Laurië Lassi – Golden Leaves by Esteliel

Plum Cake

The cuisine of the Shire is unsurpassed. Write a story or poem, or create a work of art, featuring food.

Plum cake

It was a stranger who stepped through her door. All too well she remembers the day when her only son left, never to return.

Yet now he has returned, or so they have told her. But how can this stranger be her son? Her Laurefindil with his bright smile is gone. Instead, she sees a man with her son's golden curls – yet this man is broad with muscles, his face is stern and commanding despite the hint of insecurity she can feel, and his eyes no longer hold that spark of infectious joy.

“I have returned, mother,” he says, and she hesitates for a moment, confused by this memory of her son which differs so much from the golden-haired stranger's looks.

“Oh!” he then says, and his eyes light up with that bright joy she remembers so well. “Is that your plum cake I can smell?”