This week at the Carrot Ranch, Charli Mills challenged writers to In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story that features a candy kitchen. You can interpret the phrase creatively or stick to the traditional. Is it sweet? Ironic? Any genre will do. Go where the prompt leads!
My thoughts about a candy kitchen went straight to Roald Dahl’s book Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. What an incredible candy kitchen that was. And then there was the song The Candy Man performed by Sammy Davis Jr.
Who wouldn’t want to be a kid in a candy store, or better yet, a kid in a candy kitchen?
I thought of the busy kitchen of my childhood, with my mother making sweets for Christmas treats. There were rum balls and peanut brittle, chocolate bark and caramel fudge, coconut ice and marshmallow, and who knows what other sweet delights. I don’t remember them all. But I do remember one more recent Christmas when the choice of sweets became a philosophical rather than taste decision.
This is a fictionalised version of the incident. I hope you enjoy it.
Marshmallow Waves
The cooks bustled about my kitchen making sweets to gift.
“I love homemade gifts,” she said.
“Especially when we get to share,” he said, sampling largish crumbs of fudge and coconut ice.
“Marshmallow is amazing,” she said. It mixes up so light and fluffy,”
“What’s in it?”
“Sugar, water and gelatine.”
“What’s gelatine?” he asked.
I dared not tell the vegetarians, but he searched for information on his phone.
“We can’t eat that,” he spluttered. “Gelatine’s made from animal bones!”
The marshmallow mix, so light and fluffy, was binned. Not even a taste for me, although I’m not vegetarian.
Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts.
Norah Colvin 
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