Lullaby for a Crumbled King

The Vignette Gazette Edition #200 | laugh, cry

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Mikołaj, a baker in Toruń’s Old Town, was kneading gingerbread dough. He hummed a lullaby to his mixing bowl: “Rock-a-bye baby, on the tree top, when the wind blows, the cradle will rock…” But he changed the ending. “…when the wind blows, the cradle will rock, but down in the Vistula, it’ll just gently dock!” He chuckled at his own silly twist.

Just then, a giant, egg-shaped gingerbread cookie — his prize Humpty Dumpty display — wobbled off the shelf and smashed into five pieces on the floor. Mikołaj wanted to cry. All his hard work, ruined!

He stared at the crumbs. Suddenly, an idea struck. He remembered the old nursery rhyme: “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall…” But Mikołaj refused to accept the sad ending. He changed it too. “…All the king’s horses and all the king’s men, used gingerbread icing to stick him again!”

He grabbed a piping bag and carefully glued the pieces back together with sweet, brown icing. The cracks looked like delicious battle scars. When he placed the restored Humpty on the counter, a group of tourists walked in. They saw the patchwork cookie and burst into laughter. Mikołaj didn’t cry — he laughed with them, handing out free samples. The tourists took selfies with the “Frankenstein” gingerbread man, and Mikołaj decided his new recipe for “Iced Humpty” was his best invention yet.

Prompt given by Robbi Walls:

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