Worthless?

Chapter 1

Her whisks were spinning at a rapid speed – that was one of the first things she felt. She was a hand mixer, and she was being used for the purpose she was made for: mixing batter. Everything felt right and filled her with satisfaction and happiness.

And the one who was using her… although she didn't see them at the moment because she couldn't open her eyes in the presence of humans – she instantly knew to never do that, it was like a basic instinct – she could tell that it was her owner, and judging by the voice, a woman . Her mistress. Eventually, the blissful moments of being used were over, her whisks were taken out to clean, and she was placed inside a cupboard. But the feeling of satisfaction remained. More waiting followed, until the cake was taken out of the oven.

Finally, everything was quiet. No human anywhere near the kitchen, as far as the carefully listening mixer could tell. It was safe to unfreeze, which she did; she couldn't wait to have a look around and meet her fellow kitchen machines. Cautiously, she pushed the cupboard door open and took a look out of her dark enclosure. Yes, she would be able to come out and to jump down on the counter since it wasn't too deep a fall from her cupboard, so she did. Then, she looked around for the other kitchen appliances and found that some of them were already curiously watching her. The mixer hesitated; she was nervous. What should she say? Fortunately, she didn't have to take the initiative. One of the other appliances approached her first, a pale yellow Smeg brand toaster who walked over to her on her little stumpy legs.

"You're the new mixer, right? What's your name?" she asked.

What was her name? She wondered about it a little, and the word Quirl came to her mind. It made her think of her whisks for some reason. Yes, Quirl sounded just right.

"My name is Quirl," she replied.

"I'm Tina," the toaster introduced herself and proceeded to introduce the rest of the kitchen appliances. The oven was Olive, and, as Quirl learned, she was also Tina's girlfriend. There was Maude, a rather motherly microwave. Carter the refrigerator and Frezze, the freezer, were like siblings. And there was K-Bro, the coffee maker. They all welcomed her warmly.

Quirl quickly settled in and got along with everyone. Maude was the mom friend type, K-Bro was a laid-back guy who called everyone "Bro". It turned out that Tina wasn't the nicest of the appliances, just the most outgoing one; she could be stingy. Quirl found herself getting along best with Maude, and with Henry the vacuum cleaner and Dessie the TV, who were like a pair of friendly grandparents.

She met Henry and Dessie when she left the kitchen to explore the living room for the first time.

"Oh, hello, dear!" the TV greeted her with her loud voice from across the room. "You must be the new one? Come closer, let me have a look at you. I'm so happy to meet you!"

When Quirl came forward, the vacuum cleaner, who was busy with a particularly sticky spot on the carpet, interrupted his work to give her a smile. "Pleased to meet you too. I'm Henry, and this is Dessie. She's loud, but she's the most fun and joyful TV I ever knew. And you look like such a formidable young mixer. I'm sure you have a lot of friends in the kitchen."

"Oh, thank you. I'm Quirl." The mixer was endeared by the two living room appliances' cordiality, and from then on, she loved spending time with them.

"Ugh, Henry," Tina rolled her eyes. "That old sucker."

"But he's so nice!" Quirl was baffled. "Why don't you like him?"

"He steals our food," the toaster replied with a frown, and by "our", she meant herself and Olive. It turned out that Henry had a habit of vacuuming up crumbs and other bits of what Tina had toasted and what Olive had baked, and that was "stealing their food" to them. In their eyes, he did it a little too eagerly to pass off as just doing his vacuuming job. And yes, he seemed to enjoy the crumbs, but Quirl couldn't see anything wrong with that.

Roughly a week passed until Quirl was used for the second time to mix another batter. It was satisfying; she was proud to do such a good job.

When the family was out of the house and all the appliances were free to move around, Quirl also liked to socialize with those who had their places outside of the kitchen. In the washing room, there was Eliza, the washing machine, who loved visitors since she couldn't easily leave her place, much like Olive. But those Quirl got along with best resided in the living room: Dessie, the old black-and-white TV, and Henry, the vacuum cleaner. They were like an old married couple and very friendly and fun to be around. They were both very old, but they still worked, so the family kept them. Henry was a purple Hoover vacuum from the 60s and extremely kind. He liked the simple thing s in life and was happy just being appreciated as a vacuum. He was reliable and never complained. Dessie was an old TV with a lot of personality, a white Predicta Princess TV from 1959 with a rotatable screen that she could turn like a head, sitting on a box-like body. Her on-screen persona resembled Barbara Billingsley and was dressed like Queen Elisabeth II in the late 50s, a dignified lady. She was full of spunk and loved to have fun, and spoke with a very loud voice in a strong Texas accent that was difficult for Quirl to understand at first. She also liked to tease Henry at times, but she did genuinely love him, as Quirl learned. Henry didn't take it to heart, he knew that she was just being funny.

Quirl liked visiting them in the living room when the humans weren't in the house, and when Dessie turned on her favorite TV shows, I Love Lucy and I Married Joan, for her, Henry and a few other living room appliances to watch.

"Hello hun!" Dessie greeted the mixer with a big smile on the face of her avatar displayed on her screen. "Hope you're good today?"

"Yes, I'm good, thank you!" Quirl replied, smiling happily, and moved in front of the old TV who followed her movements with her screen.

"Coming from the kitchen again?" Dessie teased Henry, who had entered the living room minutes before the mixer had followed. "You glutton. You've got to stop pissing off Tina and Olive!"

"I just checked on Quirl," the vacuum cleaner replied with a friendly chuckle. "She wanted me to let her know when we could watch more of our favorite shows. You know that she's a whole lot more interested than the other kitchen fellas." He knew that the TV loved him dearly and that it was all in good fun. He then proceeded to vacuuming the carpet and quietly humming to himself.

Every now and then, Quirl was used for making batter – cakes, muffins, cookies. Until a day came when her Mistress tried a different cake recipe. This dough needed to be mixed for a longer time, but that was no problem for her. She was happy to be used some more. Everything felt right, just like always… until, suddenly, she began to slow down. Internally, Quirl began to panic. What was that? Why couldn't she keep up her speed like she was supposed to? She couldn't see, but she could practically feel her Mistress frown. She tried harder, she gave her best, but she just couldn't get up to top speed again like she was supposed to. Then, Quirl felt herself being switched off and sat down on the counter.

"Honey?" she heard Mistress say. "I think the mixer is defective. It slows down when I use it at the highest speed setting for longer. Didn't notice that before because I never used it for this long…"

"We still have a guarantee on it, right?" Master's voice replied from the living room, along with the rustle of a newspaper. "They would send us a free replacement, if I remember correctly."

Replaced. She was going to be replaced. Quirl was so shocked that she couldn't think of anything else, and she didn't even hear what else was spoken. And… defective? She never knew! She had thought everything was alright! Could it be true? But she knew the answer. What had happened today during baking was not supposed to. It was not normal. It was a malfunction.

Quirl was placed back in her cupboard, but when the appliances were alone in the kitchen and she came out, she felt all the others' sympathetic and sad looks on her.

"I'm so sorry, dear," Maude said, deep sadness in her eyes. K-Bro gave Quirl a comforting hug. Everyone was as sad and shocked as she was, but they knew that nothing could be done. All that was left for her was enjoying the remainder of her time with them.

Soon came the day when her replacement was sent and she knew that her time here was up. Before she was discarded of, she briefly got to know her replacement, a mixer of the same brand and model who called himself Rührdiger – a pun of the name Rüdiger and some foreign word for "stirring". He probably found that funny, Quirl thought bitterly, but then realized that it wasn't fair – Rührdiger seemed to be a nice guy. The issue was just that he replaced her.

And then, she was thrown out. Mistress picked her up from her place in the cabinet, and unceremoniously tossed her into the bin in front of the house, to the empty cans, burnt-out light bulbs and other trash.

She didn't even have an opportunity to properly say goodbye to all of her housemates before the junk truck carried her away… away from friends and happiness, and towards an unknown she had heard the others talk about: the junkyard. It sounded like the end of the line, a final resting place. Quirl's life had just begun, and now it was already supposed to end?