This short story is loosely based on a request made by Guest.
In this story, Mr. Ping leaves the noodle shop for about an hour, leaving an eight year old Po to look after things. Unfortunately, a hungry Po decides to put what he learned from his cooking lessons to the test, and disaster ensues…
"I'll be back in an hour, Po." Mr. Ping said as he headed for the exit. "The shop is closed, so just relax and watch the shop… but do not touch the stove!"
"Yes, daddy." Said Po.
"I won't be gone long." Mr. Ping left the shop.
For the next ten minutes, the small panda sat by himself on one of the small chairs, twiddling his thumbs. Then he started to get bored.
And hungry.
"I could do with a snack." He muttered, then headed to the kitchen. He stopped.
"No, daddy told me not to touch the stove!" He scolded himself. "But still… having something cold wouldn't hurt. Maybe I could eat some carrots."
And so he spent the next five minutes nibbling from a raw carrot, which admittedly did not taste very good.
As he took another small bite from the tasteless carrot, Po glanced at the stove.
"No!" Po swiveled away, so the stove was no longer in his peripheral vision. "No, I'm not to touch the stove!"
But you know how to use a stove… a little voice spoke in his head. Your dad has been giving you lessons. Surely it wouldn't hurt to boil some dumplings for a few minutes?
"No!" Po said again, crossing his arms and biting his lip. "No, I won't!"
A few seconds later, the rumbling in his stomach decided the outcome of the internal debate.
The small panda lowered himself down from the chair and stepped into the kitchen. He stood for a few minutes in the middle of the room, trying to remember his cooking lessons as best as he could…
First, fill a large pot with water, and then leave it for a few minutes to boil…
Po pulled out the biggest pot in the kitchen, and then struggled with the weight as he lifted it onto the stove.
"Okay, now what?" He muttered…
Once the water is boiling, put the dumplings inside…
Po grabbed a bowl full of raw dumplings and poured them inside, quickly leaping back to avoid the splashes.
Once the dumplings have floated to the top, pour in half a cup of water to slow the cooking process, so that the dough doesn't break apart while the raw filler is still being cooked…
And so Po returned to his chair and waited for the dumplings to start floating.
He waited…
And waited…
Eventually, Po decided to tidy the kitchen up a bit while he waited.
He grabbed a crate full of bottles and plonked it on one of the tables. Then he proceeded to sort through them, picking out the bottles which were practically empty and pouring their contents into fuller bottles.
"Um… excuse me?"
A startled Po spilled sesame oil all over the table.
He spun round, falling off the chair as he did so, and his eyes fell on the tiger cub standing in the doorway.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" The cub spoke. "I didn't mean to startle you."
"It's okay." Po got to his feet.
"Um, is this shop closed?" the cub asked.
The cub was a girl. A cute girl. Po inexplicably found himself blushing.
"Uh… yeah, it's closed." He said. "Were you wanting some noodles?"
"Uh… no." the cub said shyly. "It's just that the Jade Palace needs some flammable oil for their lanterns, and we were told that this shop has what we need."
"You're from the Jade Palace?" Po gaped.
"Yes."
"Oh my gosh, that's so awesome!" Po danced on the spot. "You're a kung fu master!"
The cub blinked.
"Um… I'm not a master. I'm just a student."
"But you're still awesome!" Po gushed.
He stopped gushing when he saw the redness in the cub's cheeks.
"Oh yeah… you were wanting some flammable oil?"
"Yes, but since the shop is closed…"
"No it's okay!" Po said quickly. "If oil is all you want, I can get it to you in a jiffy! Wait here…"
He rushed over to the table, but saw to his dismay that all the sesame oil in the bottle was spread out over the wooden surface.
"Hang on, there's probably some more oil in the kitchen." Po told the cub before retreating into through the kitchen door, gripping the soaked oil bottle in his paw.
That was when he saw the steaming singular enormous mass of dumpling matter floating in the pan.
"OH MY GOSH!" Po dug his fingers into his scalp.
He had forgotten all about the dumplings!
And he had forgotten to stir the dumplings after putting them in the pan so they wouldn't stick together!
"What's wrong?" the cub called from outside.
"Nothing! Nothing!" Po yelled as he rushed towards the pan.
Quickly setting the bottle down, the panda gripped the handles so he could lift it off the stove.
A droplet of boiling water splashed from the pot and landed on his wrist.
As Po cried out in pain, he knocked the sesame oil bottle over.
The dripping oil bottle rolled over to the small candle on the counter and in seconds was engulfed in flames.
"Gah!"
What had he done?
Quickly setting down the pan, Po grabbed a long knife and quickly stabbed it into the flaming bottle, enabling him to lift it without burning himself.
"Watch out!" Po called out to the cub as he flung the burning bottle over the counter and into the outdoors area…
Where it landed on the oil soaked table and set it alight.
The tiger cub screamed and leapt backwards, while Po simply stared in silent shock at the flaming table top.
"Oh my gosh! What happened?" the cub cried out.
Then she saw the stunned panda still standing at the counter.
She ran over to him and grabbed his arm.
"Come on, let's get out of here!"
She dragged Po from the shop, leaving the table to burn.
Once outside the shop, the two cubs stared at the burning table in silence.
"My dad is gonna kill me." Po muttered. "What are we going to do?"
"Well, the table isn't anywhere near any combustible objects." Said the cub. "I guess that the only thing we can do is wait for the fire to burn out."
"Couldn't we throw some water on it?" Po asked.
"No, that's an oil based fire." Said the cub. "Water would make it ten times worse."
The two cubs stared at the burning table in further silence.
"We should tell someone." The tiger cub finally said. "We can't just the fire like this."
"Okay." Po sighed. "I'll tell our next door neighbor. He should still be up. You should get back to the palace. It's getting late."
"No, I should stay and help out, in case things get worse." Said the cub.
"But if you stay, people might think that you had something to do with this too! I mean, it would be pretty suspicious if there were two kids the same age in the shop when the table caught fire."
"But…"
"No, you should go. I don't want you to get in trouble."
The cub sighed in defeat.
"Okay… I'll tell the masters of the palace about the fire once I get back. They'll need to know if there's a risk of a major fire in the village."
"Okay… goodbye."
The cub walked off, pausing to look back at Po as she did so.
Po stared after her for a long while before heading for his next door neighbor's house.
When Mr. Ping returned to the noodle shop ten minutes later and screamed at the sight of his ruined table, he gave Po a severe scolding for his foolishness. From that moment on, up until he turned fifteen, Po never touched the stove again unless his father was present… or he understood and remembered every aspect of his lessons.
Let this be a lesson to all young readers: never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER touch a stove without an adult present!