A Ladle of Soup (Please Read!)

by Lucky in the bathroom. You gotta go when you gotta go! :P

A/N: I know I haven't posted in awhile. I had to work on a story for a contest, the Young Writers Contest at Mrs. Nelson's Toy and Book Shop. This is the story I'm going to enter. Please tell me if it's good! Thanks!

It was a chilly Sunday morning. The trees’ leaves were changing color, into pretty shades of orange and reds. The dry, dead leaves that lay on the hard cement were suddenly brushed aside, for a red bicycle rode past, followed by numerous others. If this were a movie, then the camera would zoom in on a gray building – a school called Preston Middle. Although this is not a movie, we’ll zoom in anyways.

Ms. Stead was an enthusiastic learner. She didn’t believe in tests, she had kids make fun projects, and lastly, she loved to teach outside. Ms. Stead taught the sixth grade. She thought that kids had an excellent imagination, as long as they had something to work with. One of her most prized students so far, Emily Welker, a visual learner, gave Ms. Stead the idea to work outside. This was exactly what she did today.

Ms. Trisha Stead picked up a random rock from the sidewalk and showed it to the students, who were sitting on the moist green grass.

“This, my dears, is a sedimentary rock. You can tell if it is sedimentary by its texture. Sedimentary rocks are formed fossils or shells are weathered together,” Ms. Stead explained, passing the rock to a student. “I’d like one volunteer, please.”

Almost half of the class raised their hands. The teacher smiled and pointed at a boy wearing a blue plaid shirt. “Steven, come on up.”

The boy, Steven, stood up and stood next to Ms. Stead. “What am I gonna do?” Steven asked, looking at his teacher.

Ms. Stead smiled. She picked up a big, spongy rock with holes. It looked heavy, but Ms. Stead showed no expression. “Here, Steven. Hold this rock. Careful, though,” the teacher instructed, and handed the rock to Steven. Steven was a skinny boy, so he got a little worried. When his teacher gave him the rock, he hoped for the best. When he received it, he didn’t feel anything. Steven shifted the rock on one hand. “Hey,” Steven exclaimed, “it’s really light!”

Ms. Stead grinned and took back the rock. “This is a…”

She never finished her sentence, because the 5-minute bell rang. “Alright, class,” Ms. Stead chimed. “I have a field trip paper here for your parents. Tomorrow we are going to the community center to help out people. Everything is explained in the letter.” She handed everyone a white paper.

The class high-fived Ms. Stead on their way to wait for their cars. Emily high-fived Ms. Stead and began her way to the sidewalks, when she saw her mother’s silver Prius parked by a tree. She ran to the car and found her mother skimming a magazine. Emily knocked on the window.

“Wha-?”

Mrs. Welker looked at Emily and unlocked the doors. Emily put her backpack in the car and closed the door. “Why are you picking me up?” she asked. “I usually walk home.”

Mrs. Welker smirked. “I got let out early today.”

Her daughter nodded and Mrs. Bianca Welker drove home. Before they got out of the car, Emily took out a white piece of paper. “We’re going to community services tomorrow,” she stated.

“Mmm-hmm.” Mrs. Welker and Emily read the letter together.

“Dear parents and students,

Tomorrow (1-19-10) we are going to the community service center to help out the community. I am very excited about it, because the children will get a hands-on learning experience about helping others and how to be responsible. Each child will get their own person to help out, such as in a grocery store, or in a café. The children’s’ names and the person they are going to help are listed below:

STUDENT PERSON PLACE

Francis Aguilar…………………………Joshua Mills……………………….Starbucks

Grace Partida…………………….……Kara Montoya.………………...…Kids Theatre

Emily and her mother looked at the bottom of the list, where it said her name:

Emily Welker…..…………………………William Davis………….……….Soups for Love

Emily started to giggle. "‘Soups for Love’? What the heck is that?”

Mrs. Welker sighed. “Your grandfather used to work there. It was a soup house where they sell soup. Every week, I think on a Tuesday, the people who work there go to the soup kitchen and serve soup for the homeless.”

The girl then got serious. “Really?” she said, amazed. “Cool.” Her mother smiled and got out of the car, with Emily following.

That night, Emily tossed and turned. She was so excited about the next day. Forget the name, she thought in her sleep. I think I get free soup!

Finally, at 11:56 PM, Emily fell fast asleep, dreaming about the day ahead of her.

When Emily walked to school that morning, feeling refreshed. The yellow school bus was just pulling up, and Ms. Stead was escorting her students in it. Emily snuck under the gate and walked nonchalantly with the class, boarding the bus.

Emily sat alone throughout the whole ride, for she was in the front seats. Everyone was alone when they were in the front seat. Ms. Stead sat in back of the bus driver. The bus driver, who introduced himself as Mike before they took off, wore a blue shirt, had stubble on his chin, and chewed gum. “Stride, to be specific,” Mike had said before. Emily eagerly listened to a story that Mike told, about a lion and a mouse. 10 minutes later, the class arrived at the community center. There was nothing much to see…it was sort of like those buildings where you go to work. But when the class arrived inside, a line of adults were smiling and standing up, waving to the students. A woman came by.

“My name is Theresa Kate, and I am the staff of the community center. You must be…Parton- Preston Middle School, am I correct?” the woman corrected herself.

Everyone nodded. Ms. Stead talked to Theresa for a minute, then started calling out names.

“Francis Aguilar, you got Joshua over there. Grace, Theresa will show you to Kara…” Ms. Stead continued on, until she said Emily’s name. “And at last, Emily Welker. You go with the nice man over there.” The teacher pointed to a frail old man with a yellow raincoat.

The man eyed Emily, and the smiled. His teeth were brown. “My, you are Emily, are yous?” the man asked. “I might be William, if you please.” He stuck out a hand. “Might be…how olds are ya?”

Emily chuckled nervously. “I’m 12 years old, sir.”

William grinned and answered, “Aye, you must calls me William, not de fancy ‘sir’. Now, when we arrive at me kitchen, Soup House, you must put on gloves and a hairnet. Sanitary rules, little girl.”

“Like you said, I’m Emily, not the plain old ‘little girl’.”

“You must not talk to me dat way!” William snapped. He grabbed her wrist and led her to the rest of the bunch. “Theresa, you must drop me and Em’ly off first. We are in a great hurry.”

Theresa smiled. “Yes, I will. Okay, we’ll leave right now.” The woman Theresa clapped her hands and called everyone up. “We’ll leave right now,” she called.

Theresa told the truth, they were first. Emily was surprised by the look of William’s Soup House. It looked like a small brown shack. When the two got inside, it was no dirtier than the outside. Ladies were scouring pans, men were wearing aprons and stirring pots, it was like a cooks’ nightmare.

“This, Em’ly, is mine’s Soup House,” William explained. They took a quick tour of the place, and then William instructed her to cook with Martha, the head chef. Martha had brown hair scrunched up in a hair net, and she was very nice.

“Sweet pea,” she said, “the last thing you want to get on is William’s nerves. Be careful, honey.”

Emily nodded and put on her hairnet, along with some gloves. Martha asked her to chop up some onions. She did so, for Mrs. Welker taught her how to use a knife. When Martha saw Emily’s expression, she smiled and handed her a clothespin. “Here, sweet pea – the smell’s horrible, I know,” Martha said sympathetically. “I used to do that too, when I was a little sparkling.”

Emily giggled and looked at the time. It was 10:30 AM. Martha glanced up, too, and turned around to the other cooks. “C’mon- we have to go! Harry, Sally, you get the soups in the pot. Marco, Yolanda, help Harry and Sally load the soup pots into the truck. Emily, come here.”

Martha led Emily to a small room with loads of white chef hats on the walls. Mavis reached for a small white one with the initials E.W. “We knew you were coming,” Mavis said, “So we had this hat personalized just for you. William wasn’t really into it, but I used all my money on it.”

Emily gasped. “It’s beautiful, Martha! Thanks a lot!” She took the hat and placed it on her head. A perfect fit. “It’s great!”

Martha grinned and clasped her hands together. “Just a welcome gift, that’s all.” Then she looked at the clock, and grabbed Emily’s arm. “Hurry, we gotta go!” she exclaimed.

Emily and Martha ran to a truck that said “SOUPS FOR LOVE” in big letters, and “SERVING SOUPS TO THE NEEDY” printed in small letters underneath. The truck was a big one, with six seats inside and still loads of room in the trunk. Emily sat next to Howard, another cook. “Y’know,” he started, “I’m William’s son and Martha’s sister.”

Emily gasped in amazement. “Really?”

Howard nodded. “Yup. William adopted us when we were just three, and our mother taught us how to cook soup. When she died nine years ago, William started Soups for Love at the Soup House as a reminder of our mother. Since we knew some people had little food, we donated our soups to the Soup Kitchen, a place where poor families can get free soup.” Howard smiled. “Oh, we’re here.”

Howard helped Emily out of the truck. He pushed up the trunk door and handed her a big blue pot. “Can you bring this in to Martha, please?” Howard asked.

“Sure,” Emily replied, and started to go inside.

The Soup Kitchen was a busy place. There were lines of people with ragged clothes, ladies in hairnets, and children screaming and laughing. The delicious smell of soup was extraordinary – in fact, it was mouthwatering. Before she started to get weak-in-the-knees, she delivered the soup pot to Martha, who was inside the kitchen.

Martha was talking to a woman in ripped blue jeans and a torn white shirt. “Why, hello!” the woman exclaimed. “Hi,” Emily said, and put the pot on the counter. “Martha, Howard told me to give this to you.” Martha grinned. “Oh, this! This is William’s famous vegetable soup,” Martha pointed out. “This is Jazmine, one of our locals here.”

The woman smiled her cracked smile. She reminded Emily of William.

“Pleased to meet you…uh…”

“My name’s Emily.”

“Oh, pleased to meet you, Emily.”

“You too, Jazmine.” Emily turned to Martha. “Do you need any help serving or anything?”

“Of course, yes! That’s why you’re here,” she remarked, leading her to the counters. “Put on a hairnet, please.” Martha pointed to the hairnet stack. Emily giggled at the backsplash of the wall – purple and red, her favorite colors. The warm colors of the Soup Kitchen and the aroma of the soups matched perfectly. Emily snapped out of daydreaming and proceeded to the counters. Martha instructed her to grab a plate, pour soup, serve, and repeat. Martha wished her luck and left her with other women.

One woman Emily had served, named Leila, snuck Emily a chocolate bar under the counters. “For being so helpful,” she had said. Emily smiled at the people’s stories about their lives and adventures. Finally, the last man she served before leaving had a great story. His name was Miles Hawk.

“I was fishing at Hawaii,” Miles started. “The docks were short, so my feet could touch the water. Next thing you know, I was under it! My foot was bleeding so I knew I was grabbed by a shark. I whapped the shark with my fishing pole and swam away. From then on, you could still see the shark’s mark on my foot.” Emily clapped and was about to ask for another story when Martha arrived. “We’ve got to go now, sweet pea,” Martha said. “Okay,” the tired girl responded, and left with Martha back to school.

Martha waved to Emily as she drove. From all the chattering in the schoolyard, Emily could tell that her class had already started to discuss their community adventures. “I wish I could help out at the Soup Kitchen every day,” she whispered to herself.

The leaves fell silently on the wet cement path. As Emily walked on the dry leaves, they crunched under her feet. The sky turned into a brilliant purple-red, her favorite colors. The wind picked up speed, and up in the air birds flew in a flock above her, a perfect sight.

If this were a movie, then we’d close up on Emily walking back to school. But this isn’t a movie. This is a story, though, and since it’s a story, we’d call it

A Ladle of Soup