Prompt #1: Explore this theme: What we want isn't often what we need.
Mandatory elements to include: a spoon, an ostrich.
Rita gnawed at the end of her unlit cigarette, still rummaging through the mountains of collectible cutlery, occasionally calling out to Charlotte who was categorizing them in a little notepad.
“This one might be worth something. One sterling silver spoon, shaped like a..a...oh, what the fuck are those birds called? A peacock?”
“Does it have a big tail?”“No, no, those bastards with the long necks.”“Oh, an ostrich!” Charlotte bobbed her head up and down energetically as she scribbled down: spoon, ss, ostrich dsgn - sell.
Rita grunted and set the ostrich spoon to the side. “Okay, next. Copper knife with a cherub handle. Hideous, but might sell.”Murmuring a wordless agreement, Charlotte jotted down the information. With a melodramatic sigh, she looked up from her paper. “Rita?”
“Mm.”“Why do you think Aunt Tommie spent so much time and money collecting these things? She never ate with them, never displayed them.”
“I dunno, why the fuck does anyone collect anything? Because they want to, I suppose.”“Sure, but you think she would’ve at least organized them. She just bought them and threw them in a pile in the attic. What’s the point of that? All that money, she could’ve bought something she really needed!”
Rita scoffed. “Right. Like a fucking shield to block her collapsing tower of silverware from knocking her over and breaking her hip.”
The delicate Charlotte gasped at the insensitive joke, but Rita continued to snigger.“Oh c’mon, it’s a funny image. An old broad brought low by the useless junk she hoarded. I think I’m going to write a screenplay on it: ‘The Utensils’ Revenge!’”
“There’s no need to be unkind.”
“Whatever. Here, take this down: sterling silver chimpanzee cheese knife.”