she approached the kitchen. When she got there, Darnell was standing in front of what looked like an enclosed beige-green coffee pot with occasional spurts of steam escaping from the top. He had a shocked expression and his hands were helplessly raised, trying to figure out how to turn off the device.

"What is this?" Chara asked.

Darnell gave her an apologetic smile. "I’m sorry. I got this soy milk machine and I wanted to surprise you with breakfast. I wasn’t expecting it to be this loud."

Chara sighed but couldn’t help smiling helplessly. Her husband was always so enthusiastic about buying new appliances and presenting them to her. He’d said before that he never wanted her to have to work hard, but he wanted her to have the best things out of life.

"How long does it run for?" she asked.

Darnell gestured at the LED display. "Twenty more minutes. Then I’ll use the soy milk to make you a strawberry and banana smoothie."

"Won’t the soy milk be hot?" she asked. The steam puffing out through the top vents and the faint burbling sounds told her the contents inside were boiling.

"It will be hot when it’s done, but I’ll add a little ice to cool it down quickly and I’ll put it back in the machine with some fruit. The instructions make it sound really easy." Darnell stepped over to her to wrap his arms around her in a comfortable hug. "From now on, your smoothies will be made from fresh soy milk or oat milk or rice milk or any other kind of milk you want to make. I’ll plant you some fruit trees and grow you some strawberries and blueberries and blackberries and raspberries and…"

Chara put two fingers over his lips. "Okay, okay. From now on we will enjoy delicious milk and smoothies and it’s all thanks to you. I love you." She smiled at him, her heart feeling warm in her chest.

There had been some that said their love would never last, but here they were. Married for ten years and more in love than ever before.

"Show me the instructions," she said. "I should learn how to use this thing if we’re going to be milking all kinds of nuts and grains in the future."

Darnell smiled, his eyes shining brightly. He led her over to the counter and presented a thin pamphlet. "These are the instructions. There’s also a magnetic chart we can put on the fridge that has some recipes we can try."

Chara flipped through the pamphlet to see what functions the soy milk machine had. "I guess I’m going to have to try all the recipes with you."

"I want to try everything with you," Darnell said.

She kissed him on the cheek. "Okay."

The soy machine made a loud grinding, whirring noise and emitted another puff of steam.

=END=

~Harper Kingsley

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