Awakening

Happily ever after. HA! That is what Gretel was thinking to herself as she beat at some bread dough angrily. She remembered when she was younger, she and her brother had been really close out of necessity to weather their mother's mood swings. One day they had gone into the woods to get firewood. They could still hear their mother screaming at their father so they continued to go deeper and deeper into the woods until there was nothing but blessed silence. Along the way they had been dropping small pebbles so they could find their way home.
About mid-day they had found a path of sorts and they followed it ,discovering a sugary sweet house in which an evil witch lived. She had attempted to eat her and her brother, but they managed to outsmart her, sending her to her own oven instead.Gretel would never forget the look on her parent's faces when they came home with chests full of treasure, or the party that the village threw after they had returned.
Scowling, Gretel gave the bread another hard poke, then set about to tending the oven. Here she was, middle aged, married to a lazy slob that did nothing but watch television all day and drink any form of alcohol he could get his hands on. Her brother was living out his days in a rather posh prison as far as prisons go, having gambled, cheated, and blown all the money they had gotten from the witch. Both parents were in the ground. Even though she did not miss them TOO much it was just another stress added into her life. She worked herself to the bone every day to try and keep her meager bakery afloat, and she was just so tired of her whole situation.
As she made her loaves for the day, Gretel could not help but run her old adventures with the witch through her mind... And suddenly she had an idea.
From the living room, Larry stared at the television, completely transfixed by the flickering image on the dusty screen. He could hear his wife of ten years banging pots around in the kitchen, but he paid her no mind. Suddenly her voice came from the kitchen, and he looked up from the transfixing images to hear her. "Larry honey, can you come in here and check the temperature of this oven?"