Sweetcorn Suzie
Singapore Tales Series
Experience life's challenges and triumphs through seven short stories featuring bumbling blur queen, Sweetcorn Suzie. Witness the trauma of a Home Economics cooking class. Laugh with her through her antics. Delight at unexpected twists and turns as she blunders through life. Through these stories, the author shares the miracles in her life, grief, and coming to terms with loss.
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About This Book
Experience life's challenges and triumphs through seven short stories featuring bumbling blur queen, Sweetcorn Suzie. Witness the trauma of a Home Economics cooking class. Laugh with her through her antics. Delight at unexpected twists and turns as she blunders through life. Through these stories, the author shares the miracles in her life, grief, and coming to terms with loss.
Excerpt
Fire blazed, frightening us thirteen-year-old girls in our first cooking class. Cool as a cucumber, Miss Melody took the pan of burning oil from our classmate's trembling hand and set it in the middle the concrete kitchen floor.
"Remember girls," Miss Melody emphasised as she filled a bucket with water. "Do not try this."
Our hearts pounding with morbid curiosity, we stood fixated. We couldn't tear our eyes off our teacher as she carried the pail full of water, striding towards the flaming oil.
"Stand back," she ordered - an unnecessary command. We weren't stupid. All of us had the sense to stay as far from the fire as we could.
Bracing herself, several feet away from the pan of flames, she flung the water at the burning oil, putting it out. It was a miracle the heated oil had not splashed on her, or any of us, for that matter. We were fortunate to escape unscathed.
"This is an example of what NOT to do when the oil catches fire," she concluded, stunning her impressionable audience.
Author's Notes
Truth is stranger than fiction. Each story is a memory that sounds unbelievable, but these actually happened. Only the names are fiction, changed to protect the identities of everyone involved. Decades later, I reminisced with my classmate about that Home Economics incident. She's so traumatised that when she had to light a gas stove, she too would duck.