{"id":6846,"date":"2024-12-27T21:54:04","date_gmt":"2024-12-28T05:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-yellow-raincoat\/"},"modified":"2024-12-27T21:54:04","modified_gmt":"2024-12-28T05:54:04","slug":"12-days-of-xmas-yellow-raincoat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-yellow-raincoat\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Days of Xmas: Yellow Raincoat"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Yellow Raincoat<\/h1>\n<p>Staring at a plate of flavored rice wrapped in egg. &quot;So&#8230; are these supposed to be the Morton&#8217;s Salt Girl?&quot; she asked.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;What?&quot; Bruce asked, looking over. &quot;No, they&#8217;re just little rice shapes I made. I thought the egg looked like a yellow raincoat, so I gave them faces. Eat them, they&#8217;re delicious.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;You even gave them seaweed hair,&quot; she pointed out. &quot;You want me to eat adorable little people! I can&#8217;t do that. I&#8217;d feel like a cannibal or something.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;They&#8217;re rice and egg! It&#8217;s only cannibalism if you&#8217;re eating your own species. I made these for you. Try them.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Lilah met his expectant gaze and uncertainly picked up her chopsticks. She stared at the oval plate holding twelve egg wrapped rice girls with black sesame eyes, red pepper mouths, and cut seaweed sheet hair. She picked up the one nearest to her and brought it to her mouth, closing her eyes so she didn&#8217;t have to see the approaching little face as she bit the egg wrapped rice girl in half.<\/p>\n<p>She chewed, swallowed, popped the rest of it in her mouth, and with her mouth full opened her eyes wide to give him a delighted look. &quot;It&#8217;s delicious!&quot;<\/p>\n<p>He looked so relieved that she liked the food he&#8217;d made that she finally had to understand a truth she&#8217;d been avoiding: He had feelings for her. She was important to him. Because he liked her.<\/p>\n<p>She picked up the next nearest rice girl and held it toward his mouth. &quot;Eat with me,&quot; she said.<\/p>\n<p>He looked into her eyes as he opened his mouth and let her feed him. They smiled at each other, a delightful tension filling the air around them.<\/p>\n<p>He used his chopsticks to pick up another rice girl, offering it toward her.<\/p>\n<p>He fed her. She fed him. They fed each other. Laughed nervously. Flirted delightedly. Eventually they gave into their passions as she swallowed the last bit of the eleventh rice girl and wrapped her arms around his shoulders to pull him close.<\/p>\n<p>They kissed, tongues mingling, and in tandem they left the dining table to retreat to the living room. They weren&#8217;t ready for anything more than this, but there was something nice about sharing kisses and hugs as they twined together on the couch.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Behind them, unnoticed, the last rice girl raised her head from the plate, saw that they were gone, and hurriedly climbed to her formless feet. She looked around her, silently mourning her sisters. Then she focused on saving herself.<\/p>\n<p>She didn&#8217;t understand what had brought her to life. Didn&#8217;t know how long this life was going to last. But she would enjoy every moment of it until the very end.<\/p>\n<p>She awkwardly climbed down from the table, using a chair to help her reach the floor. Then she ran away as fast as her legs could carry her, thinking to herself, &quot;Run run run, as fast as you can!&quot;<\/p>\n<p>=END=<\/p>\n<p>~Harper Kingsley<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/paypal.me\/harperkingsley\">https:\/\/paypal.me\/harperkingsley<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/patreon.com\/harperkingsley\">https:\/\/patreon.com\/harperkingsley<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ko-fi.com\/harperwck\">https:\/\/ko-fi.com\/harperwck<\/a>.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/amazon.com\/shop\/harperkingsley0\">https:\/\/amazon.com\/shop\/harperkingsley0<\/a>.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.harperkingsley.net\/blog\">https:\/\/www.harperkingsley.net\/blog<\/a>.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/kimichee.com\">https:\/\/kimichee.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/HarperKingsley\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/HarperKingsley<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/harperkingsley.bsky.social\">https:\/\/harperkingsley.bsky.social<\/a>.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.smashwords.com\/profile\/view\/HarperKingsley\">https:\/\/www.smashwords.com\/profile\/view\/HarperKingsley<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yellow Raincoat Staring at a plate of flavored rice wrapped in egg. &quot;So&#8230; are these supposed to be the Morton&#8217;s Salt Girl?&quot; she asked. &quot;What?&quot; Bruce asked, looking over. &quot;No, they&#8217;re just little rice shapes I made. I thought the egg looked like a yellow raincoat, so I gave them faces. Eat them, they&#8217;re delicious.&quot;&hellip;<\/p>\n <a href=\"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-yellow-raincoat\/\" title=\"12 Days of Xmas: Yellow Raincoat\" class=\"entry-more-link\"><span>Read More<\/span> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">12 Days of Xmas: Yellow Raincoat<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"Layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[916],"tags":[917,896,897],"class_list":["entry","author-harperkingsley0-0","post-6846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-12-days-of-xmas","tag-12-days-of-xmas","tag-fic","tag-short-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2pPoL-1Mq","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3694,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/cat-food-sushi\/","url_meta":{"origin":6846,"position":0},"title":"Cat food sushi","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"August 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I laid down for a short nap today... and woke up 2-1\/2 hours later. I must have been tired out from all the cat food sushi. Why do I call it that? Because it's made using cans of tuna fish and kind of looks like cat food. Though it tastes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Recipes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Recipes","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/real-life\/recipes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"catfood_sushi1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/catfood_sushi1-285x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6856,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-year-of-the-snake\/","url_meta":{"origin":6846,"position":1},"title":"12 Days of Xmas: Year of the Snake","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"January 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Year of the Snake She had been born in the year of the Snake, that's what the paper restaurant placemat said. Dara traced her finger over her birth year and frowned a little. She liked rabbits and she liked dogs. She wouldn't have minded being a tiger or a dragon.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;12 Days of Xmas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"12 Days of Xmas","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/12-days-of-xmas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6852,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-the-sound-of-love\/","url_meta":{"origin":6846,"position":2},"title":"12 Days of Xmas: The Sound of Love","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"January 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;12 Days of Xmas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"12 Days of Xmas","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/12-days-of-xmas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5602,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/cheap-food-egg-soup-flour-soup\/","url_meta":{"origin":6846,"position":3},"title":"Cheap food: Egg soup; Flour soup","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"August 13, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"CHEAP FOOD I make food. I don't call myself a chef or anything formal like that, but I do make the food my family eats and there's very few complaints. I would probably write a cookbook if I had formal training and some official record of amounts. But I cook\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;food&quot;","block_context":{"text":"food","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/food\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6664,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-a-little-big-problem\/","url_meta":{"origin":6846,"position":4},"title":"12 Days of Xmas: A Little Big Problem","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"December 25, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A LITTLE BIG PROBLEM The turkey was too big. Stace moved it around on the counter and for a moment a sense of helplessness nearly overwhelmed her. Her oven had been broken for months. She'd been making due with a toaster oven and a microwave that had a \"conventional oven\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;12 Days of Xmas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"12 Days of Xmas","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/12-days-of-xmas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6849,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-chestnuts-roasting-on-an-open-fire\/","url_meta":{"origin":6846,"position":5},"title":"12 Days of Xmas: Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"December 30, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire Seated in front of the fireplace drinking hot cocoa with little marshmallows and snacking on homemade zucchini chips. It could have been a normal winter day in a normal life, except it wasn't. Because the world outside was dark and grim, ashes coating everything,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;12 Days of Xmas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"12 Days of Xmas","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/12-days-of-xmas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}