{"id":6852,"date":"2025-01-01T22:20:41","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T06:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-the-sound-of-love\/"},"modified":"2025-01-01T22:20:41","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T06:20:41","slug":"12-days-of-xmas-the-sound-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-the-sound-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Days of Xmas: The Sound of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>The Sound of Love<\/h1>\n<p>&quot;<em>What&#8230; What&#8230; What is that noise?!?<\/em>&quot; Chara leapt out of bed and hurried out of her room, bare feet slapping against the hardwood floor.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;What is this?&quot; Chara asked.<\/p>\n<p>Darnell gave her an apologetic smile. &quot;I&#8217;m sorry. I got this soy milk machine and I wanted to surprise you with breakfast. I wasn&#8217;t expecting it to be this loud.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Chara sighed but couldn&#8217;t help smiling helplessly. Her husband was always so enthusiastic about buying new appliances and presenting them to her. He&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;How long does it run for?&quot; she asked.<\/p>\n<p>Darnell gestured at the LED display. &quot;Twenty more minutes. Then I&#8217;ll use the soy milk to make you a strawberry and banana smoothie.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Won&#8217;t the soy milk be hot?&quot; she asked. The steam puffing out through the top vents and the faint burbling sounds told her the contents inside were boiling.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It will be hot when it&#8217;s done, but I&#8217;ll add a little ice to cool it down quickly and I&#8217;ll put it back in the machine with some fruit. The instructions make it sound really easy.&quot; Darnell stepped over to her to wrap his arms around her in a comfortable hug. &quot;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&#8217;ll plant you some fruit trees and grow you some strawberries and blueberries and blackberries and raspberries and&#8230;&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Chara put two fingers over his lips. &quot;Okay, okay. From now on we will enjoy delicious milk and smoothies and it&#8217;s all thanks to you. I love you.&quot; She smiled at him, her heart feeling warm in her chest.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Show me the instructions,&quot; she said. &quot;I should learn how to use this thing if we&#8217;re going to be milking all kinds of nuts and grains in the future.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Darnell smiled, his eyes shining brightly. He led her over to the counter and presented a thin pamphlet. &quot;These are the instructions. There&#8217;s also a magnetic chart we can put on the fridge that has some recipes we can try.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Chara flipped through the pamphlet to see what functions the soy milk machine had. &quot;I guess I&#8217;m going to have to try all the recipes with you.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I want to try everything with you,&quot; Darnell said.<\/p>\n<p>She kissed him on the cheek. &quot;Okay.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>The soy machine made a loud grinding, whirring noise and emitted another puff of steam.<\/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>The Sound of Love &quot;What&#8230; What&#8230; What is that noise?!?&quot; 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&hellip;<\/p>\n <a href=\"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-the-sound-of-love\/\" title=\"12 Days of Xmas: The Sound of Love\" class=\"entry-more-link\"><span>Read More<\/span> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">12 Days of Xmas: The Sound of Love<\/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-6852","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-1Mw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6854,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-and-what-rough-beast\/","url_meta":{"origin":6852,"position":0},"title":"12 Days of Xmas: And What Rough Beast?","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"January 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"And What Rough Beast? It came with a bang rather than the expected whimper. Darker days then ever before, filled with greed and wastefulness followed by all the regrets a world's worth of hearts could hold. Some said he was the Antichrist, with a big A. But he himself objected,\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":7068,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-netted\/","url_meta":{"origin":6852,"position":1},"title":"12 Days of Xmas: Netted","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"December 30, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The freedom of the ocean. Drifting and soaring beneath the waves. Hair flowing behind as the mermaid hit top speed, tail flapping in smooth, powerful strokes. Gills drawing in deep even breaths, the oxygenated blood adding power to the humanlike arms that were dragging the mermaid forward through the water.\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":7070,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-from-the-darkness\/","url_meta":{"origin":6852,"position":2},"title":"12 Days of Xmas: From the Darkness","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"January 1, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"From the darkness it came, and in the darkness it hid. The beast that had been haunting their town, stealing the young women from their beds with no trace only to leave their bloodless bodies to be found three days later. The sound of mournful wails had become the music\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":5678,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-day-of-a-househusband\/","url_meta":{"origin":6852,"position":3},"title":"12 Days of Xmas: Day of a Househusband","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"January 4, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"DAY OF A HOUSEHUSBAND Coming home, Warrick couldn't help smiling at the sound of Vereint's laughter and the TV. He toed off his shoes, curling his tired toes, and padded down the short hallway to peer into the living room. Vereint was lying on the couch with a bowl of\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":5674,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-a-silken-rose\/","url_meta":{"origin":6852,"position":4},"title":"12 Days of Xmas: A Silken Rose","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"January 2, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A SILKEN ROSE Locked in unending darkness. Lonely without light, passing through despair into madness and back again, into a cold kind of sanity that left her begging to be let out. She'd been unwary and weak. Had let herself fall prey to her passions, and in return for her\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":6674,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-vignette\/","url_meta":{"origin":6852,"position":5},"title":"12 Days of Xmas: Vignette","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"December 30, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"VIGNETTE The blood was black. Tar-like as it oozed from the shallow cut on his arm rather than the smooth up-welling of red from before. It had been a gradual change. Painful at first until nerves became numb and dead. Dead like me, he thought. His vision had grown dim\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\/6852","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=6852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}