Turtle Soup

There were two things that she didn't and probably never would understand about Izzy Izumi. One was his curious habit of eating ice cream with a knife and fork (but that's another story for another day) and the other, strangely, was his profound ability to play bowling.

Yes, bowling.

He may have been socially inept and have the physical presence close to that of a door mouse but damn could he throw a heavy ball of plastic down an alley and make all the pins fall over. It never ceased to amaze her. What's more was how he kept so quiet about it, almost ashamed of his unlikely talent. In fact the only time it ever came out was the odd occasion when he was dragged down to the local bowling alley with his friends, which of course always ended with sheer shock and amazement plastered on the faces of those who'd never seen him place before and the odd comment of "dude, are you on steroids?", which he usually replied with a shrug and "I probably just got lucky".

And that was another thing. He would never under any circumstances, be it life or death, talk about anything to do with the game. Not the pins, not the alley, not even the stupid shoes you have to wear! She knew this because she'd tried. Multiple times.

"Izzy, I've always wondered how you're so good at bowling but you never ever talk about it! Maybe if-" she would begin.
"Mimi I've told you, there's nothing to talk about-" and he would interrupt without fail.
"But you're so good! If you tried hard enough you could probably make a living out of it. What do you say we go right now and enter you into a tournament?"

At this point he would usually blush slightly, mumble a few words inaudible words and either change the subject or just walk away. This annoyed Mimi to no end and one day, she snapped.

"Listen here Izumi!" His head snapped up and looked away from whatever he was doing on his laptop. It was very rarely she raised her voice anymore. Maybe he'd forgot to flush the toilet, he thought. Then he remembered the fuming woman in front of him.

"Sup." It wasn't the most intelligent of answers but hey, Mimi was scary when she was angry. "You're telling me this instant how you're so good at bowling, why you never play and why you feel so ashamed about it that you always change the subject!"
A small grin nearly broke on his face, he had to refrain from laughing "That's what this is about?" He could see that she was about to blow so he continued talking "Fine, come with me".

The bowling alley was called 'The King Pin' but it was anything but royal. It smelt, the floor was sticky, flies zipped across the room and the dim ceiling lights flickered on and off constantly, much to Mimi's annoyance. She had been sitting there idly for about an hour, maybe two, watching him bowl endless strikes with seemingly no effort. She'd lost track of time completely and she started to regret ever trying to make him talk. She remembered that she'd hated bowling alleys anyway. She was beginning to complain to herself. Stupid bowling. Stupid Izzy. She was about to say something, she realised she had been beaten and was ready to leave, when-

Swish. Crack. Strike. He turned around. That was his 5th 'perfect 300' game of the day. Slowly he walked to where she was sitting, acknowledging her for the first time in god-knows how long. Then without warning he started talking.

"I was about 7 when I first played. My parents had taken me to this alley to cheer me up, my pet turtle had just died you see, his name was Flippers." he paused for a second, he looked slightly shaken, but continued. There was little emotion in his voice "I was good, I was very good and I came back multiple times. I won trophies. I thought I'd be doing this for the rest of my life." Mimi had to admit this was weird. Even a little bit scary. But she'd waited a long time to hear this so she sat quietly and listened. "Then one night Flippers appeared to me in a dream and told me to remove bowling from my life completely, he said it wasn't good for me, he said it would ruin me. So I stopped playing, I never talk about it. Until now".

Mimi blinked. She looked for signs that he was joking. She found none. Then, Mimi exploded and unleashed all of her wrath on the poor unsuspecting Izzy.

"Stupid bowling. Stupid Izzy." Mimi thought as she drove away from the alley. She'd left Izzy unconscious in a pile of worn bowling shoes. Her mind turned to what she'd be eating tonight as she would now apparently be alone. She smiled. She chuckled. "Turtle soup sounds good" she said.

This is my first story posted on this site so any feedback would be warmly welcomed :)