It is Time to Look at Freshly Baked Bread
Now, I enjoy freshly baked bread about as much as, well, anyone does, I suppose. But I really only get to enjoy it the same way the narrator of this short story does, by making it in a bread machine.
I wrote this story during the third quarter of 2018.
Background
I suspect that the prompt word for this short story was simply the word bread. But I will be the first to admit that I cannot be certain. Ah, well.
Plot for Freshly Baked Bread
The narrator, a young girl from Appalachia, comes from a family where the father does not trust the government at all. She and her parents live in a small cabin with a dirt floor and no running water or electricity.
With a belief system and a mistrust of the government a lot like the Branch Davidians, her parents make it clear: schooling is of the devil and reading is useless because the only things to read are sad and upsetting.
But the narrator, while she does not necessarily know better, at least to start, feels that her life could be different.
When she sees other children in the area going to an unfamiliar building, she joins in one day. Although she does make sure that her parents do not know what she is trying to do, or where she is going.
Since the school is essentially a modern version of a one-room schoolhouse, the teacher can advance her from grade to grade without anyone getting too suspicious. There is no place for the normal bureaucracy that goes along with enrolling a child in school, so that is not an issue.
Which I realize is unrealistic, of course. Normally, I would fix this by simply changing the story to an earlier time in history.
However, I do not want to do that because I would lose the idea of a bread machine, and I would lose the enormous gulf in the narrator’s circumstances between her and the rest of us.
After all, there are photographs that came out of Appalachia during the Great Depression which showed people in her exact, same circumstances. And I do not want to lose the contrast.
Are there still people in her original circumstances? How would we know?
Characters
The only real character is the unnamed narrator, who talks about her family and what happened after she could finally get herself out of a horrible situation.
Memorable Quotes
I suppose for some people it’s their earliest memory or it’s one of the early ones. It’s a homey smell, with the promise of something rich yet light and wholesome. It’s like the smell of incipient satisfaction. And I have never smelled it, until now. But I’ll start from the beginning.
We were poor growing up. Not the genteel poverty of quietly selling off the family jewelry. It also wasn’t the reckless maxing out of credit cards and then robbing Peter to pay Paul and sweet-talking collection agencies to keep them from repossessing the car.
It was different. I grew up in the mountains. There are still some homes without electricity or indoor plumbing. I know because I was brought up in one.
We ate wild game on the good days. On the bad ones, we would forage or make do with whatever was on the already-bare pantry shelves. My father didn’t believe in charity or government handouts, so we got neither. He would rather starve, and so that extended to us, that he would rather see us starve than take a handout.
At least I was an only child. That was most likely the sole bit of good luck my family has ever seen.
When I was six, I realized some nearby children would go someplace during the day. I asked my mother about it, and she said I shouldn’t talk about it anymore. Schools are of the devil, she said, and reading never did anyone any good because the only things to read were sad and painful things.
Genre and Overall Mood
The genre is contemporary fiction. The mood goes from a recounting of particularly hard times to becoming rather hopeful by the end. And if you have ever, personally, baked bread, you might see a parallel to disparate moments (ingredients, if you will) coming together at the end.
Rating
The story has a K rating. Her circumstances are hard, and she is hit on occasion. Still, I hope the reader can see that her story is moving in a positive direction. She ends up more than all right.
Takeaways (Time to Take that Freshly Baked Bread Out of the Oven)
I am not so certain that I want this character to be yet another genius. But she may very well not be one.
More likely, she is just some student, but she had to overcome incredible odds. She is the kind of person who should gain admittance to a truly great university, based on her resilience alone.
Frankly, as I have reread this story for the writing of this blog post, I have begun to wonder a bit. Like if she might merit her own actual book. Hmm.
And since her mother immediately says the only things to read are sad and upsetting, it gives me pause. Would the mother of the narrator warrant some more background and development?
Double hmm.
Want More of my Short Stories and Novellas?
If this story resonates with you, then I hope you will check out some of my other blog posts about my shorter works.
And finally, for a complete list of my shorter works, please be sure to check out the Hub Page—Short Stories.
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