Morsel

 

By law, every citizen of Quadrant 9 received one Morsel per day. They came wrapped in foil stamped with the Ministry’s slogan: "Enough Is Best." Engineered to meet 100% of a person’s nutritional, caloric, and emotional needs, the Morsel was a miracle of science and severe rationing.

Mira had eaten 8,302 Morsels in her life. She kept count in a notebook, because no one remembered what real meals felt like anymore.

Each morning, she lined up with the others at Distribution Terminal 47. No one spoke. They just blinked at the beige sky and waited for the hiss-click of the slot.

But on Day 8,303, the slot hissed... clicked... and two foil-wrapped Morsels slid out.

Mira stared.

Everyone else received one, as always. But in her hand—two. 

She glanced around. No one noticed. The distribution drones were already wheeling away. The man behind her coughed impatiently. So Mira slid the extra Morsel into her coat sleeve and walked home, heart hammering like a rebel drum.

She ate the first one as usual, seated on her regulation floor mat. Then, slowly, she unwrapped the second.

It tasted different. Her vision blurred, and when it cleared, she wasn’t in her apartment anymore.

She was seven, barefoot, running across a field of golden wheat. But she had never seen wheat in her life.

She blinked again, and she was older, maybe twenty, arguing in a sunlit kitchen with someone who had her brother’s eyes… but she’d never had a brother.

More flashes came. Kisses, birthdays, funerals, pancakes. Mira didn’t know what a pancake was, but her mouth remembered the syrup.

The next day, she returned to the terminal. She tried to act normal. But the drone tilted its camera toward her, scanning her eyes for a little too long. Then: hiss-click.

Only one Morsel.

She hid her disappointment and walked away.

That night, she dreamed of entire feasts. She woke up screaming, but not from fear. 

From appetite.

Now, she wants more. Not just food. Memory. Emotion. Identity.

But she’s not sure what lengths she’ll go through to get it.

***

349 words

This one made me think a bit of Limitless, and maybe another movie or story I can't place yet. I love the idea of tastes holding memories so I pushed it to include unknown memories and how that might present itself.