{"id":7318,"date":"2012-10-07T23:11:17","date_gmt":"2012-10-08T03:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=7318"},"modified":"2026-07-22T09:01:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T13:01:59","slug":"the-smell-of-bread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=7318","title":{"rendered":"The Smell of Bread (by Sibylle)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary: \u00a0<\/span>Adam visits the Ponderosa.<\/p>\n

Rated:<\/span>\u00a0K+ \u00a0WC 640<\/span><\/p>\n

The Smell of Bread<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
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The story was written as a Pinecone\u00a0using the prompt:<\/em><\/p>\n

“Having placed in my mouth sufficient bread for three minutes chewing, I withdrew my powers of sensual perception and retired into the privacy of my mind, my eyes and face assuming a vacant and preoccupied expression.”<\/em><\/p>\n

from At Swim-Two-Birds\u00a0by Flann O’Brien<\/em><\/p>\n

Thank you, Faust, for beta reading and correcting my English!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u00a0***<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Having placed in my mouth sufficient bread for three minutes chewing, I withdrew my powers of sensual perception and retired into the privacy of my mind, my eyes and face assuming a vacant and preoccupied expression.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I like bread. I\u00b4ve always liked bread.<\/p>\n

Out there, in the wilderness or on the trails you can\u2019t bake bread. You need an oven for that, an oven in a house, a home.
\nFreshly baked bread means security and home for me. The little bakery in Boston has good bread, as if made at home\u2026.<\/p>\n

But this bread here tastes stale. Stale and old. No one has baked today or yesterday. The only good thing is that I can chew on it longer and with that avoid answer a question that hasn\u2019t been asked yet, but has been lingering in this room since my arrival.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdam, how long are you going to stay?”<\/p>\n

There. It\u2019s out. But I\u00b4m chewing; I can not speak.<\/p>\n

But I can look, I have to look, and so I focus my eyes back on the people sitting at the table with me: my father, my two nephews, and my sister-in-law. My brother\u2019s\u2026widow.<\/p>\n

A widow for four years now. I\u2019m here for the anniversary of his death. I\u2019ve always made sure to be here on this date.We visited his grave this morning, and met Joe and his family there. Even after so many years I don\u2019t understand why he had to die so early. That big, strong man.<\/p>\n

Eventually I swallow the bread.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know, Pa. Maybe for two weeks. I have work to do in Boston. We are building\u2026.\u201d I try to smile. Not that I \u2018m doing a good job at that.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure, Adam. Sure\u2026.\u201d Pa says, his eyes averting mine.\u201cI just thought maybe you\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t have to say more; I know what he is thinking, and he knows that I know.<\/p>\n

But I have an architecture office in Boston.I have a lot of dear friends with whom I can talk about literature, theatre, opera. That is my dream of a life. An independent life.
\nI\u2019ve cut the strings of dependence late, but I had to. I can\u2019t live someone else\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n

Pa looks fragile, and so sad. I love him, more than he might know, but \u2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome let\u2019s move in the great room, I\u2019m cold. Let\u2019s sit closer to the fire,\u201d Pa says into the growing silence.<\/p>\n

I lend him an arm, he leans on me heavily. He looks so weak. Frail.<\/p>\n

We sit at the fireplace. For a while there\u2019s absolute silence.<\/p>\n

Then a young voice startles me. \u201cUncle Adam, please, can you tell us a story about father when he was a boy? Uncle Joe says you can tell much more stories than he because you knew him from when he was a baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two pairs of intense blue eyes are looking at me with such confidence.<\/p>\n

Hoss’s eyes. They have my younger brother\u2019s eyes. Why have I never realized that before?<\/p>\n

Mama, they have\u2026your<\/em>\u00a0eyes!<\/p>\n

\u201cPa, maybe I could\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have to say more, Pa already knows.<\/p>\n

I smell the scent of freshly baked bread out of the kitchen.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m at home<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Disclaimer:<\/span>\u00a0All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary: \u00a0Adam visits the Ponderosa.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rated:\u00a0K+ \u00a0WC 640<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[7,1016,23,41,8,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-u","category-adam-pa","category-drama","category-hurtcomfort","category-short-stories","category-challenges","wpcat-7-id","wpcat-1016-id","wpcat-23-id","wpcat-41-id","wpcat-8-id","wpcat-40-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/coming-soon-5.jpg?fit=768%2C576&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}