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It was a perfectly nice summer day in the middle
of June. Megan Ryder was trying out her skateboard near the river by the Larsons. She was speeding along towards a
bump in the grass to try and get some air, when out of the blue, a rock came straight across the skateboard's course.
"Aaaaaaahhhhhh!" Cried Megan.
The skateboard skidded
to a stop before the rock and than flipped over leaving Megan smooshed in the middle of a tree.
"Owwww!" Said Megan rubbing her elbow.
While Megan checked
over her self to see if there had been any major damage, the skateboard slipped into the water. Hearing the
splash, Megan turned. "Oh no!" Megan reached out to grab the skateboard, but suddenly she
reached out over the water too far and.......
"SPLASH!"
Megan fell into the river and spluttered, shaking her wet
bangs out of her face. Seeing the skateboard floating farther down the river, she plunged back into the
water starting a quick crawlstroke.
Across the river from Megan, a mama bear and her two
cubs were having a fishing lesson. The mama bear was just showing one of her baby cubs how to fling the fish up into
their mouth when all of Megan's splashing caught one of the bear cubs attention. "Grrrrrr......" growled the cub. The bears fishing trip had been ruined when Megan scared
all of the fish away.
When Megan continued to splash around after the skateboard,
the smallest bear cub decided to jump in and start snapping at Megan's heels.
"Dude! cut it out!" Shouted Megan splashing
faster than ever trying to shake the bear off, "What did I ever do to you???"
Seeing a place where she could get out of the river,
Megan swam
faster and faster. When Megan reached the bank,
she hopped out of the water just barely snatching the skateboard. The bear really was angry now, and chased Megan
all the way to town square. When Megan realized that the bear was not giving up, she began to shout things like "Go away! Go find some yummy salmon to eat or something! Go AWAY!"
When Megan saw Angelica's house she burst into full
speed, opened the door into the house and then slammed it shut as fast as possible.
"Hey Angelica!" Said Megan, turning to see
Angelica watching a movie on her computer. "Ahh... how are you doing? Sorry to drop in on you, but uh you
know those days when you feel like something big and scary is chasing after you? Well today's one of those days! Ahh....
this big scary bear went and ran after me today, so, mind if I hang out here for a while? Until it decides to go away?
I'll help you make dinner!"
Angelica smiled and said
"Sure, come on in!"
Megan said, "Thanks soo much! Oh, hold on just a second.....
And running to the window she stuck out her head, jamming her thumbs into her ears
and saying,
"neener neener neener!" To the bear.
Meanwhile, outside of Angelica's house the bear settled
down for a nice long wait. He wasn't going to let that human get away with ruining his fishing trip, and that was that.
Alison was on her way back from work. She had
just gotten her monthly pay check, and now she was going to go and let Meg know that it was her turn to work. As Alison
passed Nancy, tying up her horse outside the General store, she started to sing.
"Baa-a-aby! Stick the pie in my ey-ey-eye! Baa-a-aby!
OOoooh yeah y-ea-a-ah!" Alison sang, it was her favorite song by the Tornado 5's.
She was rounding the bend to Angelica's house, when she saw
the bear.
"WooooowaAAAAAhhhhhh!" Alison yelled.
She was so surprised that she stepped backward and lost her
balance.
Alison flipped over the balcony railing and landed four
feet below on the pavement. Nafy was just inside the General Store, stocking up all of
her jam jars, when she heard a loud THUMP. Nafy poked her furry head out of the window, and saw Alison on the ground.
"Now, what's thish? Why is
an Alison lying on the gwound? I Must take some dwastic action and call the doctor!"
Clearing her throat, Nafy called,
"Josefinaaaaaaa!" "Josefinaaaaaaa!" "Josefinaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Luckily, Josefina was near by, at the bank cashing some
checks. When Josefina heard Nancy calling, she stepped outside the bank. And when Nancy hurried over to tell her what happened,
she calmy took out her remedy book out of her embroidered bag, and came straight to where Alison lay.
After Alison had been taken care of, with a splint for
her back, and a soothing tea to drink, she was moved to the closest house which was Angelica's. When Josefina had finished
telling Angelica her instructions on what Alison could and could not do, she waved good bye to Alison, saying that she would
come and check on her in the next four weeks.
After Josefina left, Alison stared at the ceiling for
what seemed like hours. Many thoughts went through Alison's head during that time, most of them were about how sorry
she felt for herself. One of the thoughts however, was of how hungry she was.
Seeing an add on the TV for Bamboo Terrace, Alison began
to repeat certain jingles like,
"Everything tastes better with sooooy-sauce!!"
and
"Crazy for food? Cheer up your mood!"
Alison became so hungry watching the commercial that she
picked up the phone and called the restaurant ordering a king crab, a chicken teriyaki, and some beef shishkabobs.
When the food arrived, Alison was surprised to see that
even though she was exremely hungry she ate all of the food slowly, enjoying the taste of each dish and noticing
what was put in to each dish. "Man this is sooooo tasty!!"
Alison washed and stacked her dishes before returning
to Angelica's bed and falling asleep.
The next day, Alison woke up to hear her stomach going wild.
"Wow!" Alison said aloud, "I am like STARVING!!"
Hoping that Angelica had saved her some breakfast, Alison walked over to the kitchen
stove.
Unfortunately she found the stove top empty and dusty.
"Oh man! That sucks."
Still groggy from sleep, Alison pulled on her sweater and grabbed
her skateboard, opening the front door to the cold morning air.
"It's COLD!!" Alison said to herself, "I probably will freeze like a popsicle!"
Laughing at her joke Alison set off in a far better mood than
before.
After buying some groceries, Alison went back home and started to make herself some
lunch.
After making a basic chicken noodle soup Alison began to get creative, and started
whirling the the soup around, sprinkling spices, throwing in handfuls of ginger, pepper and
salt.
After a while Alison was having such a good time that she started laughing and
singing. She twirled around tasting the soup, feeling the warmth of the soup sweep from
her head to the tips of her toes.
When she had finished, she poured the soup into a bowl and
sipped spoonfuls while she thought,
"What if I didn't work as a maid? What if I cooked full time?"
After the four weeks were up, Josefina came back to check
on Alison. Alison was much more happy to see her this time, and greeted her with a grin.
After Josefina took off Alison's splint and examined her back, she smiled saying, "you're as good as new!"
After Josefina had showed her several
stretches to do to insure the healing of her back, Alison waved good
bye to Josefina.
The next day, Alison went back to work. But this time
when she opened the door to the Parkington's mansion, she felt enthusiastic and ready
for the day ahead. Those feelings, however, were depending on if her idea would work out.
After rehearsing what she would say several more times, she entered
the kitchen to see Louisa Hawkins.
"Hello Mrs. Hawkins!" Said Alison.
"You're late. Put on your apron and get a move
on." Said Mrs. Hawkins.
Seeing that Louisa was not in a good mood didn't help
Alison's courage in bringing up her idea.
"Ummm..... Mrs. Hawkins?"
"What Alison?"
"I was wondering........ If I can take over your job
and become the cook." Alison said in a fast blurr.
Silence.
Mrs. Hawkins blinked.
Then she shoved Alison's apron in to her hand and
turned way.
Alison, her hopes smashed to smithereens, took the apron and grabbed a sponge,
throwing a hurt look at Mrs. Hawkins back before going to the dining room and beginning
her duties.
Life being a scullery maid was not fun.
Alison began with polishing the dining room floor. Every
time she saw a dirty spot she would scrub furiously at it. As she worked, a tear splashed onto
the floor, disappearing into the foamy mass of soap and water.
Why did it go wrong? She thought to herself, why
did Mrs. Hawkins not even say anything when I asked her? Is the idea so ridiculous for me to a
be a cook?
For the rest of the day, Alison was miserable over her bad fortune. Doing
her normal jobs seemed like such a chore after her month of fun and cooking.
At the end of the day Alison left with a heavy heart. She was so upset
that she didn't even make herself dinner.
After getting into her pajamas she went to sleep, dreading the day
to come.
The next day Alison went back to work and was surprised
when Rebecca and Samantha Parkington summoned her and the other two maids
into the parlor.
"I have called you all here because Louisa called in sick and
so she will not be coming in to work today." Samantha said,
"But don't worry! I'm sure that Louisa will be fine in
no time with Josefina's help. Thank you for your time, you can resume your duties now."
During this announcement an idea popped into Alison's
head.
Looking around to make sure that the coast was clear, Alison slipped out
the front door and headed down town.
Once she got down town she headed straight for the market.
Alison picked out the freshest fruits and meats to add to her shopping bag.
She also went to the General store to pick up some grains, and spices and along with
some jars of Nafy's Jammies, from a very happy Nafy.
When Alison left town again, her arms were full of shopping bags.
When Alison got back to the mansion, she started
cooking. Just unpacking
the groceries made her feel good.
She started out by frying the bacon. Then she tossed
the bacon in the air sprinkling it with ginger and adding the juice of a pear for flavor.
After that she made some strawberry parfaits with Nafy's
Jammies and some oats and cream.
"Man, this is awesome!" Said Alison
To finish it off, Alison roasted some
bananas in the oven, smothering them with a chocolate ginger sauce.
"MMMMMmmm-mmmmm!" Said Alison.
While she waited for the bananas to be done, she set the
dining room table. The whole time she wondered what the Parkington's would think of her delicious
breakfast.
Once breakfast was served, Alison rang the meal time
bell.
All of the Parkington's came in wearing
their dressing gowns.
As they sat down at the table Alison felt some butterflies
leap around in her stomach.
Would they like her breakfast? She thought.
With trembling hands she uncovered the various dishes she had prepared.
While they ate, Alison crossed her fingers
behind her back and tried to look as calm as a cucumber.
"My! This strawberry parfait is delightfully sweet!"
Said Teresa, daintily taking small spoonfuls of the parfait.
Alison's shoulders relaxed a bit.
"Yes, this bacon is quite good!" Said Samantha.
Alison opened her crossed fingers.
"Ghrrropghpppfgh....."
Everyone looked up from there plates to see Elizabeth stuffing one banana after
the next into her bulging mouth.
"Ugghh, Elizabeth! Please don't do
that!" Said Teresa, "It is so impolite!"
"Yes Elizabeth," said Samantha, "Teresa is right, those
are horrible manners that you are using."
Alison stifled a laugh as Elizabeth opened her mouth saying,
"bhut itfsh sho goodf!"
Alison left the Parkingtons to enjoy
their meal in the dining room, grinning to herself.
"That's sweet!" Alison said.
After Alison finished washing the breakfast dishes, she headed back down town to the market to get some supplies.
After gathering up all the food she would need for lunch, Alison
handed over some payment to Anna.
"Hi Alison!" Anna said, "It's nice to see you up and about after that
nashty fall."
Alison smiled and said, "yeah, nice to see
you too dude!"
For lunch Alison decided to make some sauteed chicken
in a marinade of tomatoes and lemon pepper.
While she waited for the chicken to be done marinating, Alison
grabbed Mr. Hawkins copy of "The Pleasantville fellow" that was lying on the kitchen table.
Alison really liked reading the funny parts like, "The Operators Ear," and
"Anders Larson's silly advice column."
As the Parkingtons sat down for lunch, Alison was happy to hear
comments like,
"I can't wait to see what's for lunch!"
And,
"That breakfast was so good, I am very excited to see what is
next!"
Rebecca took a bite of the chicken and said, "Oh! What
is this savory dish? It tastes so Italian and spicy! Teresa, you should
try some!"
Samantha, curious at what Rebecca thought was so tasty,
took a small bite of the chicken.
After she had swallowed and taken a sip of water she nodded her
head in agreement saying, "yes this is quite a spicy and
tasty dish!"
Alison's ears perked up at the praise, and she began to scheme about what she would
make for dinner.
A few hours later, Alison was back at the market, picking out the
vegetables and meat that she would serve for dinner.
This meal is going to be the best of the day! Alison thought.
She wanted to make this meal extra special, because it was
the last chance she would have to show the Parkington's how skilled she could be at cooking without Mrs. Hawkins interfering.
For the last meal of the day Alison chose to make some spicy pork
chops.
She spent extra care in chopping up all the vegetables, and when she served the meal she made sure to double check and see that all of the dishes looked just so.
Everyone started to eat as soon as their plates were served.
They were all so excited to try out this new and delicious
meal!
All that you could hear in the dining room
was the scratch of forks and knives on their plates as everyone took their first bite.
"Oh my goodness! This is so delicious!" Rebecca
exclaimed.
The pork shops were sauteed in a savory sauce with mushrooms and onions, there were
also sweet bell peppers that glazed the top of the pork chops.
The
smell was an enticing mix of spice and flavor.
"This really is quite divine!" Samantha said, "I
simply can't put my knife and fork down!"
Teresa and Elizabeth nodded their heads in agreement.
"Wait," Rebecca said, "who has been cooking all of the food today if it was not
Louisa?"
She rang the bell to summon whoever had been making all of the food.
When Alison heard the bell, she wiped her hands on her apron, straightened her
pinner cap, and opened the door from the kitchen into the dining room.
"Hello Alison," Rebecca said, "do you happen to know
who has been in the kitchen making all of the meals today?"
Alison nodded her head slowly as she thought, oh man, now I'm in trouble!
"Ummmm..... I was the cook today." Alison said with her eyes down.
"You were?!" All of the Parkingtons exclaimed.
"Yeah, sorry." Alison said.
"But
Alison, you cooking was fabulous!" Rebecca said.
Alison
looked up.
"What
do you think of sharing the kitchen with Mrs. Hawkins? You can both be cooks." Rebecca said.
"You
really mean it?" Alison said, slightly shocked. "That would be totally awesome!"
And so both Alison and Louisa shared the kitchen and cooked the Parkington's meals.
It took Louisa a little while to get used to having Alison's help in the kitchen, but after a while they began to enjoy each
other's company, and to collaborate on coming up with new and exciting dishes to serve to the Parkingtons.
Alison
was proud that she had reached her lifelong goal at last. She felt so good about her new job that it wasn't hard work
anymore, and she looked forward to coming to work in the Parkington's kitchen from that day forward.
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