Donuts Everyday (first published in Rabid Oak)
Yes, it is very much like a recipe; it is a recipe for making a bomb. The kitchen is a donut shop. Here are the ingredients.
Eat donuts for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This is the life intake a person who works in a donut shop follows. If you are this person, you argue that you’re doing it to save money since the donuts are complimentary to workers of the donut shop. You spend most of the day at the donut shop, going in and out to take care of other life matters.
Agitate these ingredients with the requirements of children, taking them to school, feeding them, taking care of them when they’re home, and then going back to the donut shop to do the evening shift before closing it.
Stir in a limit of two hours of sleep a night since you need to go back to the donut shop to make the donuts at 3 am. When you return at 5 am, you need to start getting the kids ready for school again.
It’s important to take a wide view of life, arguing once again that you’re doing it because you have kids. Likewise, you smoke cigarettes, and you’re doing it because it’s the only thing you do for yourself. And yeah, you already know they’re not good for you.
Add in generous amounts of coffee. You need the coffee because you need to stay awake, and it isn’t always easy, and you need the coffee to thin down the donuts.
Once you have all these elements boiling in a kettle, clasp a lid over it, and lower the heat to a simmer for about ten years. Even though you made this, you will be caught by surprise one day when you discover the simmering concoction you left on the farthest plate of your stove all those years ago, and that is when your ear detects the ticking sound.
As familiar as this story sounds, it always catches us by surprise. As familiar as I am with these scattered details, this is a story that was told to me. And though we all recognize this recipe, the very specific ingredients are one of a kind, and they belong to this one man who has lived life in this one way. I don’t know who this man is, but these are all the facts as I received them. I can only guess at what the results will offer.
No doubt, this becomes a reality to the man when that strange sound begins harassing his inner ear. The ticking sound finally comes to disturb this man when it gets louder, when it actually affects the way he makes donuts, the way he pursues his livelihood, and the way he takes care of his family. When the sound gets so loud, it actually gets in the way of everything, he will no longer concentrate on keeping everything together because the sound won’t allow it.
Since this is a concern, he goes to doctors, and the doctors urge extreme measures. During open-heart surgery, his time bomb is only seconds away from exploding in their faces.
— Rey Armenteros