This is what happens when you read too many classics. Bad, bad English class. This story answers the question: What would happen if you put a toaster in a bucket of eels?
Chapter ? (the lost chapter)
The woods were lonely that day, the sad little brook babbled on, but there was not a sight of animals. The sunlight danced to and fro, as Hester and Pearl walked along the old, forgotten path. The path was overgrown with herbs, not the devils herbs, but nice herbs. All was peaceful until…
“Look mama! What is that?” cried Pearl pointing at a green bucket.
“It is a bucket scar of mine,” Hester replied.
“But mother, what is it made of?” Hester walked up to the bucket and examined the outside. It was a foreign material, slick and smooth. Not wood and not stone, but something undiscovered.
“I know not child,” Hester finally replied. Pearl skipped over to her mother and peered into the bucket.
“Look mother! What are these odd looking swimming things?”
“Eels Pearl. But I know not how they got here.” Mother and daughter stared at the eels swimming about in the odd bucket. The forest reflected their confused thoughts as it started to move. Trees swayed, rabbits ran and the herbs cluttered the path even more. Then, all was silent. In the silence, a faint “pop” was heard and a silver cube fell out of the sky and into Pearl’s arms.
“Mother, what is this strange fruit that the tree gave me?” Pearl asked, examining the cube.
“I know not, but look! There is a label. To-as-ter. Toaster. I wonder what that is?”
“I know not mother. And what is this strange line coming out of the back?”
“I know not daughter.” Mother and child, sinner and sin stood looking at the silver cube, the toaster, and the green, not wood, not stone bucket filled with eels. Questions wandered through Hester’s mind: What are all these foreign objects doing here? Is there some connecting with my horrid sin? Is a lightning bolt going to strike me down now? Is this the end? Only one question made itself clear in Pearl’s mind, the rest were just strands of ivy curling and curving around her consciousness. That one question was: What would happen if I dropped a toaster in a bucket of eels?
The temptation was too much for Pearl’s wild nature to resist. She stole to toaster from her mother’s hands and hurled it into the bucket. Hester gasped, not knowing what would happen. The forest went silent, waiting to see the answer to Pearl’s question. Even the sad little brook seemed to stop. Pearl crept a little closer and heard that the toaster was making a humming noise. At closer inspection, she saw that the strange line had attached itself to one of the eels, but the eel didn’t look as though it was in pain. Hester dared to peer into the murky depths of the bucket and gasped.
“Demon-child! What have you done?! You have ruined the toaster! Never get electrical things wet!” Then Hester paused and pondered the strange words that had come out of her mouth. Pearl made not a notice of it and continued to look at the humming object and the eels. Hester bent over the bucket further and lo! her scarlet letter fell in!
The letter drifted down into the bucket and the second it touched the silver cube it attached itself to the toaster! Hester gasped and stared at the red and gold sin lying on the untouched toaster. Why did the letter fall off and why was it attached to the toaster? Pearl jumped up and down happily, her question had been answered! Nothing would happen if you dropped a toaster into a bucket of eels! Pearl began to dance wildly around the bucket and her stunned mother. Hester continued to look at her letter on the toaster. What did this mean? Was she clear of her sin? Had the Lord finally forgiven her? Is all well in the world? Hope sprung from Hester’s gray soul, she saw relief for the first time in so many years. Hester knelt in joy by the bucket and began to weep for joy.
Pearl stopped her wild dance and began to pick flowers. She packed them together in a cake of petals, leaves and stems. They were square-like and thin. Pearl walked back over to the bucket with her cakes. She studied the two slots in the top of the silver cube and noted that they were about the same size as her cakes. She jumped up in joy and then slammed her cakes into the slots. A bolt of sunlight hit the bucket, illuminating the toaster the second that the cakes entered the slots. An eel swam up to the toaster and pushed the black lever down. The cakes disappeared into the black depths of the slots. Then the spot of sunlight vanished and the forest was still. A faint clicking noise was heard. The water exploded out of the bucket. Hester and Pearl were drenched in the downpour.
When their vision cleared, the bucket had disintegrated and the letter…the scarlet letter, the cause of all the pain, was in Hester’s hands, sitting there shining in all it’s red and gold glory. Hester began to sob, her sin was back. Pearl looked at the spot where the bucket used to lie. She shrugged and grabbed her mother’s hand, took the scarlet letter and re-pinned it upon her mother’s breast. Then she skipped off down the path, forcing her distraught mother to follow. They left the clearing and the instance vanished from their minds.
End