In a tiny village called York, on a cold dreary day the funeral procession for the late Hagatha L. Worstshire was about to begin. A small group of relatives and friends gathered for this sad day to pay their respects to an old woman who had recently been found dead inside her oven. The old woman was a quiet soul who lived alone in a house made of gingerbread and cakes with windows made of sugar.
However, Hagatha didn’t always live in a house made of confection. While a resident of YorkVillage, she lived in a simple three room cottage. The cottage interior had an open concept floor plan. One room held the kitchen and dining area, the 2nd room was a bedroom and Hagatha turned the 3rdroom into a play room for the children who enjoyed her company. Hagatha never had children but she found great joy in baking and making sweet treats for the children of her village. Every Sunday Hagatha would spend the entire day making cakes, cookies and candies to be shared with the children of York Village.
After church, the children would all gather at Ms. Hagatha’s home and feast on the vast number of treats the nice woman spent her day creating. Hagatha would always warn the children against over consumption. She would tell them how even the best things in life require moderation and should be consumed in small amounts or the consequence would be unfavorable.
While most of the children heeded the old woman’s advice, there were two young girls who felt the old woman was senile and was only trying to keep them from enjoying themselves. Brianna and Jessica were children of the town’s elite. The two sisters grew up in a family of privilege and were rarely given boundaries or told the word “no”. These two girls were great manipulators and their main intention was to get what they wanted.
One Sunday evening, after all the children went home, the old woman went to visit her sister in the neighboring town. While she was out, Brianna and Jessica decided to break into the woman’s home to steal some of the many treats left behind. As the sun began to set, the young girls slowly approached the old woman’s cottage. As they surveyed the house to figure out a way in, Jessica noticed that the front door was unlocked. The two eager girls enter the house and were hit with the enticing aroma of treats which included multi-tier cakes, cupcakes, sweet breads, chocolate chip cookies and milk chocolate drops, gingerbread and lemon drops to name a few. The excited girls began running about the cottage tasting all of the treats at their disposal. The girls ate and ate until they could eat no more.
After a couple of hours of consumption, Brianna began to complain of a stomach ache. The girls soon realized that this was the consequence Ms. Hagatha had always warned them about. They knew they couldn’t go home or it would be discovered they had broken into the old’s woman’s home and devoured the treats. So, Jessica decided that all they would need is a little rest. The girls decided to rest for an hour and then they would return home. However, as the girl’s lay asleep, an hour passed, and then two and three until they were awaken by the sun peering through the window. Jessica frantically woke Brianna and the two decided they need to get home before they were discovered. However, as they were leaving, the old woman arrived home. The girls frantically tried to find a place to hide and Jessica decided, they would hide in the oven until the old woman fell asleep.
As the girls hid in the oven, Ms. Hagatha came into the house with a bag of ingredients she had retrieved from her sister. She was going to try out a new recipe her sister had given her. She knew that her oven would take a while to warm up, so she decided to turn it on while she changed her clothes. As she lit the wood in the oven, she went into the backroom to change but the tired old woman fell asleep. The young girls tried to exit the heating oven; the door to the oven was locked. As the fire grew, the young girls screamed for Ms. Agatha, but the tired old woman’s fatigue put her into a deep slumber. The young girls were killed in the oven and were discovered by Ms. Hagatha later that day.
Frightened, Ms. Hagatha knew she would be blamed for the death of the girls, so she packed up her things and all the food ingredients she could carry and fled deep into the woods the next evening. The villagers found the young girls the next morning and Ms. Hagatha was immediately accused of their deaths and labeled a witch and an outlaw. Meanwhile, Ms. Hagatha roamed the dark forest lonely and cold. She found an uninhabited dilapidated cabin. Though the house was empty there was a wood oven. Depressed and tired, the old woman had a glimpse of delight from the sight of the oven. She knew she could use the oven to keep warm and cook.
The next morning, Ms. Hagatha knew this cabin wouldn’t be a suitable dwelling, so she decided to build her a home. This home would be her dream home and would be made of the one thing that brought her joy, confections.
After several weeks, Ms. Hagatha had created a home with walls of gingerbread stabilized by sturdy candy canes and windows made of sugar. A couple of months had passed and Ms. Hagatha enjoyed the beauty and aroma of her new home.
As she sat in her kitchen baking away, she heard the voice of little children outside. She immediately ran to the window to see a boy and girl destroying and nibbling on edible materials used to construct her home. The once child-loving woman had grown to fear children, since it was two children that led her to live this lonely existence. She feared that the laughter of the two children would bring attention to her, so she invited them in. The children introduced themselves as Hansel and Gretel. Ms. Hagatha pretended to like the children, but she knew they had discovered her location and she did not want anyone else to find out.
Ms. Hagatha decided she would teach Hansel and Gretal and lesson which would frighten them so they would not return to her home or tell anyone else of it. Hansel was very aggressive and she feared he would be a problem, so she convinced him to climb into a cage she used to trap animals for food. She locked the boy in the cage and told Gretel she would be thrown in a cage if she did not perform chores assigned by the old woman. Ms. Hagatha felt that children were taught to be disciplined through chores so she assigned Gretel kitchen chores. She told Gretel that she planned to eat her brother, but needed to fatten him up. Ms. Hagatha taught Gretel how to prepare divine meals to be consumed by Hansel to plump him up. Meanwhile, Gretel was fed crab-shells. The old woman figured a few weeks of punishment would definitely frighten the children enough so they would never return or speak of her location.
Due to her old age, her sight was limited, so she relied on her sense of touch. Every day, she would visit Hansel after his meal to see if he had gained weight. However, despite the hearty meals, the young boy seemed to be getting bonier. The old woman feared the young boy was sick and decided the children should stay with her for another couple of weeks. She would continue to feed him in hopes of getting him back to health. She still needed to protect her location, so she continued the charade to teach them a lesson. After a couple of weeks, she decided to release the children but she would cook them one final meal before revealing her intentions to release them. She asked Gretel to check the oven by climbing in to check the heat. Because of her and her brother’s treatment over the past several weeks, Gretel assumed the old woman was going to cook her, so she devised a plan to trick the old woman into checking the oven herself. Gretel convinced the old woman to check the oven herself and once the old woman climbed in, she pushed her in and locked the door, allowing the flames of the oven to consume Ms. Hagatha. Upon her demise, the children looted the old woman’s home. Soon, after the house of confection was discovered by a lost woodsman drawn to the aroma and Ms. Hagatha was found dead in her oven.