Week 7 Story: The Pie Thieves

      Link to portfolio story

  It was the summer of 2002. School was out, and three brothers had little else to do but explore their neighborhood. They would play baseball in the yard like they were Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa chasing the home run record. They would ride bikes, look for frogs, play hide and seek, and invent new games every day. They made it a point to thoroughly explore their neighborhood before school started in August.

            One day, the two younger brothers decided to explore further down the road. The older brother, tired from yesterday’s adventures, decided to stay back at the house and rest before meeting up with his siblings later. When the two younger brothers reached the end of the road, they could smell the delicious aroma of baked crust and warm cherries coming from the direction of old Mrs. Jones’ house. The scent filled the light summer air and was too much for the boys to resist. They followed the path in which their noses led them.

            When the boys reached the back yard of Mrs. Jones, they peaked over and spotted their treasure. A delicious cherry pie was perched on the open window frame of Mrs. Jones house. For the boys, this opportunity was too much to pass up. They quietly snuck through a hole in the fence and approached the window. One of the boys knelt on his hands and knees, and the other stood on his back. He carefully took the pie from the window. The boys each grabbed a slice, put the remnants of the pie back in the window, and sprinted to the alley where they would enjoy the sweetness of the cherries and the crunchy crust.

            When the two young boys had not returned after a while, the oldest boy decided to go search for them. When he reached the end of the road, he, too, smelled the sweet aroma of the cherry pie. He knew that he must have a slice. He walked up to Mrs. Jones door and rang the doorbell.

“Hi, Mrs. Jones. Your pie sure does smell delicious. Would it be possible for me to have a slice? I have a dollar that I could pay you with,” said the boy.

“Absolutely,” said Mrs. Jones. “Let’s go get you a slice.”

When they reached the window, Mrs. Jones was horrified. Half of the pie was gone.

“Do you know who could have done this?” Mrs. Jones asked.

         The boy knew that it had to be his two younger brothers. He returned home quickly with Mrs. Jones to find his brothers sitting in the yard with cherry glaze all over their faces. Mrs. Jones told the boys’ father what happened. As a result of their actions, the two young boys were not allowed to play outside for the rest of the summer. This was crushing to them. However, because the oldest sibling acted responsibly, he was rewarded with the opportunity to help Mrs. Jones bake her next pie and eat as much of it as he desired.

Author's Note: 

       I took my story from a segment of reading in Part C of Narayan's Mahabharata. There is a part when they are traveling through a forest and chasing after a deer. Suddenly, they come across a lake. They are tired and thirsty. The water is desperately needed. A voice tells Nakula that they must answer some questions before drinking from the lake. He ignores the voice, drinks the water, and dies as a result. This happens three more times. Later, Yudhishthira finds that his brothers are all dead. He answers the questions of the voice. It turns out that answering the questions was actually a test, and the brothers come back to life. They receive the gift of not being recognized.

      I wrote a story with similar plot elements. I changed it to two young boys deciding to eat a pie that did not belong tot hem. An older boys acted responsibly by asking for a slice rather than stealing.  The boys that stole the pie receive a harsh punishment, and the boy who acted responsibly receives a gift. While I chose not to explicitly state this, it is possible that this was a test of the boys' character such as the test of answering the questions before drinking the water in the Mahabharata. 

Bibliography: Narayan's Mahabharata Part C 

Pie