The It Doesn't Matter Suit and Other Stories by Sylvia Plath

Author:Sylvia Plath [Sylvia Plath]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571314652
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2014-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

Mrs Cherry had no idea that two descendants of these pixies lived right in her kitchen. These two pixies had long, unpronounceable names, handed down from father to son and from mother to daughter. But they called themselves Salt and Pepper for short. One pixie wore a white suit and slept in Mrs Cherry’s silver salt-shaker, while the other pixie wore a speckled brown suit and slept in Mrs Cherry’s silver pepper-shaker. It was their job to see that all the kitchen folk did their daily work and lived in harmony and content.

After Mr Cherry had found his tortoise-shell-rimmed spectacles which he claimed some imp hid away every morning just for fun, he kissed Mrs Cherry goodbye and left for work.

Mrs Cherry hummed to herself, sitting at the sunny kitchen table and paring carrots for Mr Cherry’s favourite supper of beef stew. She flashed a bright, happy look around her kitchen: at the washing machine, and at the oven baking, and at the icebox rumbling gently as it kept the vanilla ice-cream cold for Mr Cherry’s dessert.

‘What a fortunate woman I am!’ Mrs Cherry said aloud to no one in particular.

‘Fortunate is right,’ murmured Icebox.

‘To be sure,’ whispered Oven.

‘Brumm,’ Washing Machine cleared her throat. ‘Exactly so.’

But Mrs Cherry couldn’t understand their language, and so she didn’t answer.

Now on this particular morning, the pixies received some complaints from the kitchen folk for the first time. Each one felt he could do his own work well enough, but each one of them cast longing looks at the jobs the other kitchen folk did.

‘It’s not that I don’t like whipping eggs,’ explained Egg-Beater. ‘It’s just that Iron turns out such frilly white ruffled blouses for Mrs Cherry. I’m sure I could make lovely white ruffles on Mrs Cherry’s blouses too, if I were given the chance. Just look how beautiful and frothy my whipped cream is! I’d like a change of chores for a day.’

‘Ssss. So would I!’ sighed Iron. ‘I’d like to take over Cousin Waffle-Iron’s work. Mr Cherry smacks his lips over those waffly waffles. But I could make even better dents with my shiny tip. Do let me try!’

Believe it or not, every electric appliance in Mrs Cherry’s kitchen had a similar request! Washing Machine wanted to bake a sponge cake. Oven wanted to iron Mr Cherry’s shirts crisp as piecrusts.

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