Little something (I)

This story is a sequel to Ay, de mi Lorona that you can find on my page.

Erwin parked his bike in front of the shop where, like every morning, Ida was cleaning the vitrine with soap and water. His mouth opened to apologise for the late but, as Ida sighed without looking at him, he knew she wouldn't understand.

The chime tinkled in the empty shop. Behind sheer glass, silver trays displayed rainbows of sweets, pralines and butter creams. The smell of bitter cocoa, basil meringues and glossy berries reminded him, each time, that pastry chef was the right career move for him. 

Erwin tied his apron in his back and pressed play on his phone - Sting and Melody Gardot started their fling. Their song, "Little something", inspired him new recipes every day. In his favorite steel bowl, egg yolks dropped into the flour, and, through his sieve, icing sugar sprinkled. With melted butter and cream, the dough smoothened and tiny bubbles appeared. “I could add a little something, mhh, mhh”, he sang out loud as he reached for ginja, Portuguese sour cherry liqueur, and drank up a couple of drops. He poured some into the dough. “What you gonna put in the heat of oven? Mh, mh”. He wrote down his new recipe in his notebook, after the 47 other recipes he had invented over the past three months, since he had joined PR&C Bakery. “Baking simple as la di la di la, mh mh.” He had trained as a chocolatier in Geneva before and pastry was still foreign to him, the journey to opening his own patisserie would certainly not be as simple as la di la di la, but he was creative, determined and passionate. He tasted more drops from the liquor and put it back into the closet.

“Wasting time again?” The song stopped. Chewing her gum with a sneer, Zazie was looking at him.

“Stop touching my phone, I’ve told you that already.”

“Stop wasting our time, we've told you that already. Did you sort the vanilla pods by size as I told you?”

He hadn't.

“Did you check Friday's order for the Hotel?”, he asked to bother her back. “It looked off.”

“Check it yourself.” 

“I did it, you –” 

“Then, let Luke do it."

Why would Luke, their manager, do it?

"Today is my last day, I only came to say goodbye." She showed her teeth. "And, wish you good luck for the Giant Cookie."

Erwin frowned.

"65 bakeries competing and you don't know about it? Peyton wants that award so bad, would be a shame if he lost." She winked. "Have fun!"

Zazie, his "supervisor", had never been of any use over the past three months. But he hadn't expected her to quit, just like that. What now? Would he take on her work? Compete with Ida for promotion? Deal directly with Luke? How about his time for creations?

“Peyton is waiting.” Ida’s voice interrupted as she dashed into the kitchen. A hole had pierced her shirt by her belly button. Erwin opened his mouth to warn her but her stern look convinced him to shut up. He followed her into the staircase where a beige carpet with lilies spiralled up the polished wood. The lilies reminded him of candied violets and Willy Wonka - a source of inspiration that seemed faraway.

Thin silvery stripes decorated the blue wallpaper of meeting room, as if selected by the Nutcracker's Plum Fairy. Only Peyton, the youngest of the three owners of PR&C Bakery was present. As he dialled the conference number, he didn't notice Ida was trying to make eye contact with him.

“Charlie? Are you on?”, Peyton asked his older brother via the speakers.

“Hi, yes. Can you hear me well? I’m in the cab.”

“Any good news?”

“Ida and Erwin did a good job; the client liked the idea of mango for the winter collection.” Ida pushed her chin up and Erwin thought he'd remind Charles that mango was his idea and not hers. “I think we'll get the contract.”

"That’d be great, Charlie, that'd be great. Roxy-pixie are you on?”, Peyton asked, looking for their sister.

“Roxane said she wouldn’t be available.” Ida said, like every Monday morning since Erwin had joined PR&C.

“Luke?”

“Yeah, I’m on. But I’ll drop off soon, got a meeting with Fineries in 5'. ”

“Can we discuss the Giant Cookie quickly?”

“Yeah, Ida is on it. She’s analysing the Giant Cookies presented by our competitors over the past twenty years.”

“How?”

Ida cleared her throat. “We kept samples of their cookies in the freezer downstairs. The laboratory downtown is studying their composition.”

“How does that tell us what to do this year? Will you get AI to figure it out for you? Luke, you need to take ownership.” 

“The idea is to reuse the ingredients that have worked well with the jury. I need to drop off, sorry. Talk to you.”

“Ida, what’s the plan?" Peyton cleaned his glasses with his shirt. "We have to win."

“The lab will send the results this week and-”

“The contest is this Friday."

“I know. Erwin is helping out.”

Erwin frowned.

"Erwin, my friend," Peyton patted his back with a crafty smile, "make us proud."

***************

“Mistakes everywhere. Zazie didn't check that, did she?", Ida hinted at her inventory list. “I stayed here until 2am on Sunday morning, ok? I can't be doing everything in this shop."

“How can I help?”, Erwin said as he was in no mood for an argument with his colleague.

“Go figure. Luke made up the story about the lab because he didn’t know how to prepare for the contest. Nothing is ready.”

To get recognition from the three brothers running PR&C Bakery, Luke had become very creative - no wonder the team changed every year. Erwin rolled his eyes but as he saw Ida bite her nails and the hole in her shirt, something pinched in his chest.

"Alright, let me try something."

Ida left without saying goodbye. Erwin drew out a cigarette, put on his "Little Something" song and browsed through the ingredients in his notebook. He had never liked or baked cookies. He blew out smoke and sketched what their giant cookie could look like. "I can try a little something, mh mh mh". The taste should be memorable and the process impressive. Could some special mushroom inflate the cookie size? That would be cool. He browsed through books on mushrooms. It was 3am already and he needed the dough to be ready in the morning for it to rest until Friday. He'd need a warm and wide space for it to rise. How would he do that?

Counter bell. Erwin's opened his eyes slowly, 5:00am. He had fallen asleep. Who would come in so early? He dragged himself to the shop. A teenage girl with red cheeks was standing - he had seen her once at the tailor's.

"Did I wake you up?', she asked without letting him answer. "I need individual cakes for me and my friends. We're making a surprise for our dance teacher tonight. Anything you'd suggest?"

"Sure. Hm. There you go, croissants."

She laughed. "It's for a surprise tonight, not for breakfast in ten minutes."

"Alright, then give me a hint. What do you guys like?"

"My name is Violet."

What kind of hint was that? "Ok, have you ever tried candied violets?", he asked. She shook her head. "Well, we have macarons with candied violets, they're good. How many again?" He gave her the bag and told her it was on him, he had no energy for counting coins. She smiled and walked out. He poured himself a glass of water and drank it slowly to dilute his headache. Wait. Candied violets. Of course!

Erwin rushed back to the kitchen and jumped into his apron. He pulled out boxes of ingredients and split violet macarons into batches to test various ideas. His hands were shaking. He crushed the macarons into bowls and smelt the ingredients one by one. Rubbed his hands, thinking. He prepared a cookie dough as he thought it should be and incorporated macaron chunks in it. He smelt the ingredients again. Yes. He knew what he wanted. He called their supplier, they did have the ingredient he wanted and confirmed inflating mushrooms also existed. He asked to be delivered in an hour - the time for him to go home, shower and come back.

"Where have you been? It's always the same with you, I always have to-"

He ignored Ida as he walked back into the kitchen. He checked on his dough - it tasted fine. The doorbell rang and he ran to the backdoor to collect his secret ingredient and mushroom. Ida would ask what that was and, for now, it was better not to tell her. He added his secret ingredient to the dough and wrapped the inflating mushroom in newspaper. It was too early to start inflating the dough - he first needed to figure out the rising process. He slipped the newspaper inside of a book and hid it between the cabinet and the wall. Now, how and where would the dough rise for three days? That was the question. He grabbed his jacket and sneaked out.

Erwin needed some warm fabric and a secure place. Who could provide that? Someone laughed in his back and he turned around. Violet and her friend were waving at him. Violet.

"Hey, Violet, you work for the tailor, right?"

"It's my dad."

"Can I speak to him?"

"Depends for what."

"Secret project."

The back shop was modest and Violet's dad spoke very little, Erwin thought he could trust him. He told him about the contest, the dough, the mushroom and the temperature for the dough to rise.

"I see. What dimensions?"

"The bigger the better."

"Where will you let it rest?"

"I don't know yet."

"The mayor can help you. Do you know him?"

"No, I have only been living here for three months."

"Charles, your boss, certainly does."

"I'd like to keep this between you and me for now." If they involved Charles, Ida would jump in too.

"I see. Liz, Violet's dance teacher, knows the mayor well. Let me talk to her."

Erwin left, excited.

"Here comes our hero." Peyton said as Erwin entered the kitchen. What was Peyton doing in the kitchen? "Cookies revisited with candied violets, great idea. What's the other ingredient you used, I couldn't figure?"

Did Peyton nose around?

"It's all in my notebook, I'll show you later." Erwin tried not to show he was irritated.

"How about the size? No-one cares about the taste." Luke was standing in a corner of the kitchen, with arms crossed and tense traits. Was he angry?

"I know. I'm still figuring this out."

"Glad you're making progress, Erwin." Luke forced a smile and glanced at Ida. She looked down.

"Is that your phone ringing?" Peyton said. Erwin excused himself and walked out.

"Erwin, it's the mayor here. Liz told me you needed a large space for your secret project. I've given her the keys, she'll meet you in the afternoon to show you the warehouse. She also said you'd need media coverage - I've reached out to the press, they'll come for an interview on Thursday. Whatever your project is, good luck!"

Wow, Liz sounded smart. Erwin walked back into the now empty kitchen, Ida was busy serving clients in the shop. If Liz was to come soon, Erwin needed to incorporate the mushroom to his dough and figure how it would all work out. He slipped his hand behind the cabinet to fetch the book. He unwrapped the newspaper. The inflating mushroom had disappeared.