Joshua Hartsoe

The Woman Who Split Before Dinner

Patty Cauldron, wife of noted food critic Nemo Cauldron, has become dissatisfied with her increasingly boring life as the wife of a food connoisseur. Her husband's business trips leave her home alone for long periods of time and her desire (and mind) begins to wander. Coming home from a particularly excessive trip, Nemo discovers that Patty has been having an affair, and the fists begin to fly. Patty defends herself with a kitchen knife, planting it in her husband's back- opening up her mind to a new world of paranoia, mistrust, and madness. A macabre tale ensues, as Patty meets several strange caricatures along the way: A naive farm boy, cannibalistic backwoods hicks- could these people be real? Or do they only exist in her mind, a place just as dangerous?