Piping Hot Apple Pie - Part One
Thursday 23 rd February 2012It was a fresh spring Sunday morning, if a little chilly, and Mama woke me up at the crack of dawn to roll the pastry.
"Today is the busiest day of the market, and people will be cold and hungry. Piping hot apple pie will soothe any hunger!"
So I rolled the pastry and shaped it and poured in the filling and put on the top and baked it in the oven and made little slits on the top.
Finally, at 8 o 'clock, Mama told me to get washed and dressed. I brushed my hair into my usual side braid and washed my face and brushed my teeth and slipped on a green silk dress.
Mama was caring for baby Sid and told me to start selling.
I loved caring for the pie stall. We were quite popular in the village and almost everybody would stop and buy a pie, and if not, they would buy a slice.
I stacked the pies on the racks, and switched the signs from 'Closed' to 'Open'.
All of a sudden, there was a mad rush. I thought that they were all for the pies, but instead they were watching a scene unfold in the market square.
I left the pie stall and ran to the crowd of people.
I recongnised Farmer Jenkins, a old stout man of 50+, with a gravelly voice and wrinkly face. He was strong as a bull, and he was holding a boy my age down to the dusty floor.
"You dare pickpocket me! You filthy young man, why I oughta-"
He was stopped when his wife, who worked in the tavern, caught sight of him and pulled him off the boy.
"Leave him be, you monster, leave him be." She cried.
"That young man-" He said, pointing an accusing finger at the boy, "Comes into our home, eats our food, sleeps on our sheets- and he nicks money!" He made one last dash at the boy, who ran out of the way, through the crowd and down the dusty track that led to the woods.
Farmer Jenkins was led to the tavern to calm down by his wife, and the crowd broke up. I was supposed to go back to my stall, but instead I ran down the track that led to the wood.
"Today is the busiest day of the market, and people will be cold and hungry. Piping hot apple pie will soothe any hunger!"
So I rolled the pastry and shaped it and poured in the filling and put on the top and baked it in the oven and made little slits on the top.
Finally, at 8 o 'clock, Mama told me to get washed and dressed. I brushed my hair into my usual side braid and washed my face and brushed my teeth and slipped on a green silk dress.
Mama was caring for baby Sid and told me to start selling.
I loved caring for the pie stall. We were quite popular in the village and almost everybody would stop and buy a pie, and if not, they would buy a slice.
I stacked the pies on the racks, and switched the signs from 'Closed' to 'Open'.
All of a sudden, there was a mad rush. I thought that they were all for the pies, but instead they were watching a scene unfold in the market square.
I left the pie stall and ran to the crowd of people.
I recongnised Farmer Jenkins, a old stout man of 50+, with a gravelly voice and wrinkly face. He was strong as a bull, and he was holding a boy my age down to the dusty floor.
"You dare pickpocket me! You filthy young man, why I oughta-"
He was stopped when his wife, who worked in the tavern, caught sight of him and pulled him off the boy.
"Leave him be, you monster, leave him be." She cried.
"That young man-" He said, pointing an accusing finger at the boy, "Comes into our home, eats our food, sleeps on our sheets- and he nicks money!" He made one last dash at the boy, who ran out of the way, through the crowd and down the dusty track that led to the woods.
Farmer Jenkins was led to the tavern to calm down by his wife, and the crowd broke up. I was supposed to go back to my stall, but instead I ran down the track that led to the wood.
***
I found the boy scuffing about under an elm tree, kicking up the dust and spitting.
"You shouldn't do that." I said.
He kicked the dust again and said, "I don't care."
I came out of the shadows.
"Who are you?" I asked,
"Nobody. I'm from nowhere. Leave me alone." He said, spitting.
"Stop that!" I ordered. To my suprise, he stopped and looked at me.
For a moment, he held his gaze in mine. I watched as he walked towards me. He came very close and I stared into his caramel eyes. I felt a tiny smile play across my lips...
He broke his gaze, and sat down on a root of the elm tree.
"My name is Lance. I'm from Westershire. My mam, she died when I was small. My pop, a good-for-nothing tavern-goer. My grammie thought it was unsafe for me there, so she sent me to live with my uncle and aunt, Farmer Jenkins and his wife. Only Farmer Jenkins don't like me much. I asked him for a shilling or two, to buy myself one of those apple pies everyone was talking about, and he told me to earn it myself. I couldn't find a job, so I decided to steal it out of his change pouch when he was having his nap.
"It didn't work. I ran and hid in the haystacks, but he found me and dragged me to the town square, then held my face in the dirt. I got away when I could."
He tilted his face and I saw a jagged cut across it, oozing blood.
"Oh my goodness! It's bleeding!" I said, and walked closer to him, holding his face in my hands and examining it.
I reached into my change pouch, which nowadays was more full of more useful things than change. I brought out a hankerchief and a disenfenctant my Mama made out of sweet apples.
"Hold still. This might sting." I said, and dabbed the remedy on.
"Ouch! Dang it, ouch!" He said, jerking his head away.
"Hold still, you big baby!" I said, and finally cleaned the cut. Then I took one of the sticking plater my Mama gave me and stuck it on his cheek.
"All better." I said.
"Not yet. You gotta kiss it to make it better." He said, cheekily.
I came in, acting like I was going to kiss it, then slapped him instead.
"Ouch! That was on my cut, too!" He said, rubbing it.
"Sorry. I don't kiss strangers." I said innocently.
"I ain't a stranger anymore." He said, "But you're a stranger to me. Who are you?"
"I'm Diana. My Mama and I make the pies you wanted to buy. My Papa...he's sick. He lives my my Gram and Gramp. They have a nurse, and she treats him, and we visit him once a month. I have a little baby brother called Sid. He's a cutie." I said. I smiled. "I ain't no stranger to you anymore now."
"You sure aren't. Now how about that kiss?" Lance said.
I hesitated, wondering if I should, when a crack was heard from above. I watched in horror as a branch came tumbling down...
Lance threw himself on top of me and flung us out of the way.
"Oooooffff!" I said.
He came nose to nose with me."We certainly aren't strangers now." He said.
"Get off me!" I exclaimed, and stood up, brushing the dust off my dress. "Mama is gonna be furious with me!" I said.
"Oh well. Bake her a pie." Lance said, limping over to me.
"The pies!" I exclaimed.
I ran from the wood and back to the market square, then to the stall, and looked in horror at the empty shelves.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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