050 Peter and the First Easter

In this episode, I'll be telling you an original story about Peter the Rabbit. As always, everything will be at an intermediate "Kuli English" level, made for background native English listening.

I should note that although there are other stories relating to a rabbit named Peter, or Peter eating pumpkins, but this story has no relation to those stories, and this story was 100% created by Kuli English Podcast, with no use of any AI.

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00:00 Start

02:03 Easter Story (part 1 of 2)

09:24 Easter Story (part 2 of 2)

Transcript

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Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Kuli English Podcast, it's me, your host, Chris. So today is going to be episode 50, and a 50 is kind of like a nice number. If you have two quarters it's 50 cents, if you have one quarter it's 25 cents, actually I don't really know why 50 is that special of a number, but it feels good.

And I wanted to do something kind of special for episode 50. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to tell you an original story. And this is a fictional story, okay, fictional meaning it's not real, it's not a story from real life, it's not a story from my own experiences or something like that, it's a story that I just made up, and most of it I made up today.

But in the past, so in this podcast, in previous episodes, so for example episode 25, I read you a story called The Tofu Story, and The Tofu Story was also an original story that I wrote in college, and then I kind of fixed it up to be a little bit easier so that it's like good for a Kuli English level, and then I read that in episode 25, and there's also a couple other ones that I had in other episodes. But in today's episode, I want to tell you this story, and this story, it's actually not written out, okay, so there's no like text version of the story. I made this story up today, and the only version that will exist is this audio version, so either the audio version or the YouTube version, but it's actually the same recording, and I'm going to be telling you this special Easter story that I made up, and it's going to explain why Easter exists.

It's fiction by the way, so it's not real, there are real reasons for why Easter exists, but in this story about Peter the Rabbit, well, we'll find out like a bit more. So, let's take a short little break, and then I'll come back, and I'm going to tell you this story about Peter the Rabbit.

All right, so let's go ahead and get started with the story, and I should mention that for the story, I'm going to be using a couple different voices, and I just want to make it clear that when I use these voices, they are like different characters, and maybe that's easier to understand.

And also, sometimes I'll be explaining some things, you know, like the usual paraphrasing, so when I say like, oh, I try to avoid difficult words, I try to avoid hard words, like I'll do these paraphrasing things, and I'll try to do that in the story as well, but at the same time, because I'm kind of making up the story as I go a little bit, like if I forget to do that, I'm sorry. But without further ado, so without any more delay, let's go ahead and get started. 

So, once upon a time, there was a rabbit named Peter, and Peter lived with his rabbit family, so he's got a mama rabbit, and he's got a papa rabbit, and they kind of have this like family dynamic, where the mom's always worrying about Peter, and then Peter's always like saying, you know, whatever he says, and then the dad's always saying, listen to your mom.

So for example, at dinner, Peter has a dream where he says, I want to be the fastest rabbit in the world, I want to be the fastest at everything, I always finish first. And so, they're all drinking their carrot stew, and drinking their carrot juice, and eating carrots, and Peter just drinks the whole stew in like five seconds, gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp, *burp*, I finished first, is what Peter says. And the mom says, Peter, you need to slow down, the food's not going anywhere, I already finished.

Peter, listen to your mom. Okay, mom, I enjoyed it, thank you. Peter, if you drink it that fast, you're gonna burp.

And so, they have this kind of dynamic, they have these kinds of little fights, but they're a happy rabbit family. And it's actually summer now, so in summer, school's over, so, you know, maybe it's time to do something. And so, usually, for school, Peter will run to school, and he always runs really fast, he's like, I gotta get to school the fastest, and he runs to school.

And then, after school, he runs home, and he runs home really quickly, because I gotta be the fastest. So, he runs home, and he gets home, and he's like, hey, mom and dad, I'm the fastest home. And the mom says, Peter, slow down, you're gonna hurt yourself.

And the dad says, Peter, listen to your mom. And so, it was summer, and so, because there's no more school, they decided to send Peter to his grandpa's house. And so, you know, the grandpa lives a little bit further south, and grandpa actually has been needing some help.

So, the parents said, okay, Peter, go ahead and go to your grandpa's house for the summer. And Peter said, okay, no problem, I'm gonna be there, and I'm gonna be there fast, because my name is Peter, and I'm gonna be the fastest rabbit alive. And so, Peter went down to grandpa's house.

And actually, grandpa was a chicken. And you might be thinking, why is it that a rabbit has, like, a chicken as their family member? That's not important, okay? That's just how it is. So, Peter has a grandpa, and there's a grandpa chicken, and grandpa chicken is the opposite of Peter.

Okay? Number one, grandpa's a chicken. Number two, grandpa likes to take everything slow. So, when Peter came, grandpa said, wait just a moment, Peter.

And then grandpa slowly opens the door, welcome to my home, Peter, it's so nice to see you. Okay, grandpa, come on, let's move on. And so, these two kind of have like a, you know, they're kind of contrasting personalities, they're kind of opposites.

But they get along pretty well, because they understand each other. And so, grandpa would introduce Peter to this new person. So, grandpa said, Peter, I want you to meet Stella.

Stella's the rabbit that's been helping me out, and I'm going to need your help too, and I want you two to get along, okay? And so, Stella, Stella says, hi, Peter. And Peter says, I'll be your friend, but only if you can keep up with me, because I'm fast. And Stella says, okay.

And so, what does grandpa need help with? Well, grandpa is kind of old, and he's kind of slow, but he needs vegetables so that he can cook certain things. And he needs the rabbits to go to the nearby farm and collect vegetables and bring them back. Now, grandpa used to be able to get those things himself, but he's kind of old now.

And it's not really safe for him to be out in the wild like that. So, what he does is he requests these two rabbits to get vegetables for them. And every day before they go, he says, okay, you guys be careful, okay? If you see anything dangerous, make sure you just head right back.

It's okay to be safe, okay? Just be safe so that you can go the next day. And Peter says, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. Thank you, grandpa, said Stella.

And so, they go, and they go collect vegetables. And when they collect vegetables, well, it's a really large farm, but because the farm is really large, some areas have better vegetables and some areas have worse vegetables. So, the area that's the closest, it actually doesn't have that many vegetables.

There's like some cabbage, and cabbage is pretty good. But the carrots are a little bit further in. So, if you go to like the middle area, it's kind of not that deep, but it's kind of close.

And there are carrots there, and carrots are great. And the absolute best are pumpkins. So, pumpkins are the best vegetables, but they're really deep in the middle of the farm.

And in the middle of the farm, the farmer, Farmer Fred, who owns the farm, he knows that rabbits come to steal vegetables every now and then. So, Farmer Fred bought a dog. And the dog's job is to protect the middle area, just to protect the pumpkins.

The pumpkins are the only thing that the dog protects. And so, Peter says, Hey, Stella, I'm really fast, right? And Stella says, Yeah, yeah, you are. And Peter says, How about I go steal a pumpkin? I'll come right back.

And Stella says, I don't know about that. That seems a little dangerous. And Peter says, Don't worry about it. 

Don't worry about it. And then so he goes and he steals a pumpkin, and he comes back, and they make it home to Grandpa. And the grandpa says, Wow, you got a pumpkin. 

That's amazing. Was it difficult? And Peter says, Not difficult for me, because I'm the fastest rabbit alive. Well, what about the dog? Oh, the dog can't catch me because I'm too fast.

And Stella says, It was pretty amazing. And so it kind of became a habit for Peter to steal a pumpkin and then escape from the dog and then run back. And so for the past couple of days, Peter's been stealing a pumpkin, and he's feeling pretty good.

He knows that he's pretty fast. He knows that the dog can't catch him. And then one day, actually, let's take a short little break here, and then we'll come back and continue.

One day, Peter and Stella went out to go get vegetables as normal. You kids be careful, OK? Don't do anything dangerous. And Peter says, No problem, Grandpa.

I'm so fast. It's definitely going to be OK. And so they go.

And this time, Stella also wants to get a pumpkin. And Stella says, Maybe I can get one, too. Peter says, Yeah, you got to be fast, though.

And so they go together to steal a pumpkin from the deep part of the farm. And the dog was waiting. The dog was like, Oh, I always see Peter taking the pumpkin.

I'm going to get him. And so they stole a pumpkin and they're both running away. And the dog realized, Oh, wait.

This time there are two rabbits. Let me focus on the weaker one. Let me focus on the smaller one.

And so the dog let out a howl and started chasing Stella, only Stella. And Peter, who's used to this, had no problem. But Stella, it was her first time running away from a dog.

She's never been chased by a dog before. And that's kind of scary. And so Stella ran and Peter ran and they ran to the outer parts of the farm.

But the dog, the dog didn't want to lose today. So the dog kept chasing Stella and Stella's heart was racing. Peter, the dog's not quitting.

Peter just said, Keep running, keep running. We got to keep going fast. And then they kept going.

But Stella was so nervous that she wasn't watching out for what's in front of her. And she tripped over a root. Oof. 

And all the vegetables tumbled out of her backpack. All the onions, all the carrots, all the cabbages, they tumbled out, and even the pumpkins, they tumbled out. Oh, no. 

Oh, no. And Peter said, Come on, come on, we got to go. And then Stella said, No, Grandpa needs these.

We got to- And the dog was coming. And this was really bad.

If the dog took one bite of Stella, a dog is huge! So much bigger than a rabbit, Stella would be done for!

And Peter knew this. And Peter thought, Oh, we got to do something. Come on, Stella, let's go. 

Forget about it. Let's go. And Stella was in shock.

She was like, Oh, no, no. And she's covering her eyes with her ears. She's just so stressed out. 

She can't do anything. And Peter thought, OK, well, you know, it's my job to protect Stella. This is what Grandpa would want me to do.

And so Peter dove in and dove in. And he put himself in between the dog and Stella. And he set out his arms.

He's blocking the way to Stella. He's going to protect Stella. And the dog thought, Oh, this is the rabbit that has always been stealing my pumpkins.

This is the rabbit that I want. And the dog thought, Hey, you know, one on one fight. The dog always wins.

But Peter, this time he knew that he couldn't lose. If he lost, things would be over for him. Things would be over for Stella.

And Grandpa would be crying at home. And so Peter fought as hard as he could with the dog. And the dog was so strong.

The dog has claws, strong claws, nails that burned when they scratched him. Peter got scratched so much. And Peter remembered, OK, you know what? I always wanted to kick a dog on the nose.

And so Peter kicked the dog on the nose, not just once, but 16 times. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen. And that wasn't it. 

He kept going. He kicked with all of his life, kicked the dog on the nose. Please, please, please kick, kick, kick, kick, kick.

And the dog, the dog didn't want to go down without a fight. So the dog bit Peter's leg. The bone crunched.

Peter only had one leg. And so Peter jumped up with the one leg and kicked the dog on the nose as hard as he could. And the dog went, oh, because the dog's nose is a very sensitive part.

And the dog ran back. The dog decided it's not worth it to fight this rabbit. And with that, Peter collapsed.

Oh, his leg was broken. His arm was broken. He was bleeding.

His ears were ripped. His fur was red. And Stella finally came to, came to meaning she kind of like got control of herself again.

And she was like, Peter, are you OK? And Peter was like, oh, at least you're OK. And then he passed out, passed out, meaning he's not conscious anymore. He's not awake anymore.

And so Stella thought, oh, no. So Stella took their backpacks and tied them together and made like a small little net so that she could carry Peter on her back. And so she carried Peter back.

Oh, he's kind of heavy. He's a bigger rabbit. But she was also crying.

This is really stressful. We got to get back to grandpa's. And so when she got back to grandpa's, grandpa was like, oh, no, what happened? Why are you bleeding? Why isn't he awake? I'm calling the doctor right now.

And so Grandpa Chicken called the doctor and the doctor came to look at Peter and Peter was already out cold. He wasn't awake. He was unconscious.

And the doctor was working, operating. He's got needles. He's got to do surgery.

He's got to fix the bone. Peter was in a bad state. And Stella was crying.

Oh, no. Oh, no. It's all my fault.

And Peter, Peter didn't wake up. Peter didn't wake up for two days. And on the third day, Peter's eyes opened.

Oh, it hurts. And when his eyes opened, Stella, who was sitting next to Peter, was in tears. And she's like, oh, my God, thank goodness you're OK.

I'm so sorry, Peter. And she hugged him. And Peter was like, oh, it hurts.

And she said, oh, I'm so sorry. I'm just so happy that you're alive. And the grandpa said, Peter, what happened? And Stella said, oh, I told you, Grandpa.

And the grandpa said, I want to hear from Peter. Peter, did you really fight a dog? Why didn't you run? And Peter, he looked at Stella and said. Sometimes things are worth fighting for.

And from that moment, Peter and Stella became much better friends. But Peter still couldn't really walk. The doctor said that Peter would probably make a full recovery.

But he wasn't sure. And Peter couldn't run for at least two weeks. And so for two weeks, Peter couldn't run.

He couldn't do his favorite activity of running fast, dreaming about becoming a fast rabbit. He had to stay around the house. And so Stella would do her normal job.

But when she came back from her job, she would always help Peter with anything. So sometimes Peter had trouble eating because his arm was broken. Well, Stella would, you know, chop the food and feed him for him.

And sometimes Peter would have trouble getting in the bathtub. And so Stella would help him. You know, she's a she's a great friend.

And then one day, Stella said, hey, Peter, I, I want to show you something. And then so Peter went to Stella's room and Stella actually was an artist. So she collected vegetables to help grandpa.

But she's always been an artist. And so she has lots of paintings in her room. She's got lots of paintings of vegetables of grandpa.

And actually in this new corner, there were a bunch of paintings of Peter. And so at first it was Peter when he first came. And there were also some paintings of Peter sleeping when he was injured.

And Stella said, I didn't know when you would wake up. So I kept thinking about it. And painting is the only way that it would calm me.

And Peter said, oh, wow, this this is beautiful. Is this is this me? And there was one particular painting, and it was a really big painting. And it had a rabbit, a really big, strong rabbit with big, strong legs running, running so fast, so fast that time was turning.

And he could see it in the painting. It was amazing. Stella was an amazing artist.

And he asked, well, what is this? And Stella said, it's your dream, Peter. You said you wanted to be the fastest. So this is your dream.

And Peter looked at it and then he looked down at his his legs, his legs that couldn't run, at least not right now. And we didn't know if he could run in the future anymore. He thought, oh, well, you know what? Dreams come and go.

And Stella said, oh, my God, Peter, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it like that. And then out of the corner of his eye, Peter saw a special painting.

And there was like a different painting. This one was more round. It was like a stone, like a really big stone.

And it had a rabbit. And that rabbit looked a lot like Peter, except Peter was wearing a crown. This was Peter as a prince.

And Peter looked at that. And then he saw that next to the prince holding the prince's hand was is is that a queen rabbit? And Stella said, wait, wait, wait, wait, Peter, stop, stop, stop. That's not ready yet. 

That's not ready. You don't need to see that. And so Stella was feeling a little bit embarrassed.

And Peter kind of took a peek and he kind of knew, oh, I think that's Stella. And so let's take a time skip here. OK, so a time skip is when a bunch of time passes and we're going to see what happens to the characters later on.

But after that happened, I'm not sure if you can guess what happened. But we take a time skip, you know, just a couple of years forward. And guess what? Peter and Stella have 84 kids and all 84 kids are seated in a row.

And they're listening to someone speaking on the stage. And there's a stage. And on the stage, Peter's talking and Peter's got a microphone.

And Peter, his eyes. Well, he had like a couple of scratches on his eyes, like on his eyebrows. He's got like these scars on his arm.

But honestly, they look pretty good. They look pretty good on Peter and his legs. You could see that some parts were how did they had like, you know, different colored fur from the injury.

But he was walking again. He was walking around left and right on the stage. And he was saying, Listen up, kids, I need you to pay attention.

Can everyone hear me? And all the kids are like, sir, yes, sir. I can't hear you, sir. Yes, sir.

OK, now I want everyone to work really hard today on this Easter. And your mom has been working really hard to paint all these eggs. You see all these eggs? And he points to a big pile of eggs and they're all colored.

They're colored orange, blue, purple, all these beautiful colors. And he said, Now I want you to take these eggs and deliver them and hide them in spots for kids to find so that when kids find them, they can enjoy your mom's art. Do you understand? Sir, yes, sir.

And one small rabbit was like, Sir, dad, sir. And then the rabbit next to that kid was like, Hey, no, it's not, sir. Dad, sir. 

It's sir. Yes, sir. But why? It's just sir. 

Yes, sir. Just say it, sir. Yes, sir.

I can't hear you. And all the kids go, sir. Yes, sir.

And so they all take one little egg and they run off to the farm to go hide it into one little spot. And this is the custom of Easter. So a lot of people think that Easter is actually just one Easter bunny delivering all the eggs, but actually it's a whole family.

It's Peter and Stella and their 84 kids. OK, so that's the end of the story. I don't really have anything more to add to this.

So let's go and end the podcast episode here. It might have been a little bit short, and I'm sorry if that's the case. But, well, I worked hard on the story, so I need a break, too.

So thanks for listening. Again, this was Kuli English Podcast. I'm your host, Chris.

And we always have new episodes on Tuesday. So if you like the story, feel free to let me know. Maybe we can do some more stories later.

But I'll be back to real life stories, at least for next week. So thank you so much for listening until the end of this episode of Kuli English Podcast. And as always, good luck with your English studies.