1 minute read
Tupperware (fiction) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J.A. Klemens
TUPPERWARE
upperware, Ziploc, Rubbermaid.
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Circle, square, cube, cylinder, shallow rectangle, deep rectangle, long rectangle, almost-a-square-but-notquite rectangle, big circle, small circle. Circle with the little spout thingy. Rectangle with the clicky edges. Green, orange, clear, clear with blue tint, clear with green tint, translucent blue, sickly sea green. Permanent, disposable, semidisposable, Chinese soup takeout. Warped, melted, scratched, grated, scraped.
It was inevitable, but all the same he hadn ’t thought they would get there so soon. Not one lid would match up with one receptacle. They had reached perfect Tupperware entropy.
Let’ s make sure I’ m not being premature, he thought, and so began to sort into the broad categories. Circles on the stovetop, lids on the right front burner. Rectangles on the kitchen cart, lids propped between the trivets and the cutting board. Squares on the little strip between the stove and sink, lids balancing in a pile over the edge.
He ’d have to be careful not to knock them over.
He knocked them over immediately.
He picked the lids up and put them on the little bit of dishwasher that projected from beneath the microwave instead. The deep ones he piled by the coffee maker on the other side of the sink, lids propped between the olive oil and vinegar.
He stood in the center of the narrow galley that they pretended was a kitchen, all of them laid out within his reach, and checked them. He checked each circle container against every circle lid, and even when it was obvious that it wouldn ’t fit, he went through the motions, pressing lid to container lip despite the inches that gaped between them, just to
be sure.
But it wasn ’t quite as precise as all that. The lids for the squares might have been rectangles, and the deep cylindrical
T8
containers could also be circles, so those all had to be cross-checked as well. There was one circle that kind of fit, and might even have been the original lid— he checked, and the brand was the
Eddie by Jayne Surrena © 2009
