The Toaster | Teen Ink

The Toaster

February 24, 2017
By Solmagia BRONZE, Fairbanks, Alaska
Solmagia BRONZE, Fairbanks, Alaska
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Well to be fair she said she was a bad cook. Though she tried cooking often, she was only meet with fire and injury. Her mom said just this morning she wanted to renovate the kitchen. Now Debby, her mother, could. Though it was more rebuilding from the ground up then it was renovating considering the kitchen was all ashes now.


If you thought about it, it wasn’t her fault it was her father's. Stan had gotten a new, fancy toaster, that she couldn’t resist trying. After the last one, which she had set multiply fire with and burned her thumb once or twice had finally given up. She had decided to test the toaster out, which was a foolish idea considering the last toaster. But, against better judgement, she placed two pop tarts in on the medium setting. The box said to put it on a low setting but she always put it on medium because the old toaster wasn’t all that good. The new toaster, which was hotter, blew up, sending sparks everywhere. At first Mary watched in shock as the assorted kitchen towels and the rug in front of the sink set a blaze. Now she couldn’t reach the sink. She reached into the refrigerator and grabbed a pitcher of water. It put out some but the fire had now reached the laundry. She hoped Stans greasy clothes were in the bathroom hamper instead. Mary didn’t know if greasy clothes would make a grease fire but she didn’t want to find out anytime soon.


“I really liked those jeans too.”She later said.


By now she had ran out of the kitchen. Mary figured she could get some water from the bathroom.  She watched the fire burn her backpack, which had been leaning against the laundry. Would her teacher still want her homework?


Mary ran back and forth from the bathroom and to the diningroom and kitchen throwing the pitchers of water over everything. It seemed for every fire put out two more would start. On top of the fire, the house was filled with smoke. It stung her eyes and made her lungs burn. No matter. But her mother could not find out about the fire. Her mom was still mad about the bathroom flooding eight weeks ago. And last week when she made all the lights in the house explode. At least her dad was impressed with the lightshow.


For what seemed to be hours but in reality was only 40 minutes she ran around like a madwoman throwing water on everything. Thinking back later she could've poured the pitcher on the rug to reach the kitchen sink. But she hadn’t thought of that in her panic.


The room was now charred, slightly smokey and there was one hole in the wall about three feet wide.
“New window, cool.”She said, trying to lighten her mood. Until then she would need to cover it with a poster or something. She grabbed her car keys, her parents would be home in 6 hours so she was pretty sure she could run to walmart and get supplies to cover her accident.


When she got back she had paintings, new kitchen cloths, and rugs. She also grabbed some new jeans and t shirts, knowing her parents wouldn’t notice, they didn’t care what she wore so long as it was appropriate and so wouldn’t notice if they were different. Her soul died as she pulled into the driveway and saw her mother’s car.


She walked in the house to her mother standing in front of the new hole.


“Hey mom, how was work? You on lunch break?”Mary tried lamely. Debby turned her glare onto her and growled.“What is this?”


“This is firsthand experience on why you should teach children basic cooking from a young age,”Mary said setting a tablecloth over the burned countertop.


“Mary what happened?”Debby narrowed her eyes.


“Well you know the new toaster?”Mary asked,”It kinda exploded everywhere. You know I inhaled a lot of smoke, maybe we should go to the hospital and get my lungs checked.”Placing the kitchen clothes on the, surprisingly, unburned hooks.


“Don’t change the subject. We will go to the hospital after you explain this.”Debby looked at the bags and tablecloth.”Were you going to hide this? You can’t hide a burn down kitchen. It doesn’t work that way.”But Debby grabbed her keys anyway.”You can explain in the car. Then you can’t escape.”


“Alright.”Mary agreed grabbing her jacket. Stepping around the ashes of the laundry.”Just remembered, I did the laundry.”Mary smiled at Debby, to get her glare.


“Not funny.”Debby said cranking the car.


The author's comments:

I actually did burn my thumb making toast when I was kid. But only once. I never made toast again until a year ago because my brother wouldn't make it for me. Another time, before I burned my thumb, I just made the toaster smoke haha. These were the inspiration for this piece.


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