The Universe's Mixer

The murders were still on the detective's mind when he came home much later that day. Thankfully, the woman he'd been entertaining before he left had seen her way out some time during the day. Hopefully she hadn't bothered Ted. Charlie wouldn't have liked it if she had bothered his housemate and best friend. Jennifer was slowly growing to be friend, but Ted was his best friend. Ted was a part of him, as much as any man could be a part of another man in the nonsexual sense.

The murders were on his mind when he cleaned up, had a snack, and then went to bed. The murders were on his mind when he got up the next morning and started breakfast. An orange grove had developed behind the mansion, and he had collected a few oranges for the fresh juice. If they could somehow grow other fruit trees, Charlie would be a very happy man. Then again, they weren't really "growing" the orange trees, so he supposed he should be happy with what they had.

Charlie was currently working slicing fruit. He'd managed to get an order set up while in the City, so they had fresh fruit almost every morning. It wasn't always the same fruit, but it was good fruit. Charlie looked at the mango and wondered if there was ever bad fruit, not rotten fruit, but bad fruit. Of course, he supposed fruit could be bad to someone if they were allergic, but that really wasn't the fruit's fault. The fruit was just being a fruit. So, maybe it couldn't be bad. But, if it couldn't be bad, could it really be good?

He stared at the mango as it sat there on the cutting board surrounded by other fruit in various stages of slaughter. What made anything good, bad, or...hungry?

"Why did they bite the heart and not eat anything else?" He picked up a slice of kiwi and bit into it, enjoying the seeds' bursting.