Tony, Tony

TWENTY

The pepper grinder was neither hot nor cold. It slept its unending sleep of non-sensience in the small box it came in--one full of packing peanuts to cushion every contour of its body.

Tony called it Pepper, like his former pepper grinder go-to. Yes, the one he threw off the cliff.

The pepper grinder had no hopes of dreams, only about half a pound of pepper kernels stuffed inside it waiting to be ground out. I suppose that made it a bit spicy sometimes, but not really.

It was blue, so maybe this replacement Pepper was sadder than the other one. Maybe, in a great twist of irony, it is allergic to its own pepper. Perhaps it recently found out it's defective and can't grind out little dabs of pepper after all.

That's certainly enough character development for now....