I am a winner. The competition was stiff. Wilford Brimley (Diabeetus) was a judge. As was fellow "Cocoon" co-star Don Ameche. We were in an orchard of some kind awaiting the results. I was asking my peers what they had submitted, but nothing rings a bell. I was so concerned about my dish...
I had submitted something called a "Lemon Zebra Teacake". Which I have never heard of. I've heard all of those words individually, but never together. Honestly, the final product looked ok, but the description did it no favors. It looked like a pie-shaped, dense, almost biscuity texture cake, but with a hard-coated chocolate covering. It definitely wasn't a teacake. The chocolate didn't belong. And Lemon? Chocolate? No thank you. And I don't know what made it a Zebra cake... I guess the fact that it was brown with chocolate and had a yellowish dough?
I figured I would get roasted for this abomination. But to my surprise, the vote was unanimous. And once Mr. Diabeetus said that it was unanimous, I knew. I knew that it was me. There was a strong release of tension from the other contestants when that word was used. Unanimous. My dish was the winner.
Standing in that manicured orchard with the trees providing cover and having two dead actors tell me that my shitty fictitious dessert was their favorite felt good. I can't explain why. I just know that it was some sort of validation that I totally needed today. I woke up smiling, ready to take on the day.