A Tale with a Twist from the 2013 “Merry Holiday Poems and Tales”
By
Gypsy Joy.
There once was an Italian lady who was reading aloud the recipe of an Epiphany cake and while putting on her pinafore and stirring the batter she hummed a song about “The Lass that loved a Sailor” and danced along. So truly happy she was on this Epiphany day.
Alas…
had she known that she soon would be the victim of a witch’s spell she would certainly not have hummed and twist. It was not before long that her singing and dancing got out of hand and she found herself roaming and stirring the cake batter high up in the sky. Feeling a bit dizzy from this unexpected flight she missed the stretched out hands of an angel and a fairy trying to lend her a helping hand.
When she flew above the building of the temple of the Roman Deity Janus, she cried out loud:
“Oh mighty Italian defender of porter and doors please get me to my kitchen indoors. My stirring is out of hand, who knows where I finally will land. Can’t you take pity on me so I can bake my Epiphany cake in time for the feast in my parish tonight?
When I will see the Eastern star stop above the stable where the Holy Baby lies in a manger my Epiphany cake ought to be fully baked. You see, the Epiphany cake is an age old worldly tradition and everyone in my parish is counting on me and my cake to celebrate in style the arrival of the Three Wise Kings from the East. So lift this curse, please!”
The Roman January God understanding the urgency of the Italian lady felt pity for her but he needed a minute or two to think what to do.
In the meantime as fate would have it the Italian lady landed on the roof of a tiny cottage nearby. It seemed the curse was wearing off and as she peeked through an open window she could not believe what she saw.
“A table, a chair and a warm oven”
she said with a smile, “now we are getting somewhere.”
Quick as a flash she made a dash for the cupboard and grabbed oven mitts and an oven pan. It did not take long before her Epiphany cake was baked. She felt so jolly that she again started to dance and sing a song from the opera H.M.S. Pinafore, forgetting about the situation her dancing and humming had brought her in.
Ho and below!
Out through the foreign window she flew with the cakepan in her hand. To her surprise she landed right in front of the outdoors nativity in her native land. The onlooking parishioners astonished clapped their hands.
This was an Epiphany cake stunt they had never seen done before by an Italian lady wearing proudly her pinafore.
The Italian lady whispered to the Holy Baby:
“Excuse my pinafore Lord as I aim to please and thank you my King, for whom I kneel, pray and sing.
It’s for You and the parishoners I bring this sweet Epiphany cake with a bean baked within.”
