Someone in Trouble

Chapter 14: Bitter With the Sweet

There was nothing out of the ordinary going on. Robbie arrived at Ziggy's house for the afternoon snack where they always had cake in the kitchen. Every other time Robbie's cake machine had dispensed a nice big slice of creamy confection Ziggy had cheered and clapped and grabbed his fork, ready to dig in. This time, however, the little boy stared at the baked good as though searching for something hidden within the layers of frosting and chocolate.

Ziggy looked up at Robbie and asked, "Can your machine make other kinds of cake too?"

"Of course. It does vanilla, marble, mousse, ganache—" He ticked them off his fingers with satisfaction, "Buttercream, icing, ice cream— anything you could want!" Ziggy nodded at all of these but still he didn't seem satisfied.

"Can it make... carrot cake?"

"Anything at all!" Robbie continued to promote the qualities of his machine. "Black forest, red velvet, pound cake, cheesecake! You want carrot? It can make—"

He stopped short as he realized what word had come out of his mouth and his lips twisted. Narrowing his eyes Robbie repeated back what Candy-Boy had asked.

"Carrot... cake?"

"Well, yeah," Ziggy nodded. "Or maybe pineapple upside-down cake, or pumpkin and spice? Or a fruitcake?"

"Fruit-cake?" Robbie's voice cracked on the unsightly word. "Eugh, that's disgusting! I'd never put something so vile in my machine!"

"Oh," Ziggy said, wilting under the force of Robbie's rejection.

That settled the matter. Ziggy picked up his fork and prodded at his piece of cake. Glad to be done with the subject Robbie pulled the crank on the machine again and waited as it chugged out another delectable sugary slice. Taking his own fork he scooped out a big chunk and lifted it to his lips, eager to eradicate every last trace of carrots or fruit from his mouth down to the last syllable.

"What about pies?" Ziggy asked, perking up again. Robbie paused with the fork mere inches from his parted teeth. He lowered the utensil.

"Pies? In the machine? I suppose. Yes." He nodded, warming up to the idea. "Chocolate silk pies, peanut butter cream, custard, Shoofly pie with sticky molasses..." Robbie's mouth watered at all the possibilities. "Yes, those could work just fine."

"Yeah!" Ziggy bounced in his seat, joining in on Robbie's rekindled enthusiasm. "And apple pies and sweet potato pies and blueberry and—?"

Ziggy faltered under the dark and stormy look Robbie shot at him. He cleared his throat and let out a giggle.

"And— pecan pie?"

"You," Robbie growled, "are nuts. None of those things belong in a dessert."

"But sportscandy can be a dessert!" Ziggy tried to appeal to Robbie's sweet tooth. "A banana is really sweet, it's like a dessert all on its own. And the best part is not only do they taste good, but they're good for you, too."

"Is that so?" Robbie asked. "Suddenly my cakes aren't good enough for you, is that it? You'd rather gnaw on some nasty old carrot than candy?"

"Oh, no, Robbie!" Ziggy held up his hands in a flustered move to ease the tension radiating off of the man. "It's not that at all! I love cake and candy! It's just— It's..."

The boy fumbled at the air with his hands and over his words. His brow scrunched as he stumbled through his thoughts.

"It feels like I don't eat as many fruits and vegetables now as I used to. I guess I sort of... miss sportscandy sometimes, when I'm having cake instead." His eyes pleaded with Robbie. "Don't you think sportscandy can be good, at least sometimes? If you made it really sweet, wouldn't that be okay?"

Robbie suppressed a shudder. Something in Candy-Boy's choice of words reminded him a little too much of a conversation he'd had with a certain pink girl not too long ago. There was that look in his face, too, that delicate quality in his eyes as he waited for Robbie to lay down his verdict on the subject. A look that said the boy's entire mood depended on whether Robbie lifted his spirits up, or put him down.

He'd been staring hard at Ziggy for several long seconds deliberating in his head. Ziggy sat petrified in his seat, only a slight tremor in his lower lip assuring that he wasn't just a statue. Robbie took a long draw of air in through his nose and set down his fork on his plate.

"How is it," Robbie asked, "that one would make a—" A brief halt, the word lodged in his throat and he forced it out. "A banana. How do we make a banana sweeter?"

Ziggy's eyebrows shot up and his lip stopped trembling as his mouth opened in a small silent gasp. He practically vibrated on the spot with a sudden swell of excitement at Robbie's inquiry.

"Well that's easy! We can bake it in a banana cream pie or we could mush it up into banana bread or you can even freeze it like icecream! Or you could dip it in chocolate or—"

"Chocolate's fine," Robbie said through his teeth. "Let's do that." Hearing all of the ways to prepare a banana just made his skin crawl and he didn't need to know every last one. Just one would do to keep that wistful look off of Ziggy's face, and it was already working.

"Oh, thank you, Robbie!" Ziggy exclaimed as he hopped off his seat. "We can melt some chocolate and dip some bananas right now! This will be great!"

"Just great," Robbie muttered. His stomach did a flip-flop at seeing how absolutely elated Ziggy was now. The little boy flew around the kitchen getting everything together like a pinball in an arcade machine.

It wouldn't hurt to humor this request to hide sportscandy in the sweets just for one day. After all, that was what made the stupid banana so exciting to the kid, wasn't it? Take something that was supposed to be healthy and cover it in a coating of candy! He would just make sure they used plenty of chocolate. Ziggy would be satisfied eating only the chocolate shell and not even want the banana by the time they got down to it.

He could handle this. It would be a piece of cake...

He eyed the abandoned slices sitting on the table.

... or not.