Quick apology from me to say that blogging has been slow for the past few weeks due to studying and lack of free time. Rest assured, I will be back up to it 100% in the coming weeks.
For now, enjoy some fresh content. Here is a short Holiday-themed story I wrote: Gilbert the Gingerbread Man's Escape.
Gilbert the Gingerbread Man's Escape
This is Gilbert the Gingerbread man.
Gilbert the Gingerbread man is just your average gingerbread man. He works in his bakery, and he loves his job - sometimes. He has a routine and he usually sticks to it.
Everyday he wakes up, eats his gingerbread breakfast, brushes his gingerbread teeth, does his gingerbread chores and then goes back to his gingerbread bed to have a gingerbread sleep.
But Gilbert doesn’t lead the happiest life. Due to the fact that he’s a gingerbread man, he lives in his bakery. It’s where he was born, so it’s where he’ll live until he is eaten.
Usually gingerbread men don’t care about their work, it’s fine for them and gives them a reason to wake up in the mornings.
However, Gilbert is different. Gilbert has a bigger gingerbread brain than most gingerbread men, so naturally he questions why he works, and how different life is on the outside. As these thoughts dot around his gingerbread mind, and as the weeks building up to Christmas add more and more pressure to his routine, he has found it difficult to function in his perpetual routine, and his soul begs to abscond.
He wishes everyday to escape, at least for a few hours, just to catch his breath and experience life outside of the bakery.
Gilbert: Working here… it pays the bills… and feeds my stomach, but it doesn’t feed my intense innate craving for freedom, that all gingerbread men have. Gingerbread men can only work so long before their gingerbread hands become to grow weary, and right now I desire a gingerbread release from my gingerbread labour.
“If only there was some way I could escape, somehow” Gilbert thought to himself, whilst anxiously
biting his gingerbread gingernails.
Just then, Gilbert noticed, the bakery door was wide open, which is normal, to allow customers in, but he isn’t allowed to leave. Nothing out of the ordinary, except his boss wasn’t around. His boss is the only one monitoring if the gingerbread man are in the building, so if he wasn’t there, Gilbert concluded, gingerbread-ly, he wouldn’t notice if Gilbert just upped and went.
Gilbert debated leaving in his soft, gingerbread head. He decided it was worth it. Besides, what’s the worst that could happen? His boss finds out? He won’t be out of the job, gingerbread men are valuable and low in numbers, he can’t possibly lose his job.
Gilbert walked over to the door.
Suddenly, within a matter of seconds, Gilbert was outside of the bakery for the first time in his life.
Gilbert: This is liberating! I feel like a bird in the wind!
Gilbert had to pause for a second to take it all in. A single tear rolled down his gingerbread face, and was quickly absorbed by his doughy outer. He breathed in through his gingerbread nose and smelt the air, mixed with the smell of cookies from the bakery’s fumes. He was quite overwhelmed now.
***
It had been a few hours now, and Gilbert found himself on the Beach, still joyous and taking in all of the world around him. He stopped and noticed a fish lying on the floor.
Fillet the Fish: Pssst, hey kid. You from the bakery?
Gilbert: Yes! I just escaped. It sure is amazing out in the real world!
Fillet the Fish: You like it out here, kiddo?
Gilbert: Oh boy do I! Just look at this place. So much snow, and warmth that I’ve never dreamed of before. I wonder what else there is out in this world! This is so exciting!
Fillet the Fish: Yeah, it sure is nice. But you ever wonder why they don’t let you out of the bakery?
Gilbert paused for a second. Despite his aforementioned deep and introspective gingerbread thinking, his questioning of his life and the mindful grilling about the violent tendencies of man, he had never once questioned why he wasn’t allowed out of the bakery, he just accepted it as part of his life. After all, he was born in the bakery. No reason to leave, right?
Gilbert: No, I have never once thought about why they don’t let us leave the bakery.
Fillet the Fish: Well, let me tell you. You’re a gingerbread man right?
Gilbert: Yes, I am.
Fillet the Fish: So you have a gingerbread outer?
Gilbert: Yes.
Fillet the Fish: And a gingerbread inner?
Gilbert: Yes.
Fillet the Fish: So you must taste delicious right?
Gilbert: [Blushing] He-he, if you insist.
Fillet the Fish: Well, that’s why. You’re so delicious, penguins can’t resist but to eat you if they ever saw you outside of the bakery. They want to keep you in, they know at times it can be painful, and at times it can be unbearable, but it’s to protect you. You couldn’t possibly survive in the real world.
At last it was making sense to Gilbert. It dawned on him that by stepping outside, although it felt liberating and although it made him happy, he was seriously risking his life, he could be eaten!
Gilbert stood there, gingerly. Then asked:
Gilbert: So the penguins want to eat me?
Fillet the Fish: They can’t help it.
Gilbert: What about the fish? Do they want to eat me too?
Fillet the Fish: Ah! The fish! I almost forgot.
Gilbert: …
Fillet the Fish: …
Gilbert: Well?
Fillet the Fish: Yes.
And just like that, Fillet the Fish ate Gilbert the Gingerbread man straight up. And all that was left was a single jellybean button.
So there you have it, everybody. That was the story of Gilbert the Gingerbread man. He tempted fate, and didn’t realise the consequences of venturing into the unknown. His gingerbread life came to an abrupt gingerbread end. Goodnight.