An old fashioned moral tale

Evil squeezed a few drops of venom onto the assembled company and then lay back with his hands behind his head and a contented smile on his face. It was one of his favourite situations: a dinner party. People sitting round a table and trying to pretend they were all right. He sighed with satisfaction. All his best friends were there, Envy and Jealousy, Pride and Vanity, Resentment and Bitterness, Hate and Indifference. Greed hadn't come this evening. He'd gone to a  land dispute meeting with Anger and Sloth. Evil squeezed a few more drops over Hate. He'd had a bit of trouble with him lately. He'd been getting close to that idiot Passion and Evil knew that when that happened his feared enemy, Love, was never far away. He looked fondly at Pride and Vanity. They were looking so young these days with all the plastic surgery and the boom in the obsession for beauty. Envy was giving them a hand. Evil sighed and looked proudly at Indifference, who was going from strength to strength and sometimes overtaking Hate. Evil was amazed by the renewed power of Indifference.
 A gust of warmth and sweet air caused Evil to sit up abruptly. He relaxed immediately when he saw it was only Compassion trying to pull up a chair next to Bitterness. He wasn't afraid of Compassion, Pride always managed to sort him out. He listened idly to the conversation. Resentment was telling Jealousy all about his miserable childhood. Compassion tried to join in but then Bitterness caught his attention. Evil always enjoyed listening to conversations about miserable childhoods, cruel parents and jealous siblings. He often felt his finest work was done there. All those people dragging their childhood grievances through their lives like a ball and chain. He also got great satisfaction from all the marriage break-ups around. Love went to all that hard work to get a couple together and they'd go off down the aisle looking at each other in a soppy way and making ridiculous promises. Evil only had to wait until Love was busy doing something else and then let Jealousy sidle in. He would then open the door for Bitterness and Resentment, before long they were joined by Hate who took over completely. Evil nearly lost his balance as Kindness came in and moved round the table trying to get some attention. Evil was pleased to see that no-one was taking any notice of her. Weak ineffectual creature with all her silly ways, offering lifts and dropping coins in boxes, making cakes and listening to long boring complaints and being nice. Hope and Faith came in together as always. They were useless too. All it needed was a little earthquake or a flood and off they'd scuttle. Evil looked at his friends with pride, pleased with himself. Then there was a blinding flash that threw him right off balance. He was dazzled by the brilliance and the light that sparkled around him. He glimpsed a white cloak covered in thousands of bright diamonds, a rich velvet trim and a softness that even tempted him to wrap himself in their folds. He hadn't been expecting this. It was his arch enemy Love. She started to envelop the creatures one by one, soothing their brows, holding their hands. There was a burst of nervous laughter from Envy. Hate was looking at her in awe and what looked suspiciously like adoration. Evil desperately tried to sprinkle more drops of venom but it was no use. There was nothing left. Bitterness and Resentment rushed away together looking ashamed and rather ridiculous. Pride and Vanity looked old and tired. The others followed and Evil faded away. Love looked at Kindness and Compassion, Hope and Faith.   'I'm sorry I took so long,I've been very busy this evening. Thank  you for holding on.'

Compassion looked down, shame-faced,' I'm  no good on my own. I can't do anything without you.'

Love put her arm round him 'No- one can. We all need each other.'

Starting from Scratch

The supermarket was crowded with Friday night shoppers. Cynthia had always done her weekly shop on Tuesday mornings, believing that was when the food was freshest, after the weekend rush and the Monday leftovers.

Cynthia couldn't help noticing all the men in suits holding little  baskets and studying the ready prepared meals on display.

She fought back the urge to call out and invite them all round to her house and watch them tuck in to one of her famous casseroles with baked potatoes followed by a choice of desserts. Her mother had constantly repeated that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach and Cynthia had believed her. It had worked for her father. It hadn't worked with Max though. After years and years of wolfing down Cynthia's roast dinners, casseroles, fish pies, pork pies, Coronation chicken just to name a few, it turned out that the way to his heart followed a trail of short skirts and boob tubes.
At least he'd waited until their daughter Louise had finished uni and got a job. At first she'd been very upset and angry, telling her parents her whole childhood seemed a lie.
Lately she had become very philosophical about it, she'd taken a course about mindfulness, linked to her psychology degree.

Last week Louise had come round with a bottle of Prosecco and sat Cynthia down in the garden. She looked her mother in the eyes and clinked her glass.

'Mum I love you and dad very much and you've been great parents, but maybe you weren't bringing out the best in each other. Maybe there is a whole new world for you out there.'

It still hurt so much, the memory of that day when Max had told her about Mandy being the one. Cynthia had always thought she was the one. Looking back she could see that Louise had a point and the signs had been there all along.

She sighed and pushed on the trolley with her hips, one after the other, just like the Belly dancer teacher, Mina, had demonstrated..
She felt ridiculous and hoped nobody had noticed her attempt at a shimmy. The belly dance lessons were a gift from Louise along with a Thai cooking course.
 It was an attempt to try and give her back her confidence, get to know her body and bring to life the inner creative woman within, to urge her to broaden her horizons.
Cynthia felt her heart swell with love for her daughter, somehow she seemed more like a mother at the moment, their roles had crossed over.

She glanced up at her reflection in the mirror above the yoghurts. Mina had told her to walk with her head held high, her shoulders pulled up and back and to move her legs from the hips. Cynthia looked around to make sure nobody was watching and tried doing the Camel, a move that Mina said would awaken the female creative side. She giggled to herself as she swayed and shimmied against the handle of the trolley. She began to think that English women had a rough deal with all that Morris Dancing they were taught at school. She added some fresh herbs to her trolley and some garlic.
She moved over to the fish counter. Louise was coming for dinner on her way home from work and Cynthia wanted to impress her with a new recipe for Thai Prawn curry.
She ticked off the ingredients from her list, garlic, chilies, limes, coconut milk, limes. Barbara, the teacher had told them that the art of Thai cooking is about combining ingredients at the opposite end of the flavour spectrum and balancing them to create vibrantly flavoured food. the idea was to aim for an explosion of salty, sweet, sour and spicy flavours that sparkle with personality yet harmonize on the plate. Cynthia had written it all down in her notebook and thinking about it now it seemed like a recipe for marriage, or life, or just about anything.

 A voice behind her made her jump.

'Excuse me, are you Louise's mother?',

Cynthia looked up into the most handsome, kind face she had ever seen. He had the warmest brown eyes, just like his voice. She realized she was gaping at him, her voice came out in a croak,

'Yes, I am.'

He held out his hand and smiled, his eyes crinkling with humour and charm,

'Sorry if I startled you. It's just that you look so alike. The same beautiful red hair and green eyes and….'

He reddened and seemed to hesitate,

'Anyway I'm Tom Harding, I met Louise at the estate agents in the High Street. I've come here to work on the new Football Stadium and was looking for a place to rent. She just happened to be in there waiting for her dad and his girlfriend..'

His voice trailed off and he looked awkward

Cynthia took his outstretched hand and smiled back.

'Pleased to meet you and good luck with the stadium, it's a bit of a bone of contention around here. Louise has been campaigning to get it blocked. The old stadium was surrounded by houses and pubs and brought the whole community together, everyone is afraid that the new stadium will be too expensive and too faraway for the youngsters and will break up the community spirit.'

Tom held up his hand,

'Now that's just where I come in, I've been employed to make sure that doesn't happen.
There's going to be new bars, playgrounds and all sorts of events to make it a place for families as well as football fans and we're going to make the old stadium into a sports ground for the local schools. You can tell Louise not to worry at all.'

Someone knocked against him and he tripped, the contents of his basket spilling on to the floor. Cynthia knelt down to help him pick them up. There was a ready washed salad and a ready-prepared Thai curry.  A lightness came over her, a feeling of excitement and anticipation that she hadn't had for years. It must be a sign. She smiled up at him and pointed to the contents of her trolley.

'What a coincidence, I'm making a Thai curry this evening. Dinner date with my daughter, would you like to come too and then you can tell her yourself?'

The eagerness with which Tom accepted told her she hadn't been wrong, he just seemed perfect for Louise.