Rachel and Eric travel to a printer repair shop run by an eccentric printer repairwoman (Stephanie Hsu). Featuring two new stories: “The Ultimate Cheese Event,” a story about the intersection of politics and dairy, written by Colin, a 13 year old from California, and “Three Jobs for a Bear,” a story about a wild animal’s experience in the job market, written by a 9 year old from New York named Stella.
Scroll down for the original stories behind the episode!
Illustration by Camila Franklin
The Ultimate Cheese Event
by Colin, age 13, California
Three Jobs for a Bear
by Stella, age 9, New York
Once upon a time, there was a bear who had a very relaxing life in the forest. One day, he woke up in the morning and did his morning routine, which was greeting his friends, taking a walk, and eating breakfast. While eating breakfast, he heard two people talking about a really nice coffee shop in a city called Turtlewawa.
The bear always wanted to have a job, so he walked from the forest directly toward Turtlewawa. On the way there, he stopped to smell the beautiful flowers, which people said were the best flowers in the world. The people said that there was only one coffee shop in town, so eventually he found a place that said “coffee shop”. He went inside, but he didn’t understand that you have to get hired before you can work at a coffee shop. He barged in, but it was obvious that he was way too big for the coffee shop, so he had to duck! Then, he went to the counter and roared in the boss’s face.
The boss, whose name was Mr. Finkel, could tell that the bear wanted a job. So Mr. Finkel said, with a frightened look on his face, “You’re hired!” Then he said, “Come back tomorrow for your first day of work.”
So the next day the bear, dressed in his best outfit (except he only had one outfit), started to walk to the coffee shop. When he got there, Mr. Finkel said, “Before you can officially work here, though, I have to test your cappuccino-making skills.” He pulled out a big cappuccino machine, and told the bear to make a cappuccino for the next customer. The bear made a cappuccino. While he was making the cappuccino, he felt free, like he could actually do something, which he never felt back in the forest. Then, Mr. Finkel gave the cappuccino to the customer, who drank it in a minute, saying “This is the best cappuccino I’ve ever tasted!” The customer put twenty dollars into the tip jar! When the bear saw the tip that he had just made, he felt a sense of accomplishment. There was never anything to accomplish in the forest!
Mr. Finkel stared wide-eyed at the bear. Then he said, “Can you make another cappuccino for me?” So the bear did as he was told. Mr. Finkel tasted the cappuccino – “wow,” he said, “I should get more bear employees!”
The bear worked and worked all day, making his famous cappuccinos for all the customers. At the end of the day, he took all the tips, not realizing that you have to share the tips with the other workers. All the other employees were baking in the kitchen, so when they came out and saw the bear they screamed! Mr. Finkel said, “This is our new bear-employee.” They all said to the bear, “Uh, okay, you can take the tips.”
The bear worked very hard every single day making cappuccinos, espressos, and coffee eventually. Soon, all the workers and Mr. Finkel got used to the bear working at the coffee shop. So that meant that the bear had to be fair. He had to learn to share the tips with his fellow workers.
One day, Mr. Finkel called the bear to his office. “Excuse me, Mr. Bear,” said Mr. Finkel, “I’m sorry to say this, but you can’t take all the tips. You have to share them with me and all the other employees.”
The bear did not want to share the tips. So then he roared in Mr. Finkel’s face again, this time with a little bit of sadness. But Mr. Finkel couldn’t understand. He shouted, “You’re fired! If you can’t learn to share, then you can’t work here.”
The bear was very sad, because he was enjoying making cappuccinos, and he liked taking all the tips. So he hung his head and walked out the door.
When he was walking home, he heard people talking about a new gym that was being built right next to the coffee shop. So he decided to go there the next day.
When he got there, the workers nearly fell off their ladders. Luckily they weren’t very high. Kelly, who was going to be the boss of the gym said, “Hello,” with fear in her voice. She, like Mr. Finkel, could tell that the bear wanted a job there. So Kelly said, “I will give you your building outfit very soon. Come back tomorrow so I can teach you some building skills.”
So the bear went back the next day. Kelly taught him how to build. She said, “This is cement. You use it like glue.” However, the bear did not know what glue was, so he pretended to know what it was. He touched the cement, and it felt terrible. It felt like he was touching a porcupine! He grabbed a stick, but Kelly told him to put it down. “There is a special tool that you use for cement,” she said, “you don’t use a stick.”
She showed him the tool, but the tool was too small for him to hold. So they agreed that the bear would use his hands. The next day, he began to help build and he got his building outfit. They had to get it in a really big size, because bears are humongous.
He started to build on the right side. The builders who were building close to him gave him all the easy parts because instead of asking for what he wanted, the bear selfishly roared in their faces. The workers were scared of him, and just gave him all the easy jobs. For example, the bear got to work on the bottom instead of the top, and he got to build the sides instead of the corners or the windows. One day, Kelly called him to her office. “Mr. Bear,” she said, “I’m very sorry to say this, but you can’t always take easy parts. I don’t know how they do it in other places, but here you have to divide the hard parts and the easy parts so that it is fair. And you’re not doing that.”
The bear did not understand math, or things being fair. So furious and frustrated, he roared in her face. He did not want to do the hard parts. He wanted to do the easy parts!
Kelly immediately said, “You’re fired!” The bear roared one more time, and walked away from the builders. The builders acted sad to see him go, but actually they were relieved!
While he was walking home, the bear again heard people talking about a place in town. Except they weren’t talking about a boring place like a coffee shop or a building site. They were talking about a music shop!
The bear had heard music a lot of times. Back in the forest the birds put on a concert every week of their new songs. Other animals used logs as drums and they too put on concerts every week. The bear loved music, and he had always dreamed of playing an instrument himself. So he decided to go to the music shop.
The next day, he walked to a place that said “music” because he thought that would probably be the music shop. He went inside. He went to the boss’s office. The boss, whose name was Dan, could really really tell that the bear wanted a job at the music shop, just like Mr. Finkel and Kelly. Dan said, “You’re hired,” with fear in his eyes, “come back tomorrow, and I will teach you how to play all of the instruments. You can test them.”
So the next day, the bear went back to the music shop. All the workers in the music shop were scared, just like the other workers that the bear had known. He could’ve roared like the other times, but he didn’t feel the need to. He went to a room filled with instruments. Dan was there to meet him. “This is a saxophone,” he said,
“you blow into it and press the keys. It sounds very simple, but it’s not.
“This is a violin. You make sounds with the strings by pressing your fingers. You make the sound with your bow. Like the saxophone that I just showed you, it’s not simple.
“This is a piano. You press the keys to make sounds.
“And last but not least, this is a cello. It’s just like a violin except it makes lower sounds and you sit down to play it in a different way.”
The bear tried each of the instruments. At first he felt unsure, but soon he started to really like it. It took a long time to get good at all the instruments, but after a few months he could play a few songs on each of them. He also learned to do the hard jobs at the store, like making the instruments and cleaning them. There was even a music class and he learned how to teach the class just by playing notes. He felt like he had learned a lesson: if you share and try to make things fair, things will turn out much better. Dan was right. It wasn’t very simple, but he could do it all just fine. So from that day on, he worked in the music shop, and he lived happily ever after, and people loved him as the most musical bear in Turtlewawa.
Roll Call Stories
Not confusing/but confusing
by Imani, age 7, UK
Once, there was a little girl named Ellie. Ellie was going to her friend's house for a sleepover. But she had to go by herself because her Mum was ill and her Dad was at work.
She happily skipped into the wood, singing a song.
"Oh I do like to be in the woods!"
"Oh I do"
"Oh I do"
"Because I like the dark, but it is a little scary".
Suddenly Ellie saw a cave. Ellie didn't know what to do so she tiptoed into the cave. She saw a big hairy monster. It was an ogre!
Then the ogre woke up. It gave Ellie a hard stare, then chased Ellie all around the cave.
The ogre tried to ear her, so she ran out of the cave. Then she said to herself, I will never ever go back in that silly, scary cave ever again.
So she happily skipped on. Then she heard something far behind her. It was a wolf! So she screamed very loud. Her granny could hear he all the way from North America! But she stroked the wolf and it ran away as fast as it could.
She ran and ran to her friend's house and opened the door. And saw... her friend Lily had turned into a tiger!!
When Lily saw Ellie, Lily chased her. But suddenly, while Ellie was running, she realised that it wasn't Lily. it was the tiger who lived in the wood.
Then the tiger bit her! It really hurt, but she could not get past. Ellie had to think very hard. Then she knew what to do. She got a fish and ran out of the house, and flew back to the wood.
The tiger chased it then the wolf woke up. He saw the tiger and chased him. Ellie ran through the house. Then she thought she saw her friend's house. She knocked on the door, and there was her friend.
She told Lily all about her adventure, but Lily didn't believe her when Ellie went home. Ellie wrote a story. It was the story of Ellie and the wolf.
"Are you sure that is what happened?"
"Yes Ellie. Well this is how I remember it.
"Ellie was going to her best friend's house. Her Mum was not ill, so her Mum took her and in 10 steps they were there."
"No, no, no my story is correct, not yours!"
"I never say silly."
"Well you just did!!"
"Now I am going to say the end".
"No you are not, The end."
"I was going to say The end. The end."
"No she was not and my story was correct"
"The End".
How I Got a Pool into School
by Calivin and Eliza, age 7, New York
Don’t Break Promises
by Tommy, age 5, Rhode Island
The mom said “don’t lose your stuff or you might be in big trouble!”
Jack said, “Okay, mom, I’ll try not to.”
Jack actually forgot that rule and he broke the rule. He broke the rule just by forgetting what he promised to do and when he forgot to do that, his room got messier and messier. He lost all his important stuff and he was in big trouble with his mom. He lost his homework, his baseball bat, and his cap.
He lost most of all his important stuff and soon he lost all his important and fun stuff and he had nothing else to do. He broke the promise and he forgot that he threw away all his stuff!
He was in big trouble and he had to go in time out for sixteen million hours!
He said sorry to his mom. He told the mom what happened. He took everything out of the trash and it was all better and he worked on all his things again and he wasn’t in big big trouble any more.
The end.
