Week 3 Story: Helios and the Apple Pie

 

And yet another apple pie, image by Benny Mazur via Flickr (Dec 7, 2007)

Note: The following was inspired from stories by Ovid's Metamorphosis (Part A), translated by Tony Kline. The stories that served as inspiration include Phaethon and The Sun, Phaethon's Ride, and The Death of Phaethon. These stories altogether cover Phaethon's (I know him as Helios) parentage and relationship with his father Sol (the Sun god), proving his relationship to Sol by driving Sol's chariot that carries daylight across the Earth, the burning of the Earth, and the death of Phaethon. I loved this story and wanted to retell it in simpler vocabulary, so I decided to write it as if Sol owned a bakery, and Helios wanted to prove to his friend he was as talented of a baker as his father. But in the end, Helios dies in a fire from his mistakes while trying.

_

It was a beautiful, golden sunny day, and Helios was having a picnic with his best friend, Epaphus. They were drinking delicious grape juice and snacking on treats from Helios' father's bakery.

"Helios," said Epaphus, in-between bites of pie, "this pie is seriously god-tier. Like, can you make a pie this good? Your dad's baking is the best I've ever had."

"Sure I can," said Helios. "I'm his son. I was raised in that place."

Epaphus chuckled, shaking his head. "Sure you can." He took another bite.

Later that day while doing his homework, Helios was still thinking of their conversation. What was Epaphus suggesting? Does he not think he has the same talent as his dad? At dinner, Helios brought it up to his father.

"Dad, do you think I can bake as good as you?" His father grinned, tossing the salad and putting it on the table. He smiled the way any father would when their child looks up to them.

"Of course, son. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I don't think Epaphus thinks so." And so he told his father of their picnic conversation. "I want to bake something to prove it to him." His father wiped his mouth with a napkin, nodding. "What if I make the daily pie?"

His father's nodding stopped, and he looked up at Helios, surprised. The daily pie was vital to the success of his bakery, and only he had ever made it. "Well..." he started, "What about some pumpkin bread? You always make such a great one in the cold months."

Helios rolled his eyes. "No, Dad. Anyone can make that. But only you have made your pie. Can I please?"

"Son, the pie is very important, and it's easy to make a mistake. The instructions are lengthy... Maybe when you're older."

"But Dad, you said I'm as talented as you, and that means I can do it. Please please please?"

Sol sat there silent, his brow furrowed in thought, uncertain. "Well... I suppose..."

"YES thank you, Dad!" Helios jumped up and grabbed their plates and cleaned the dishes, eager to show his father he has what it takes.

The next morning, Helios was up and ready, excited for the day ahead. His dad walked into the kitchen, grabbed a cup, and poured himself some coffee.

"Morning, kiddo. Ready?" Helios nodded. "Okay, here's the instructions." He laid an old piece of paper on the table. "Just follow this exactly and your apple pie will be outstanding. I'm going to go out for a bit and get some groceries, okay?" Helios nodded again, looking throughout the paper. He wasn't sure how to do several of these things, but how hard could it be?

His dad left soon after and Helios laid out all his ingredients. Whisk 3 eggs. Okay, whisk, where's the whisk? Ah! Found it. Easy-peasy. He added the flour, water, and salt. It started to look like dough, but it was kind of runny. Oh well, he thought, I'll just add more flour. He moved on to the next step, not seeing he had accidentally skipped a line and combined ingredients in the wrong order. Butter and sugar. Okay, done. Apples, cut into small bits. Okay. All this is so easy, he thought. He scanned the paper for something else. Turn oven on to 400.

So, he turned the oven to 400 degrees. Add 3 tbsp fresh Special Ingredient. Huh. In a small corner of the paper were the instructions to this special ingredient, but Helios recalled seeing a bowl of it in the fridge. Hmm, he thought, it said fresh. Thinking there wouldn't be a noticeable difference, he put the bowl, still covered in foil, in the microwave. It was a pretty thick.. probably needing to cook for several minutes to be fully heated. So, he pressed 5-0-0 on the microwave for five minutes.

Suddenly, he had a really bad stomachache and needed to use the bathroom ASAP. He left to use the bathroom in the hallway. On the toilet, Helios wondered what had made him feel so badly. Maybe it was the coffee? Yeah, or it could have been his nerves. What if the pie tasted bad? What if he let everyone down?

He started to smell something burn. Oh no. Oh no no no. But he was on the toilet! He was helpless. He hurried to clean himself, thinking about how he was going to open the windows and clean so his dad doesn't detect the burnt mistake when he returns. 

But his dad returned to worse. As he turned onto his street, there were firetrucks everywhere spraying somebody's burning house. His house. Panicked, he leapt out of the car and ran toward the scene, screaming for his son. But Helios had gone up in flames along with the rest of their home, and the neighborhood, especially his father, mourned.