Melancholia by Casey L. Scott

When Susan was a child, her mother took her to a beautiful little bakery down by the river. Her mother’s favourite treat was strawberry cake, and she often exclaimed — with a mouthful of cake and icing — that nowhere on Earth existed a strawberry cake as delicious as the one they made at that little bakery.

Susan, however, preferred chocolate like most children. When she asked her mother if she could have a slice of chocolate cake instead of strawberry, she noticed her mother’s eyebrows furrow, and so Susan learned to enjoy strawberry cake because her mother enjoyed seeing her eat it. If anyone were to ask her now why she liked strawberry cake, she would simply say that she had always liked it, even if there was something lacking in every strawberry cake she tasted. She could never seem to put her finger on the reason why, only that they were never just right.

She often thought back to that little bakery, back to the mouthfuls of strawberry cake and how peaceful she felt when she chewed, her shoulders relaxed, her mother seated across from her, smiling. She had always liked strawberry cake, right?

Then, the inevitable happened: her mother died.

After her mother’s funeral, she sat down to enjoy the one thing that she knew would lift her spirits, but this time the cake tasted bland and thoroughly unappealing. She sat and stared blankly at the half-eaten cake. Of course, it looked the same, smelled sweet just the same, but something was missing? Or maybe that something had always been missing, she thought . . . maybe . . . desire left on its own isn’t true desire at all.

2012 Casey L. Scott

Casey is a 22 year old procrastinator who has been published in the Imagine Journal and the Geelong Writers 2008 anthology. He writes speculative fiction which explores philosophical ideas. He currently has a degree in professional and creative writing with honour’s in philosophy and plans on pursuing postgraduate study. He has other writing and musical projects under the name ‘Malekei Leigh’.

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