Kitchen Of Memories

Middle aged Phil is spirited away through time, finding himself standing before a steaming flat-top grill, holding a spatula.  Hand scratched tickets, barely legible, are spattered like bacon grease upon every surface and he can almost hear the grumbling stomachs of the hungry patrons.  Without knowing where he is, or why, Phil knows one thing for sure.  He's already in the weeds!

Catching his reflection in the stainless steel, he sees a younger man with long, curly hair.  Himself in the past.  But not his own past, rather, some strange and clumsy semblance of it.  The characters around him, too are familiar but oddly out of place in this little restaurant that somehow seats thousands.

Questions pile up like lunch orders as lost loves, old friends and enemies parade through the kitchen of memories, each as out of place here as himself.  Each perhaps searching for answers before returning to their own times.

But this is no time for pontification!  Like it or not.  Prepared or not, the Lunch Rush is upon the stranded travelers.  And the Lunch Rush waits for no one!

Can old rifts and grievances be set aside?  Can they work together to (hopefully) leave it all in the past?  As customers pile up, will Anyone Ever Get To Eat?

"One of Parsons' classic and oft-repeated themes.  SPOILER ALERT:  If you've followed his work as long as I have you know two things to be true.  Customers continue to pile up and No One Ever Gets To Eat!"

--Ari M.

Reviews

[Phillip W Parsons]

I use silly reviewer names for this series. Ari M. Is meant to be R.E.M. as a technical term. Each story has some dream or sleep or psychology play on words.

[Myra Fellows]

Oh! Ari. M. Is this the band or the rapid eye movement?

[Myra Fellows]

First, a little picture to mark each chapter would be helpful for recall. Visuals.
I enjoy the details.
Upon the mention of the spatula-Sponge Bob appeared. Squidward Tentacles is losing his patience and Eugene Krabs is counting up the coins. Mmmmm. Krabby patties. (I had to look up the spelling).
I am missing the connection between a grill cook and scratch tickets.