Gwendolyn Gobstopper's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

Gwendolyn now knew the secret. The wish-candy needed her deepest longing, melted down with her own tears. But when she stood at her copper pot the next morning, she could not name that longing. She reached for it and grasped nothing. She melted sugar and waited to cry. No tears came. The batch cooled into a flat, dead disc. "I can't melt down a feeling I can't find," she said. The pot mocked her from the workbench. The bell jingled. Mademoiselle Cocoa Beans swept in, red curls escaping her clockwork top hat. She was Gwendolyn's friend and the finest chocolatier in the district, though she rarely finished a sentence. She plucked the dead disc off the bench and licked it. "Tastes like a locked drawer," she said. "You put in the sugar but forgot the ache. Where's the ache, hm?" "I don't know what I long for," Gwendolyn admitted. "I've spent seventeen years running this shop. I stopped wanting things. I just make them." Cocoa Beans set down her hat and studied the shelves. She pointed at a jar. "Whistling toffee. Your grandmother's favorite. Three pieces, wasn't it?" She spun back. "You don't talk about her. You talk about the recipe. Curious." Gwendolyn went still. Her grandmother had eaten three pieces of that first burned batch. She had laughed and told Gwendolyn to charge more. That was the last thing she ever heard her say. Gwendolyn had built the whole shop on that one afternoon and never let herself miss the woman who started it. "I don't want money," Gwendolyn whispered. "I don't want fame. I want one more hour with her. I want to hand her the toffee myself and watch her laugh again." Her eyes stung. A tear dropped onto the bench. Then another. "There it is!" Cocoa Beans cried, and clapped once, hard. "Quick, before it dries!" Gwendolyn lit the burner. She melted sugar and dropped in a single whistling toffee. She let herself remember the sound of her grandmother's laugh, the way she'd tapped the counter. The tears fell into the pot. The sugar turned clear and warm, like held light. It began to hum, low and steady, the same note as the toffee. She poured it into a mold and let it set. When she lifted the candy, it glowed faintly gold and hummed against her palm. She knew, without tasting, that it held her longing inside. The recipe worked. She had made the first wish-candy. Cocoa Beans peered at it. "Beautiful. And it cost you the wanting, you know." She tapped the mold. "You poured that hour into the sweet. Now it belongs to whoever eats it. Not you." She grinned, then paused. "One piece. Only one. So the question is—" She wandered toward the door, curls bouncing. "Whose wish?" Gwendolyn held the glowing candy. She had made it. But now she had a single wish in her hand, and no idea who deserved to eat it.