Have you ever gotten a cookbook from one of those thrift stores? Probably. Most of us have. Or have been passed down in the family? Well, this story will make you reconsider.
We will start our story with Ruth. Ruth is in her early 20s and just starting to get into baking. So, she did what any new baking enthusiast would do. She popped over to a thrift store to find a good used cookbook. After browsing awhile, she found one. The perfect mix of vegan, and non-vegan meals. It wasn’t very old or worn out. She checked the price sticker and it read, “$2.50” “Score!” She whispered to herself. A 400 page cookbook at $2.50 was a hell of a deal she thought. She made her purchase and went home. The first night she had the book she just ended up ordering a pizza while she read through it to find some good ideas to make. Everytime she would find a good one, she would dog ear the page, and continue on. Some of the recipes even gave household cleaning tips for the kitchen, which she thought was very helpful to have.
She went out to eat with her boyfriend on night 2, so she still hadn’t made anything out of her book. But she was determined to make something soon. Things went on like this for a while. Procrastinating as we all tend to do.
Day 16 came around and she was finally able to make a dish out of her book. Chicken parmesan was on the menu for the night. She got the meal made up, enjoyed it, cleaned up, and went to bed.
The next day while she was out running some errands she stopped for a bite to eat and a coffee at a Starbucks. She sat down and started scrolling through her phone’s notifications, when she got a feeling that someone was watching her.
She looked up from her phone and saw a man a few tables down, and he was indeed staring at her. When the man noticed she was looking at him, he shied away with a charming smile. He then got up and approached Ruth. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to stare, your just really beautiful” he said “Oh thank you!” She replied “Forgive me, but I gotta shoot my shot here. Are you available this week for dinner?” He asked “Oh sorry I have a boyfriend” she answered. “Well, can’t blame me for trying. Have a nice day then” he said with a smile as he walked back to his spot, grabbed his coffee and notebook and left.
He wasn’t bad looking. Not usually the type Ruth would go for or anything, just a little too nerdy for her taste, but otherwise normal looking. But she had to at least applaud his effort.
The day went on and Ruth had forgotten about her coffee shop interaction. After a while she returned home to her apartment to figure out what to eat for dinner that night. She was kinda feeling like something vegan. She flipped through her book to the vegan section. Cauliflower and Rice quesadillas sounded good. So, she made sure she had all the ingredients, which she did and got to work. “First make sure to clean a bowl thoroughly with bleach” read the recipe. Odd, but the author was pretty reputable, so Ruth didn’t think twice about it. Better to have it completely clean anyway right? “Next you will want to rinse your rice with hot water, then soak 1/4 cup of rice in vinegar” Ruth followed the instructions without hesitation. It must add some sort of zing to it right? Probably. After letting the rice soak for about 15 minutes she dumped the rice and vinegar into the bleached bowl. And proceeded to step 3. While she was doing the third step she started to notice a strong harsh smell. She sniffed around to find the cause. It was the bowl. It smelled awful. “Maybe this is what’s supposed to happen?” She thought. A knock came from the door, she left the kitchen to answer the door. Upon opening the door, there was no one there. She closed the door and went back to the kitchen to continue with her meal prep. While she was working on getting the cauliflower chopped up, she noticed her bleach and vinegar was gone. Did she put it away already? She must have. She brushed it off and kept at her cooking. Next step was to turn on the stove. She went over and turned on her electric stove too high. The smell from that bowl seemed to be getting worse and it was getting hard to breathe. Maybe she should set it out on her balcony?
She went to pick up the bowl and realized it was now filled to the rim with liquid, the bleach and vinegar bottles were in the trash empty next to the counter where the bowl had sat. “What the hell?” She asked herself as her breathing became more laboring. She started towards the balcony door to open it, something wasn’t right. She could feel herself growing weaker as her breathing got worse. She reached the door and tried ripping open the sliding door, but it wouldn’t budge. She checked the lock, but it was unlocked. She kept trying the door, until she realized a 2X4 had been placed against the handle outside to prevent it from opening. She was trapped. She frantically started trying the windows, but they were somehow sealed shut. In a panic, she summoned all the strength she had and hobbled towards the door as the chlorine gas filled the apartment. As she neared the door her heart dropped. A man in an all black leather hazmat looking suit was blocking her escape. He was wearing a supplied air respirator that took up his whole face. She saw nothing but his eyes. They looked familiar. Her vision faded, then she collapsed on the ground. Her breathing grew shallow, as her vision slowly faded, she saw the man squat down next to her looking in her eyes. Her hearing faded along with her vision, and as she slowly stopped breathing she heard the intruder laughing quietly.
After a minute the intruder checked for a pulse, but there was none. Ruth was dead. The intruder drug her body to the kitchen, and staged her body to wear it looked like a household accident had occurred by mixing the wrong chemicals. He fished out the rice with a strainer and another bowl, rinsed out the bowl and put it back, all while leaving the chemical mixture in the original bowl on the counter. He put a sponge in to really make it look like an accident. The last thing he did after removing the rods and boards he had placed into the doors and windows was grab the cookbook. He climbed down the fire escape from her balcony, removed his suit when he reached the ground, put it back in a bag he left earlier and left. Police found Ruth the next evening. Her death was ruled an accident. They couldn’t figure out why she mixed the bleach and vinegar. No evidence of foul play was found. After a few days, a nice young lady by the name of Jaime was sitting in a Starbucks.
She felt as if someone was looking at her. She looked up, and a normal looking guy, with a slight nerdiness was looking at her. He shied away with a charming smile. He finished his coffee and slung his shoulder bag on and walked towards the door. As he passed Jaime a big cook book fell out of his bag and landed next to Jaime’s feet. She had her ear buds so she didn’t even hear it thud. After she finished her homework, she packed up her laptop and started to leave when she noticed a cookbook. She flipped through a few pages and decided to keep it. After all, it was the perfect mixture of vegan and non-vegan recipes.