Chef and Sycamore (Encore)

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Speaker 1 Welcome to bedtime stories for everyone

Speaker 1 in which

Speaker 1 nothing much happens.

Speaker 1 You feel good

Speaker 1 and then

Speaker 1 you fall asleep.

Speaker 1 I'm Catherine Nikolai.

Speaker 1 I write and read

Speaker 1 all the stories you hear on Nothing Much Happens.

Speaker 1 Audio Engineering is by Bob Wittersheim.

Speaker 1 We are bringing you an encore episode tonight, meaning that this story originally aired at some point in the past. It could have been recorded with different equipment in a different location.

Speaker 1 And since I'm a person and not a computer, I sometimes sound just slightly different.

Speaker 1 But the stories are always soothing and family-friendly. And our wishes for you are always deep rest and sweet dreams.

Speaker 1 Now,

Speaker 1 just by listening to my voice,

Speaker 1 By following along with the general shape of the story,

Speaker 1 you'll engage your mind enough to keep it from wandering.

Speaker 1 And it's often the wandering that keeps us up.

Speaker 1 So instead,

Speaker 1 you will sleep.

Speaker 1 And this response will get stronger with practice.

Speaker 1 Will become conditioned.

Speaker 1 So be patient if you are new to this.

Speaker 1 I'll read the story twice,

Speaker 1 and I'll go a little slower the second time through.

Speaker 1 If you wake later in the night,

Speaker 1 don't hesitate to turn an episode right back on.

Speaker 1 Most folks fall back to sleep within seconds.

Speaker 1 Our story tonight is called Chef and Sycamore.

Speaker 1 And it's the second part of last week's story called Pickle Season.

Speaker 1 It's a story about an afternoon in the kitchens at the inn

Speaker 1 as jars of pickles

Speaker 1 are lowered into the canner.

Speaker 1 It's also about sheets of labels ready to add to the jars,

Speaker 1 the view of the hammocks in the side yard,

Speaker 1 and a kitty

Speaker 1 waiting, not so patiently, to play.

Speaker 1 Now

Speaker 1 switch off your light.

Speaker 1 Get comfortable.

Speaker 1 You have done enough to-day.

Speaker 1 Whatever it was,

Speaker 1 it was enough.

Speaker 1 Now nothing remains but that you rest.

Speaker 1 Draw a slow, deep breath in through your nose

Speaker 1 and sigh from your mouth.

Speaker 1 Do it again. Inhale

Speaker 1 and sigh it out.

Speaker 1 Good

Speaker 1 chef

Speaker 1 and sycamore

Speaker 1 We'd been hard at work

Speaker 1 all afternoon afternoon,

Speaker 1 and the jars of pickles,

Speaker 1 still warm from the canner,

Speaker 1 were lined up in neat rows on the table.

Speaker 1 For years, we'd just labeled them with a piece of masking tape torn from the roll

Speaker 1 and one of the sharpies that Chef perpetually kept in their apron pocket.

Speaker 1 But this year

Speaker 1 I'd gotten some proper labels made for us.

Speaker 1 One of the benefits of being an innkeeper

Speaker 1 is that you get to meet all kinds of people.

Speaker 1 And one day early this summer

Speaker 1 I'd noticed one of our guests

Speaker 1 with a sketch pad

Speaker 1 sitting on the bench by the lake.

Speaker 1 It was a misty, cool morning,

Speaker 1 and when I'd spotted her from the porch,

Speaker 1 I'd guessed she might need a fresh cup of coffee

Speaker 1 to keep the chill at bay.

Speaker 1 And I'd carried down a thermos

Speaker 1 and a slice of coffee cake to her.

Speaker 1 She was sketching the rowboats,

Speaker 1 wrote to the edge of the dock,

Speaker 1 and I marveled at the way it seemed

Speaker 1 they were bobbing serenely in her drawing.

Speaker 1 She traded me her notebook for the cup and the plate.

Speaker 1 And as I sat beside her,

Speaker 1 turning the pages,

Speaker 1 I saw she'd captured so many of the pretty details of our inn.

Speaker 1 There was the bell hanging from the door frame on the porch,

Speaker 1 which I rang at five each evening

Speaker 1 to announce cocktail hour.

Speaker 1 There was the cool sleeping porch

Speaker 1 up on the second floor,

Speaker 1 the grand winding staircase in the entryway.

Speaker 1 And I smiled as I spotted him,

Speaker 1 my black cat sycamore,

Speaker 1 stretched out in the bay window of the library.

Speaker 1 It had given me an idea,

Speaker 1 and as she'd sipped from her cup

Speaker 1 and eventually cleaned her plate,

Speaker 1 we talked about it.

Speaker 1 A few weeks later, a box had arrived,

Speaker 1 and I'd surprised Chef with it,

Speaker 1 sending it down through the dumb waiter after lunch.

Speaker 1 I'd listened at the top of the stairs

Speaker 1 and smiled as I heard them chuckling and flipping through the collection of labels and stickers

Speaker 1 for our pickles.

Speaker 1 These are fantastic, they'd called,

Speaker 1 and I'd rushed down to look at them again.

Speaker 1 Our artist guest had designed us more than a single logo to go on our homemade wares.

Speaker 1 There were a dozen different images on the brown craft stickers,

Speaker 1 and a hand-drawn font spelling out chef's dull spears,

Speaker 1 chef's bread and butter pickles,

Speaker 1 sycamore's spicy cauliflower,

Speaker 1 and so on.

Speaker 1 Right now, we didn't have any plans to sell our pickles.

Speaker 1 They were for our guests,

Speaker 1 for ourselves,

Speaker 1 and to take to the autumn fair.

Speaker 1 But even if only a few would ever see these labels,

Speaker 1 it mattered to me that they were beautiful. and said something about who we were

Speaker 1 I especially loved the ones with sycamore on them

Speaker 1 and thought the artist had perfectly captured his personality.

Speaker 1 He loved our guests, loved the inn,

Speaker 1 loved chef,

Speaker 1 and loved me.

Speaker 1 I think he'd lived alone outdoors for a while before we found him.

Speaker 1 But he seemed to have had enough of wild, lonely living,

Speaker 1 and now couldn't get enough of snuggles

Speaker 1 and his new luxurious life.

Speaker 1 As Chef lowered the next batch of pickled Brussels sprouts into the canning pot,

Speaker 1 I sat at the big kitchen table

Speaker 1 where our staff ate family meals

Speaker 1 and slowly stuck labels onto jars.

Speaker 1 I liked the methodical work of it.

Speaker 1 It took some focus

Speaker 1 and a little skill to line up the edge of each label in the right place

Speaker 1 and smooth it over the glass.

Speaker 1 But But I was getting more confident with each one,

Speaker 1 and they really did look fantastic once they were done.

Speaker 1 Just then, I heard a tapping at the door at the top of the stairs.

Speaker 1 Thinking it might be a guest in need of something,

Speaker 1 I sat down the jar I'd just finished

Speaker 1 and started to climb the steps.

Speaker 1 Halfway up,

Speaker 1 I spotted a black furry paw

Speaker 1 sticking out through the gap at the bottom of the door and chuckled.

Speaker 1 Sycamore would like to know what we are up to, I called to Chef.

Speaker 1 They walked over, wiping their hands on a towel,

Speaker 1 and looking up at the reaching, flailing paw swiping through the air.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 no kitties in the kitchen, especially right now.

Speaker 1 Maybe it's time for a break then?

Speaker 1 We looked around the space.

Speaker 1 I had more labels to stick.

Speaker 1 But there was no rush there.

Speaker 1 We had two fresh batches in the canners,

Speaker 1 but those would need ten to fifteen minutes.

Speaker 1 Cheff

Speaker 1 picked up a kitchen timer

Speaker 1 and twisted the dial

Speaker 1 to set it,

Speaker 1 and tucked it into a pocket.

Speaker 1 We hung our aprons on a hook,

Speaker 1 took a couple of cold sodas from the fridge,

Speaker 1 and trooped up the stairs.

Speaker 1 When we slid the pocket door back,

Speaker 1 Sycamore looked up at us with a mix of shock and frustration.

Speaker 1 How dare we

Speaker 1 How dare we lock him out?

Speaker 1 He jumped to his feet and strolled away as if we'd waited too long.

Speaker 1 He didn't even want to hang out any more.

Speaker 1 Chef and I pulled out chairs at one of the tables on the porch

Speaker 1 that looked out at the water.

Speaker 1 And within a minute or two,

Speaker 1 Sy was weaving through our ankles and purring at full force.

Speaker 1 I knew he couldn't stay away.

Speaker 1 Chef,

Speaker 1 being Chef,

Speaker 1 had brought up a dish of green beans for Sy,

Speaker 1 which was one of his favorite treats.

Speaker 1 Now we'd finished the pickled green beans earlier in the day,

Speaker 1 which meant Chef had set these aside for him hours ago.

Speaker 1 They set the dish down under the table,

Speaker 1 and Sycamore cozied up to it

Speaker 1 and started to eat.

Speaker 1 Smells like rain, I said, and Chef nodded.

Speaker 1 Clouds had been moving through the skies all day,

Speaker 1 sometimes letting the sun peek through,

Speaker 1 and sometimes making the day seem nearly like night.

Speaker 1 But now they were a thick, low blanket,

Speaker 1 and it made me sigh with a bit of relief.

Speaker 1 It felt like tucking into a blanket for it,

Speaker 1 and I found it comforting.

Speaker 1 It also meant that when I rang the bell in a couple of hours, we'd probably

Speaker 1 not have many takers for cocktail hour.

Speaker 1 Our guests would likely stay in town,

Speaker 1 shopping in the stores on Main Street, watching the rain come down from a booth at the cafe.

Speaker 1 Sycamore had finished his treat

Speaker 1 and jumped up onto the sill beside Chef.

Speaker 1 He cleaned his paws and let Chef scratch his ears.

Speaker 1 I knew that now that he had a full tummy,

Speaker 1 a nap would be in order.

Speaker 1 So I scooped him up and carried him down the hall to a small room

Speaker 1 that looked out at a row of hammocks in our side yard.

Speaker 1 Chef had fixed him one of his own

Speaker 1 strung from hooks on either side of the window.

Speaker 1 I plopped him down into it

Speaker 1 and he wriggled happily against the soft fabric.

Speaker 1 I'd read somewhere that it can help to give your animals a little job to do when you left them alone,

Speaker 1 to speak it aloud to them,

Speaker 1 and to keep it to three words if possible.

Speaker 1 Often I told him to

Speaker 1 watch the birds,

Speaker 1 or just generally, protect the inn.

Speaker 1 Now I leaned in, kissed his forehead,

Speaker 1 and said,

Speaker 1 take a nap.

Speaker 1 As I stepped out, leaving the door ajar behind me,

Speaker 1 I heard our timer going off on the porch.

Speaker 1 Next up, watermelon rind, Chef said excitedly, rubbing their hands together.

Speaker 1 I followed happily down into the the kitchen, knowing this meant I'd get to eat watermelon while they worked.

Speaker 1 Chef

Speaker 1 and Sycamore

Speaker 1 We'd been hard at work

Speaker 1 all afternoon,

Speaker 1 and the jars of pickles,

Speaker 1 still warm from the canner,

Speaker 1 were lined up in neat rows on the table.

Speaker 1 For years

Speaker 1 we'd just labeled them with a piece of masking tape torn from the roll

Speaker 1 and one of the sharpies that Chef perpetually kept in their apron.

Speaker 1 But this year, I'd gotten some proper labels made for us.

Speaker 1 One of the benefits of being an innkeeper

Speaker 1 is that you get to meet all kinds of people.

Speaker 1 And one day,

Speaker 1 early this summer,

Speaker 1 I'd noticed one of our guests

Speaker 1 with a sketchpad

Speaker 1 sitting on the bench by the lake.

Speaker 1 It had been a misty, cool morning,

Speaker 1 and when I'd spotted her from the porch,

Speaker 1 I'd guessed she might need a fresh cup of coffee

Speaker 1 to keep the chill at bay,

Speaker 1 so I had carried down a thermos

Speaker 1 and a slice of coffee cake to her.

Speaker 1 She was sketching the rowboats,

Speaker 1 roped to the edge of the dock,

Speaker 1 and I marveled at the way it seemed they were bobbing serenely

Speaker 1 in her drawing.

Speaker 1 She traded me her notebook for the cup and the plate,

Speaker 1 and as I sat beside her,

Speaker 1 turning the pages,

Speaker 1 I saw she'd captured so many of the pretty details

Speaker 1 of our inn.

Speaker 1 There was the bell hanging from the door frame on the porch,

Speaker 1 which I rang at five each evening

Speaker 1 to announce cocktail hour.

Speaker 1 There was the cool sleeping porch upon the second floor,

Speaker 1 The grand winding staircase in the entryway

Speaker 1 And I smiled as I spotted him

Speaker 1 My black cat sycamore

Speaker 1 Stretched out in the bay window of the library.

Speaker 1 It had given me an idea,

Speaker 1 and as she'd sipped from her cup

Speaker 1 and eventually cleaned her plate,

Speaker 1 we'd talked it through.

Speaker 1 A few weeks later, a box had arrived,

Speaker 1 and I'd surprised Chef with it,

Speaker 1 sending it down through the dumb waiter after lunch.

Speaker 1 I'd listened at the top of the stairs

Speaker 1 and smiled

Speaker 1 as I heard them chuckling

Speaker 1 and flipping through the collection of labels and stickers

Speaker 1 for our pickles.

Speaker 1 These are fantastic, they'd called

Speaker 1 And I rushed down to look at them again.

Speaker 1 Our artist guest

Speaker 1 had designed us more than a single logo

Speaker 1 to go on our homemade wares.

Speaker 1 There were a dozen different images

Speaker 1 on the brown craft stickers

Speaker 1 and a hand drawn font

Speaker 1 spelling out

Speaker 1 chef's dill spears

Speaker 1 chef's bread and butter pickles

Speaker 1 Sycamore's spicy cauliflower

Speaker 1 and so on.

Speaker 1 Right now we didn't have any plans to sell our pickles.

Speaker 1 They were for our guests

Speaker 1 and for ourselves

Speaker 1 to take to the autumn fair

Speaker 1 but even if only a few would ever see these labels

Speaker 1 it mattered to me that they were beautiful and said something about who we were.

Speaker 1 I especially loved the ones with sycamore on them

Speaker 1 and thought the artist had perfectly captured his personality.

Speaker 1 He loved our guests,

Speaker 1 loved Vian,

Speaker 1 loved Chef,

Speaker 1 and he loved me.

Speaker 1 I think he'd lived alone outdoors

Speaker 1 for a while before we'd found him,

Speaker 1 and he seemed to have had enough

Speaker 1 of that wild, lonely life,

Speaker 1 and now couldn't get enough snuggles

Speaker 1 in his new, luxurious life.

Speaker 1 As Chef lowered the next batch of pickled Brussels sprouts into the canning pot,

Speaker 1 I sat at the big kitchen table where our staff ate family meals

Speaker 1 and slowly stuck labels onto jars.

Speaker 1 I liked the methodical work of it.

Speaker 1 It took some focus and a little skill

Speaker 1 to line up the edge of each label in the right place

Speaker 1 and smooth it over the glass.

Speaker 1 But I was getting more confident with each one.

Speaker 1 And they really did look fantastic once they were done

Speaker 1 just then

Speaker 1 I heard a tapping at the door

Speaker 1 at the top of the stairs

Speaker 1 thinking it might be a guest in need of something

Speaker 1 I set down the jar I'd just finished and started to climb the steps.

Speaker 1 Halfway up,

Speaker 1 I spotted a black,

Speaker 1 furry paw sticking out through the gap

Speaker 1 at the bottom of the door, and chuckled.

Speaker 1 Sycamore would like to know what we are up to, I called to chef.

Speaker 1 They walked over,

Speaker 1 wiping their hands on a towel,

Speaker 1 and looked up at the reaching, flailing paw,

Speaker 1 swiping through the air.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 no kitties in the kitchen,

Speaker 1 especially right now.

Speaker 1 Maybe it's time for a break, then?

Speaker 1 We looked around the space.

Speaker 1 I had more labels to stick, but

Speaker 1 there was no rush there.

Speaker 1 We had two fresh batches in the canners,

Speaker 1 but those would need ten to fifteen minutes.

Speaker 1 Chef picked up a kitchen timer

Speaker 1 and twisted the dial

Speaker 1 to set it,

Speaker 1 and tucked it into a pocket.

Speaker 1 We hung our aprons on a hook,

Speaker 1 took a couple of cold sodas from the fridge,

Speaker 1 and trooped up the stairs.

Speaker 1 When we slid the pocket door back,

Speaker 1 Sycamore looked up at us

Speaker 1 with a mix of shock and frustration.

Speaker 1 How dare we

Speaker 1 How dare we lock him out

Speaker 1 He jumped to his feet and strolled away

Speaker 1 as if

Speaker 1 no, we'd waited too long

Speaker 1 he didn't even want to hang out any more

Speaker 1 Chef and I pulled out chairs at one of the tables

Speaker 1 on the porch that looked out toward the water.

Speaker 1 And within a minute or two

Speaker 1 Si was weaving through our ankles

Speaker 1 and purring at full force.

Speaker 1 I knew he couldn't stay away.

Speaker 1 Chef,

Speaker 1 being Chef,

Speaker 1 had brought up a dish of green beans for Cy,

Speaker 1 which was one of his favourite treats.

Speaker 1 We'd finished the pickled green beans earlier in the day,

Speaker 1 which meant Cheff had set these aside for him hours ago.

Speaker 1 They set the dish down under the table,

Speaker 1 and Sycamore cozied up to it,

Speaker 1 and started to eat.

Speaker 1 Smells like rain, I said,

Speaker 1 and Chef nodded.

Speaker 1 Clouds had been moving through the skies all day,

Speaker 1 sometimes

Speaker 1 letting the sun peek through,

Speaker 1 and sometimes making the day seem nearly like night.

Speaker 1 But now

Speaker 1 they were a thick, low blanket,

Speaker 1 and it made me sigh with a bit of relief.

Speaker 1 It felt like tucking into a blanket for it,

Speaker 1 and I found it comforting.

Speaker 1 It also meant that when when I rang the bell in a couple of hours,

Speaker 1 we'd probably not have many takers for cocktail hour.

Speaker 1 Our guests would likely stay in town,

Speaker 1 shopping in the stores on Main Street and watching the rain come down

Speaker 1 from a booth at the cafe.

Speaker 1 Sycamore had finished his treat

Speaker 1 and jumped up onto the sill beside Chaff.

Speaker 1 He cleaned his paws

Speaker 1 and let Chaff scratch his ears.

Speaker 1 I knew that now that he had a full tummy, a nap would be in order.

Speaker 1 So I scooped him up

Speaker 1 and carried him down the hall

Speaker 1 to a small room

Speaker 1 that looked out at the row of hammocks in our side yard.

Speaker 1 Chef had fixed him one of his own,

Speaker 1 strung from hooks on either side of the window.

Speaker 1 I plopped him down into it,

Speaker 1 and he wriggled happily

Speaker 1 against the soft fabric.

Speaker 1 I'd read somewhere that it can help to give your animals a little job to do when you left them alone,

Speaker 1 to speak it aloud to them,

Speaker 1 and to keep it three words if possible.

Speaker 1 Often I told him to watch the birds

Speaker 1 or just generally protect the inn.

Speaker 1 Now I leaned in and kissed his forehead and said,

Speaker 1 take a nap.

Speaker 1 As I stepped out, leaving the door open a few inches behind me,

Speaker 1 I heard our timer going off on the porch.

Speaker 1 Next up, watermelon rind, Chef said,

Speaker 1 excitedly rubbing their hands together.

Speaker 1 I followed happily down into the kitchen, knowing this meant

Speaker 1 I'd get to eat watermelon while they

Speaker 1 Sweet dreams.