Naughty Boys Pie

pie

PHOTO PROMPT © Ted Strutz

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“Sing a Song of Sixpence,
A bag full of Rye,
Four and twenty Naughty Boys,
Baked in a Pye.”

Delbert enjoyed working in the kitchen and pies were his specialty. The retired bibliographer took another sip of wine. It was an excellent Sauvignon Blanc, a bit pricy for a Napa vineyard, but tonight he was celebrating.

He would keep the first steak and kidney pie for himself (his mouth fairly watered in anticipation), but the others he would create before supplies ran out,  would be anonymously gifted to the city detectives and FBI agents investigating his string of serial killings.

It’s Wednesday and once again time to participate in Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ 23 August 2024 edition of Friday Fictioneers. The idea is to use the image above as the prompt for crafting a poem or short story no more than 100 words long. My word count is exactly 100.

I saw that pies were being baked and the first thing I thought of was the old tune we all probably sang in childhood, “Sing a Song of Sixpence.” The popular verses go:

“Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie.”

However, looking it up on Wikipedia (I know), I discovered that although the rhyme’s origins are uncertain, the first verse had appeared in print in Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book, published in London around 1744, in the form I rendered in my story.

Serial killers, cannibalism, and steak and kidney pies (the more normal sort I recall being rather tasty) immediately popped into my imagination. The rest was easy.

I should say I did a wee bit of research on the wine Delbert was sipping and came up with this.

To read other stories based on the prompt, visit inlinkz.

My 16-part science fiction serial Our Legacy, The Stars: A Tom Corbett Adventure is now completely published. You can read the entire saga chapter by chapter, just like how the old pulp novels first appeared serialized in magazines. Now that the full story is available, readers (hint, hint) can leave a review as well.

My pulp fiction, steampunk, pirates-in-space short story The Last Oasis of Mars: From the Tales of the Razzle Dazzle has been getting a lot of praise lately, mainly on Facebook. If you like a good old fashion adventure, give the link a click and read it for FREE!

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