The Mystical Food Drop

Story by Jason Vook

| SHORT WRITING CONTEST

As he was relaxing in his favorite reclining chair, Larry, a 13-year-old boy, was reading a mystery book when he heard it. It was a low rumbling sound that got louder every second. He raced to the front door of his house and dashed outside. As he looked into the sky, his jaw dropped. Many airplanes, AC-130 Hercules to be exact, were flying around, and one was directly over him. He saw a container fall out of its open cargo door and jumped aside to not get crushed by it. When he didn’t hear the crate hit the ground, he looked up and saw that the container had a parachute attached. It landed in his yard. Wondering what was inside, he sprinted back inside his house and returned with a screwdriver. He eagerly unscrewed bolts to open the crate. Inside were many cans of food, and he quickly grabbed a can of cream of mushroom soup. Suddenly, Larry felt a shock and blacked out.

Larry woke and felt a cool breeze on his face. He looked around while holding the can and saw several people. Surrounding them was a very high wall.

“What a shock! I must have been transported here,” Larry thought. He was in the courtyard of an old, abandoned castle. One man yelled, “Get over here and help!”

“Help with what?” Larry questioned. The man didn’t answer him. However, Larry stood up, walked over, and saw the people were desperately chipping a hole in the wall using rocks. They were trying to escape. When Larry looked closely, he noticed the wall was made out of food. Sticking his tongue out, he licked it and then took a bite out of it. The wall tasted wonderful. Larry told the others and soon everyone began enthusiastically chomping away. Later, the hole they were creating was large enough for someone to crawl through. Larry went back, grabbed the can he’d dropped earlier, and crawled through the hole, hoping he could return home the same way he got to the mysterious courtyard. When he exited the hole, he closed his eyes, grasped the can tightly, and thought about home. Seconds later, Larry was standing in front of his home. 

Looking at his front yard, he saw the canned goods of the open carton strewn around. That evening Larry listened to the evening news report. The air drops were the featured story. Larry was surprised to hear that several people had been knocked out after touching a can. Larry suspected that those people were the same people he met in the courtyard, and that they too had been teleported there.

Over the next few weeks, Larry and his parents enjoyed consuming the food that had dropped from above. This mystical experience was etched in Larry’s mind for the rest of his life, and he could never look at a cream of mushroom soup again without wondering if it had magical qualities.