By: Ellie Zhang
Mornings are now the same hue as the dusky night air in Bidmusk. Everything else is the same— everyone’s actions were repetitive, the same day after day. No one really expressed their emotions, as there is nothing exciting. Nothing is possible at Bidmusk, people keep saying. They only imagine what can happen but never have the desire to try. But there was one girl who thought anything was possible.
Little Audrey was sure that anything could happen if people just tried hard. Every day, she has something new to try. She listed all the “impossible” things in a small spiral notebook. Audrey rolled over from the couch to the coffee table, where she always kept her notebook after writing in it. She flipped to the very last page, where she had one more “impossible” task. It read,
“Be the first person in Bidmusk to eat chocolate.”
At that moment, Audrey hesitated. She thought for a moment. People say that chocolate doesn’t exist here…She was feeling a little doubt that this task was even possible. Everything else she tried was all things you can try a lot of times until it’s possible, like cooking beef in under 1 minute, which requires very quick hands to make the beef faster, and flying, which requires building a machine or type of parachute with the right materials. There is absolutely no chocolate anywhere in Bidmusk, and no one knows the recipe for it.
After Audrey nearly gave up, she got an idea. There was a local desert store just three blocks down from her home. Without hesitation, she snatched her dusty rose shoulder bag from the coat hanger and ran out the door. Her hair drifted in the air like a cape while Audrey sustained her running until she reached the dessert shop.
Bringggg! The antique doorbell rang when Audrey stepped in the Desert shop. “Well, hello there young….Audrey!”
It took a moment for Pete to notice it was her. Without responding, she came up to the counter and asked where to get the chocolate recipe.
“Don’t know, never knew, never will,” Pete responded with ease. Audrey frowned. It seemed like it was really impossible.
“Well, it does exist…might as well exist here. Even though it doesn’t. Who knows? It could be in the forest or somewhere…”
He drifted off. There was no one in front of the counter, as Audrey had already run off into a forest when Pete had figuratively said to go there.
Audrey literally ran off right into a forest before the sunset. She had run all day! The vines and plants tangled and blocked her, like a sign not to go there. Audrey ignored it anyway.
After she struggled through the vegetation, she finally found something that she had never seen.
Brushing aside the tall weeds, Audrey saw branches with big brown nuts hanging from them— a whole shocking path of them! Audrey was so astonished and immediately took as many nuts as she possibly could. She pulled them off of the branches and stuffed them into her dusty rose shoulder bag. She stuffed some more into the side of her shoes, socks, pocket, and mouth. Then, Audrey couldn’t wait to show everyone what she found!
Bidmusks weren’t even touched by her new discovery. Audrey could tell by the looks on their grumpy faces. But Audrey honestly didn’t care. She just cared that she was the one to find it. She took her nuts out of her shoulder bag and every other place she stored them onto the good ol’ coffee table. Audrey quickly examined it, just in case it was some poisonous fruit or a huge raisin.
Could it have been what she needed? There was only one way to find out.
Doing everything she could, Audrey first washed the nuts and placed them into a bowl. She wanted to use all of the kitchen tools–they looked a lot of fun to her. She tried roasting the nuts in the stove, where she looked first, not knowing the dangers. Curious, Audrey wanted to see what was inside the nuts. She grabbed tweezers and cracked all the nuts open. It was fun for her. A machine her dad bought not long ago was inside the kitchen cabinet, which Audrey took out and used. It had two spinning wheels inside, which looked like a grinder. She put all the nuts inside the machine and pressed random buttons like a keyboard.
After the machine buzzed, Audrey came to remove the bowl of nuts. What she saw was so remarkable! The bowl was filled with a creamy, smooth, brown, liquidy fondue. Audrey was mouth-watering, and she almost lost focus. She left the brown fondue there to cool to see if anything would happen, as Audrey had no more tools left to use.
When it was midnight and dark, Audrey came out of her bed to see what happened. The brown frosting had become…CHOCOLATE! She hadn’t realized until taking a lick. It felt like a dream. She accomplished her final task…but kept it a secret. Anyone could steal her credit if anyone was told it. She would be the only person in Bidmusk ever to know the chocolate recipe.