The Bad Cook
by
Xavier Colfer
(age 13)
by
Xavier Colfer
(age 13)
There once
was a man who wanted to be a cook. His name was Arnold. He woke up Monday
morning and drove in his maroon car into town. When he got to his favorite
restaurant, he asked the manager if he could work there. Arnold and the manager
were good friends, so the manager told Arnold to come back tomorrow to
demonstrate his cooking abilities.
The next
morning Arnold drove back to the restaurant. When he got in the kitchen, with
the manager watching him, he started to put on the white apron.
"No,
you're putting it on backwards!" the manager exclaimed.
"Oh,"
Arnold said. "I thought you would wear it like a cape."
The manager
handed him a chef's hat. When Arnold started to put the hat on upside-down the
manager remarked, "Don't do that, you're
putting it on upside down!"
"Am
I?" Arnold asked. "I thought you used it to carry utensils," he
smiled embarrassedly.
After Arnold
had fixed the apron and hat, the manager told him, "Why don't you try to
make something.* I'll come back in a little while."
When the
manager returned, Arnold was surrounded by smoke, and there was an awful burnt
smell in the air. There was a loud sizzling, and he was flipping something
black and shriveled in a pan.
"What
are you cooking?" the manager coughed, waving a hand in front of his face.
"Why,
it's an omelet!" Arnold exclaimed, eyes watering from the smoke.
When Arnold
and the manager walked back out front, the manager said sadly, "I'm sorry
but I can't give you a job here right now. Why don't you try improving your
skills and come back another time?"
Arnold went
around to many other restaurants looking for a job. Each time he did something
wrong and didn't get hired. One time he even tried to impress the manager of
another restaurant by rolling around on a ball to get places faster. Of course,
he messed that up and ran into a waiter and his cart of food. A week later he
returned to the first restaurant.
Arnold asked
the manager, "I really need a job, are you sure you don't have anything
for me?"
"Well, I
don't have a cooking job for you, but my customers have been requesting
something…."
That night
during the restaurant’s dinner schedule, Arnold was up on a stage in the dining
area juggling, rolling on a ball, and doing other entertaining tricks for the
diners! Some laughed joyfully, and others smiled amusedly.
Arnold may
have been an awful cook, but he had become a great circus entertainer.
If you are between the ages of 13 -18,
(or know someone who likes to write stories)
I would like to post your story here.
Send me an email. I'd love to read your story!
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