Chapter 4: Donut Drifter

Maya and Hari looked about themselves stranded on a snowy afternoon in the early 20th century before Hari voiced the obvious.

“We are screwed. How on earth are we supposed to find Thor here?”

“Lord Aniruddha asked us to search the news archives. That’s where we start. Let’s go to the city library.”

After an hour of wading through a mountain of paper archives (God, how do these peeps live without smart computers!), Hari brought over what seemed a promising (if weird) article with all the right name dropping throughout.

Maya glimpsed at it before glaring at Hari. Hari winked and said “Read it fully!”

Maya sighed but acquiesced.

“The story of the origin of Donut dates back to the time before sentience appeared on the blue haven of resources that is called “The Earth”. The time when asgardians ruled the unthinking hordes on the earth was when the Donut was accidentally invented by Loki, the lord of mischief. Loki ran into the royal kitchens to escape the wrath of his brother, Thor, as a result of a childish prank gone awry. He had first run to his father in his throne room to plead interference on his behalf when he had failed to find his mother, Fjörgyn. Odin, had simply waved him off, busy in the universal affairs that demanded his attention.

In the kitchens now, Loki weaved in and out of the huge mountains of delicacies knocking down the culinary staff in his haste. When the servants spotted the enraged Thor following in Loki’s footsteps, they bade a hasty retreat. While trying to evade the mighty Mjolnir (Thor’s hammer), Loki held up a sweet pancake freshly baked as a shield and lo! the pancake with a hole in the middle was invented. Loki inadvertently gave its name when he uttered “Donut” (“Do not hit” with a broken jaw).

The world lost this accidental asgardian foody delight, until Thor returned on a reconnaissance mission to the earth. Nostalgic of his childhood and the sweet reward of Loki’s mischief, he secretly taught the recipe to a New York chef disguised as a Dutch settler.

As the years rolled past, humans took that which was already perfect and turned it even better adding in flavours, tastes and smells until the asgardians were forced to acknowledge the superiority of the sheer human genius that made this possible. This display of superior evolution was what convinced Thor and then Odin to protect the earth against Loki’s and the dark elves’ excesses when the war broke out to dominate all worlds in the Yrgrasil.

And that is the story of how the Donut saved the earth!”

“What a load of rubbish!” exclaimed Maya.

“Not so fast, look, there is the contact details of the author printed here. That’s where we go. There are no other references to Thor in this place.”

As Maya and Hari hesitantly knocked on the door of the address in the article, it was opened a wizened lady with a sweet face.

Author’s note: This is the fourth chapter of the novella “The God, The Girl and The Gem” I am writing as a part of the blogchatter #AtoZChallenge.

Fun facts:

(1) Did this chapter seem to retract from the details of Maya and Har’s journey? That is sort of the point 🙂

(2) Yes, the scientific celebrity is still on his way!

(3) You can also read sample chapters of “Maya & the Mind Mystics”, my earlier published work featuring Maya and Hari here.