Chris Babu - Draydens Diary

Copyright 2018 Chris Babu, All rights reserved.

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Draydens Diary is a prequel of sorts to The Initiation , published Feb 27, 2018 by Permuted Press, in that it presents the journal entries of the main character in the month preceding The Initiation . At the end of this book, Ive included the opening scene of The Initiation . Book two of The Initiation series, called The Expedition , comes out in Dec 2018. If you enjoy Draydens Diary and would like to read The Initiation , you can find it at your favorite online retailer.

Drayden: March 12th

S O... MOM USUALLY DOES the cooking. Its not a stereotypical gender roles thing. Dad doesnt care enough to cook. He doesnt even care if Mom cooks. Hed just grab an apple and a slice of bread. Me and Wesley dont really know how, though Moms showed me a few things, like how to make stir-fry. Hers is still better.

The weekly food allocation includes vegetables, fruit, bread, rice, and pasta. Sometimes potatoes. Given the limited quantity and variety of food in New America, youd think cooking would be easy. But its actually the opposite. We got bored of stir-fry, and pasta with vegetables, about thirteen years ago. You gotta make soups, and casseroles, and occasionally, something no ones attempted before.

Mom went there tonight. The results were... eh, mixed. No, not mixed. Moms usually a good cookas good as one can be in this dump of a city. But bless her heart, Im still struggling to keep it down. I have to. I need the calories.

I dont know what in the hell she was thinking. She used up a lot of our veggies, and I mean A LOT. We wont get the next allocation for 4 days, and theres not much left now. She chopped them, or minced them or whatever you call it when you cut everything into tiny bits (diced?). Carrots, celery, radishes, peppers. Who knows what else. She chopped that stuff until it was like a fine powder. And then she formed it. We dont know how she got it all to stick together. She said it was her secret ingredient. She winked every time she said it. Did Mom try and kill us tonight? Was it rat guts, or poo or something? Why did she keep winking like that?

When we sat down to eat, everyone looked skeptical. After shed molded the mass, she baked it. She unveiled her creation with a voila. It was mostly brown, shaped like the state of West Virginia, but rounded on top. And it was smoking.

What is that? Wes had asked.

Veggie-loaf, Mom said, as if it were obvious.

Wes jabbed it with his fork. Is it moving?

Mom whacked his fork away and swore it was delicious. She then killed it, carving it into slices and dishing it out. Thats when the liquid started oozing out. Hey, at least it had stopped smoking. Wes and I waited till Dad took a bite, and we studied him. If it was going to kill one of us, we all would have agreed we could lose Dad. His chewing grew slower and slower and the color drained from his face. He swallowed hard, and then his face twitched a few times. Without saying anything, he got up, walked to the cupboard, and returned with our prized bottle of hot sauce. Wed splurged for it a few months ago at the Retail Center. He gave Mom a look and sighed, before dousing the loaf with the sauce.

Dont use the hot sauce, youll ruin the flavor, Mom had said.

Exactly, Dad grumbled under his breath.

It was time. I cut a piece off with my fork, at which point the whole thing sort of fell apart. Full of terror, I raised it towards my mouth. Before inserting the substance, I glanced at Wesley and froze. Hed taken a bite and his face had gone blank. Was he crying? He kept trying to swallow, but every time he did his face would reflexively frown.

You okay, dude? Id asked him.

He just kept doing the swallow-frown thing, only faster now. Then he started gagging. He dropped his fork and it ricocheted off the table before landing on the floor. He grabbed his throat with both hands.

Get it down, son! Dad had yelled.

Oh, God, Wes finally blurted, his face red, his eyes tearing. He was sweating, and breathing heavy. He rested his elbows on the table. I did it, he whispered. I did it.

Mom was engaged in her own battle, chewing with her eyes closed and head tilted back. Willing the loaf to go down, I guess.

Im skinny as hell. I couldnt skip this meal. How bad could it be? Wes was probably exaggerating, trying to be funny as always. With the bite still balanced on my fork, I shoved it in and tried to chew while holding my breath. The loaf just laughed at my feeble attempt to cover up the taste. And there was no hiding from the texture. Time seemed to stop. Something primitive kicked in, some caveman-era instinct to get this foreign object out of my mouth. It took everything I had to keep from spraying it into Dads face.

It tasted like hot garbage. The texture similar to vomit. Oh hell no. Like Wesley, I was now in the fight of my life to get it down. My esophagus wanted nothing to do with this loaf. My mouth was in full panic mode. In the back of my mind, I also didnt want to hurt Moms feelings, but I think we were way past that. She was already in the tearing phase herself.

I was not going to lose to this veggie loaf. After a few weak tries, I went for it. I swallowed as hard as I could and it passed. I expected relief, but it immediately flirted with coming back up. Now I was sweating, my mouth filling with saliva.

Moms eyes were downcast. Adam, pass the hot sauce, please, she said softly to my father.

We finished the hot sauce tonight. After dinner, we went our separate ways without another word about the meal. None of us knew the real battle was just beginning. Im pretty sure we all cried tonight. The loaf is doing all sorts of crazy shkat to my stomach here in my room. And to think, we only have one tiny bathroom. Its gonna be a long night.

Drayden: March 14th