Marshmallow Lamp

The plan was simple: Tear open a paper grocery bag and put it on the table. Then, turn a lamp upside down and fill the inverted lampshade with marshmallows. Soon, we would have smores.

Of course, there were complicating factors. For one, we had already filled the grocery bag with popcorn, so tearing it open to use as a clean surface proved to be a little more complicated than first anticipated. As soon as we began tearing it, the popcorn started coming out. And we couldn’t let the marshmallows mix with the popcorn, so we had to tear it open and turn it upside down. But somehow we managed.

Also, Sonic the Hedgehog was there and as usual he wanted everyone’s attention all the time. He was bigger than usual, at least seven feet tall, and his eyes shone in the dark. Apparently he had been reborn in some sort of new, super-charged console and was ready to wreak havoc on his enemies.

We should have just gone to a tavern. That would have been a lot easier than this salty crunchy marshmallowy mess. They could have cooked us up some food and we could have had a cold beer while we ate it. But that was not in the cards. We were scheming!

I went outside to go get a beverage. Walking down the strip, I saw a man talking to an old acquaintance, pretending he didn’t despise her. A chance encounter, it seemed. As they parted ways he passed by me. “Jesus,” he said, “I thought that would never end.

I ducked into a pizza place to grab a bottle of water. It was, not surprisingly, filled with people from my high school. It feels like everyone went to my high school, nowadays. Most of them were frantically looking to score some pot.

I walked to a table of friends and discussed recent turns of event. They all agreed that my plan for smore-making was quite ingenious and that I was correct in suggesting them as an alternative to marijuana consumption. Someone sat on my bottle of water. When I asked for it back he handed me the wrong one, an empty thermos. Apparently this poor kid was sitting on all kinds of bottles tonight.

Retrieving my water I set out again on the street. I had to go check on my crew and the marshmallows to make sure everything was under wraps. This was turning out to be one strange night, and I didn’t want to miss any of it.