Holy Cannoli

Arthur McArdle

12/11/2020

Grade 5

“Holy Cannoli”

In the small town of Cornal nothing ever happened. In fact you would come there to see  a relative and would be bored out of your mind playing with sticks outside in the cold wind - your fingers would freeze even in the summer. The only thing that ever happened was a tremendous festival on Christmas Eve held by the mayor. This year's festival of 1983 didn’t go as planned. 

In the middle of the festival everyone heard a scream of distress from the nearby bakery, “Piece of Cake”. The merry crowd was instantly surprised because the baker was always jolly selling her famous Christmas cookies. People rushed to see what the fuss was about. The baker explained to the town that nothing had happened and she just fell over, although it did not seem that she was telling the truth. Everyone left a little disappointed that there was no real drama, but pleased to know that our favorite baker was safe. But one man in a trench coat and a midnight black fedora was still keeping his stand. Before the baker emptied the gathering, he introduced himself with a tip of his hat to her as “Investigator Adam Livingstone”. 

He dashed in saying, “You didn't tell us the true story did you?” The baker looked at him nervously. “When did I ever give you permission to barge in here like that?”

“Seems there's been a robbery in here, correct?” The baker sighed and said yes in a dull voice, “how did you know?”

 “I saw the broken glass while I was coming in here,” the man went on looking for clues. He wondered why someone would want to rob a small bakery. The investigator asked the baker, “Did you see him, also was something stolen?”

“No but I’m guessing it's the bakery next door because they're just jealous of my cookies.”

“Oh so something was stolen then.”

“Did I ever say that?”

“Don’t worry, your secret is safe in my hands just tell me what's been stolen and I can help you.”

Even though Adam asked, she kept it secret.

 “Well if you think it's the bakery next door let's check it out then, shall we? But I can't promise you that's true because I was there earlier today. But first let’s have a nice cup of tea.” They had a nice cup of tea with a cookie. The cookie didn’t taste as he had expected them to be, but thought nothing of it at the time. They set off after they cleaned up all the broken glass scattered on the floor. 

They walked over to the second bakery. On the way they found a small girl in a cherry red coat, playing in the snow. The baker gave her a toy made of wood, with a cookie. The girl ate it, eager to have the nice taste of the baker's Christmas cookie. She took one bite and spat it right out. She did not like the disgusting taste of the monstrosity. She thanked them for the small wooden toy and started playing with it gratefully. They left and asked her for anything suspicious. She did not understand the words that they spoke so she ran home to tell her mum that she got a toy from the nice lady.

When they got to the second bakery, they realised the name of the bakery was, “Holy Cannoli.” It had been so long since the baker had last seen the bakery that she didn't remember the name of the bakery. The investigator walked in saying, “back for seconds?”. There was nothing suspicious but the increase in customers. They inspected the store seeing nothing but even more jolly customers flowing in the store like water flooding in the empty spaces. The investigator bought nothing but a Christmas cookie. He took one bite out of the cookie and it just tasted normal. Then, he took a bite of the chocolate chips and was amazed. A swirl of berries was going through his mouth. It was the best cookie he ever dreamed of. The baker asked him if he liked it and said yes then ordered two more. He then said,”Why did you steal the chocolate chips?”

“Sorry?” the baker said

“These cookies were never as good as they are now.”

“I know and it does seem suspicious how your bakery has been robbed as soon I began to get more, more, and more customers, but I have no idea why or how this is happening.”

“Just take a bite of what you say is your cookie and see what I mean.” The Baker took one bite and was also amazed just like Adam. “Well now I see what you mean. I've never baked any pastry better than this.”

“So what’s your name?” the investigator asked.

“My name is William and my assistant's name is Fred.” A young man in dirty clothes with a scar started walking over. The scar looked recent as if he had got it that morning.

“Hello good sir. What can I get you this fine day.” said Fred

“Just a cookie” asked Adam

The baker nudged him in the shoulder angrily.

“Nevermind,” said Adam.

“Okay then, anything?”

“Yes, actually. I’d like the thing that you stole as it’s quite obvious now. So what would you like Fred, Jail or a little less jail.” Fred dashed quickly, taking one ingredient.  The festival was incredibly loud. It seemed as if the entire town was singing, because they were. He went into the crowd stealing someone's scarf. But then, a girl in a cherry red coat dropped a familiar wooden toy. The girl held on to his leg as strongly as her frozen hands could bare. Fred tripped on the snowy ground of Cornal. The baker took the ingredient from him. “I never got to ask you what your name was” said Adam

“It’s C-Carol.” Everyone was stuttering

“Oh ya what was the s-s-secret ingredient”

“Vegan chocolate ch-ch-chips”

“ Oh and I forgot to tell you why Fred stole the chocolate. So the bakery wasn’t doing well meaning Fred wasn’t having long shifts, also meaning he was paid less. So he stole the chocolate to get a longer shift.”