Spoon
by Jake Steimle
Brigham Young University
Jake Steimle is a student at Brigham Young University. He is applying to the Advertising program in the Fall, and will graduate in 2025. He has been attempting to write stories since he was a child, though he’s not sure he’s ever had much of a talent for it. It's more of something he loves.
There’s a single spoon in our house that no one’s been allowed to touch for a week. My baby brother Landen has this adorable thing that he does. I don’t know if anyone in our family remembers how it started. It’s kind of like the way the Earth spins. It didn’t really start, that’s just how things go. That’s the way it is with Landen. We don’t know why, but he loves spoons. Every morning, the first thing he does is waddle downstairs, carefully, independently, and grabs a spoon. His fat little legs look like socks filled with oranges.
“Boon!” he calls it. It’s so cute that it makes me wanna die. He’s got thin light brown hair. The way it feels reminds me of tufts of cotton candy, except not so sticky. His cheeks stick out like the bulges of a planet near its equator. Once he’s got his “boon” he’ll carry it around with him all day. He doesn’t use it for typical spoon things, or even for much at all. He just likes to hold it, just like mama likes to hold him. We’ve all grown very attached to him and have been holding him a lot. He’s like our own little “boon”.
For a while my mom would try to distract him with some other toys and then take the spoon without him noticing. It didn’t work very well. He’d notice pretty quickly and then he’d cry. So, she just let him have it. He’ll hold onto the spoon all day in his little meaty fist and then he’d usually fall asleep with it. That’s when Dad would usually grab the spoon from him and take it downstairs to the sink. The next day the cycle would repeat.
But now, mama grabbed the spoon we weren’t allowed to touch and placed it in the casket. Landen’s chubby little cheeks looked much paler than they normally do. Right now you couldn’t tell that his legs looked like socks with oranges in them because he had little white pants on. His light brown hair looked pretty much the same. I reached out and felt it one last time.
Mama was taking it the hardest. At first when Landen got sick, we all thought it was normal, just a cold probably. Then one day he stopped breathing and Mama and I rushed him to the hospital. They put tubes in him and helped him start breathing again. The next morning, he woke up and still wanted his boon. His voice was really weak and reverberated through the tubes making it sound like “bmmm,” but we all knew what he meant. Later that day Dad brought him a boon. That’s the one we had kept at the hospital the whole time so he could have it, and that’s the one mama had just put in the casket.
Dad was strong as always and kept reminding us that we’d see him again. I kinda think that he’ll be older then, when I see him, but not older than I am right now. Mama didn’t like thinking that way though. She just wanted her little baby back, wanted to hand him a boon again.
Interview with the Author
1. What inspired you to write this piece? What was your thought process throughout?
My inspiration for this piece came from an actual thing that my little brother did when he was younger. He went to grab a spoon every morning when he woke up and actually called it a "boon." In my creative writing class we were asked to write a piece about an object, and this mannerism of my little brother popped into my mind. He did not die as in the piece, but I added that twist so that there was an ark in the piece that had emotional weight.
2. What do you hope readers will take away from your piece? What effects do you want the piece to have on the person, community, or society?
I didn't write this piece with any specific takeaway in mind, more I was just trying to evoke an emotional reaction. I am a religious person (belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and I did try to share the hope that I have for life after death in this piece, so that is a takeaway that I hope people have, though it was not intended to convey a message.
3. What is your favorite piece of fiction (short story, novel, flash fiction, etc.) that you’ve ever read? Why?
My favorite piece of fiction that I've ever read is a novel by Brandon Sanderson called "The Way of Kings." It's quite popular in the fantasy genre, so you've likely heard of it. I love it primarily because it has fantastic character writing. Many of the characters deal with mental health challenges and difficult pasts, and we all have demons that haunt us, so I find it very captivating. Additionally, the fantasy world is very interesting and creative.
4. If you plan on continuing to write, what are some goals/plans you may have for your future?
I do plan to continue to write, and I hope to continue writing short fiction and poetry that I will submit to journals. My main goal is to eventually write novels.