E7: Pvt. Jeff and the Sleeping Kitchen

E7: Pvt. Jeff and the Sleeping Kitchen

Scrubbing Squad: Hero Missions | Lights Out

NARRATOR: Boots on. Radios crackling. Orders received. The Scrubbing Squad is standing by. Ready for real-world missions, adventure... and fun. And there is one hero they cannot start without. You. Report for duty. Heroes start here.

UNCLE JAMIE: Hero HQ calling all heroes. This is Uncle Jamie. Fall in, heroes: today's mission is about to begin.

AUNTIE ELLIE: Hello, heroes. It is Sunday night, and this is Lights Out: the quietest mission of the whole week. Now, you know the one rule: Lights Out only begins when you are already in bed. Pyjamas on, teeth done, lights down low. If that is not you yet, press pause, go and become that hero, and come back: I will be right here. In bed already? Then you have earned this, and I am proud of you. One small piece of business before we get sleepy, because after this minute, there are no more jobs tonight: if you keep a Squad Mission Chart from scrubbing squad podcast dot com, tick Sunday now, or ask your grown-up to. Done? Good. That was the last busy thing. Everything from here on is downhill, soft, and yours.

AUNTIE ELLIE: Let us begin the way we always do. One good thing. Somewhere in today, heroes, there was one good thing: maybe big, maybe tiny, a drawing that worked, a kind word, a pudding that was exactly right. Find it now. Hold it up in your mind like a little lantern.

AUNTIE ELLIE: There it is. Whatever it was, it was yours, and it is coming to sleep with you. Days that end on a good thing sleep better. That is the whole trick.

PVT. ACE: Ace here, heroes, quiet as anything. If lying still is hard work tonight, that is allowed: let your hands rest on your tummy and feel them ride up and down. If your eyes will not close yet, they do not have to: just let them rest on one soft spot in the dark. And if your pillow is not right, fix it now, take all the time you need. Same mission. Your way.

PVT. SKY: Ciao, hero. Sky here, for our breathing, and remember the secret of the switch: it is the breath OUT. When your breath out is longer than your breath in, your whole body gets the message: we are safe, we are done, we can rest. So: breathe in through your nose, slow, two, three, four... and now out through your mouth, long and soft, like cooling a warm spoonful of soup, two, three, four, five, six... In again, gentle, two, three, four... and out, longer, softer, two, three, four, five, six... One more, hero, the best one: in... two, three, four... and all the way out... two, three, four, five, six. There. Feel how heavy and warm you are? That is the switch, thrown. Sleep is already on its way to find you: you never have to chase it.

AUNTIE ELLIE: And now tonight's goodnight story, and it is a true one, about how one of our own ends his day. You know Pvt. Jeff: the Squad's head chef, the first hero into the kitchen every single morning, and the kitchen at Recharge Camp is the busiest, warmest room on the whole base. All day long that kitchen sings: pans and plates, chopping boards, Pvt. Jeff calling magnifique at somebody's carrots. But every evening, when the last plate is dried and the last hero has wandered off to bed, Pvt. Jeff does the same three things, every night, in the same order, and this is how he closes the kitchen down.

AUNTIE ELLIE: First, he wipes the long wooden bench, slowly, corner to corner, until it shines under the lamp, and he pushes in every stool as he passes. A clean kitchen is a clean mind, he says, and at night he says it very quietly, to nobody at all.

AUNTIE ELLIE: Second, he makes tomorrow's bread. Flour, water, a pinch of salt, folded together, and then, voila: the dough goes into its bowl under a clean white cloth, and Pvt. Jeff tucks the cloth round it exactly the way your blanket is tucked round you. And here is the true and wonderful part, hero: bread dough rises while everyone sleeps. All night long, slowly, quietly, it grows soft and round under its cloth, doing its work in the dark, so that when morning comes, all of Recharge Camp smells of fresh bread. The dough rests, and resting IS its work. Tonight, hero, resting is your work too.

AUNTIE ELLIE: And third, he fills the big water jug and sets it ready by the door, so the first thirsty hero of the morning finds a drink already waiting. Then he stands in the doorway with one hand on the light, and he looks at his quiet, shining kitchen, and he asks it his famous question, in a whisper: what did we eat today?... and what will we eat tomorrow? And the kitchen answers in its own way: the oven ticking softly as it cools, the cloth settling over the dough, the jug catching the last of the light. Bonne nuit, says Pvt. Jeff, and the light goes out. The busiest room on the whole base, hero, fast asleep... and its chef on his way to bed, same as you.

PVT. JEFF: Bonne nuit, hero. The bench is wiped, the jug is full, and the bread is rising slowly in the dark, all through the night. You fuelled your mission today, mon ami, and tomorrow we do it all again. Sleep now. Bonne nuit.

AUNTIE ELLIE: And now, hero, the very last thing, and it is not your job: it is the screen's. When my words end, this screen is going to sleep too. Nobody needs to touch it. It did its job, and now it rests, just like you, just like the bread. Let your good thing glow, let your breath go long and soft... goodnight, hero. See you in the morning.

UNCLE JAMIE: Heroes, this is Uncle Jamie. Mission accepted?

AUNTIE ELLIE: Little missions. Big heroes. Heroes start here.

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