The Cookie Story

He scratched his nose they had been guarding the cookie jar for over five millennia without as much as a mouse threatening to take the cookie. ‘What is the cookie” he wondered absently. All he knew was that his family had to guard the cookie jar from attack or the paranoid cookie king would have them disemboweled. “Perhaps it is some secret of crucial strength,’ he though to himself. Before turning back to the more crucial matter of whether the imps or goblins would win the universe series of genie toss. He checked his watch. Five O Clock. It was time to take the cookie jar to the king’s chambers and assure him that all was well. He set out to the kings palace, reached the thrown room, and knelt, holding the cookie jar high above his head. The king observed him with an objective eye. “I think you have eaten my cookie,” he said finally.
“Sir no of coarse not sure, never sir,” the guard babbled wondering why he would eat a cookie, “I would never eat a cookie.”
“A cookie, a cookie,” the king was mumbling more to himself then to Cookie Guard 542.
“SO,” bellowed the king, “you have not only eaten my last cookie, the most scrumptious choclate chip there ever was, you have compounded your crime by trying TO MAKE MORE!.”
“N-No” stammered the befuddled cookie guard.
“YOU HAVE,” declared the king, now screaming and advancing towards the still kneeling cookie guard, “AND YOU HAVE DISGRACED THE NAME OF THIS KINGDOM FOREVER. He waved his hand towards the guards neck and revealed a sharply honed dagger. The guard dodged, but just barley. The fight went on for many minutes. The guard rolled over onto his back to avoid a blow to the neck, and the deadly weapon sliced his right leg right under the knee. The guards say white blaze before his eyes and curled into a ball in a futile attempt to lessen to pain and shock. The king stood over him with the knife raised for the fatal blow. “You know too much,” he said as he prepared to impale his fallen victim. Suddenly guard 542 noticed the cookie jar was slightly open. He thrust his hand into the cookie jar, and grabbing the first thing he could find, jabbed it into his mouth.
Pure bliss. Sweet triangles melted in his mouth as crust crunched between his teeth. The guard jumped up, and the king, propelled by his own momentum, fell as the knife missed its target. He lay on the floor, impaled by his own knife. Cooke guard 542 looked down at the dead king with a sickened expression, and turned away. Picking up the now empty cookie jar he vowed, “I will make more cookies, I will find a way, I am…,” he realized he had no name, “I am Cedric,” he said, making one up on the spot, “and I will bring about the return of the cookies!”


PART TWO

I would like to say that Cedric marched off the palace grounds and rapidly became a famous man, but it is not so. He wandered the realm poor and desolate. To his credit he remained ever determined to resurrect the cookie. His missing leg meant finding honest work was difficult and he was shunned as a burden to society. He found work with a small family of a farmer, earning only bread and board.
Cedric stood in the drafty kitchen, leaning on the makeshift countertop, kneading the dough for the bread with one and cracking eggs with the other. He watched two children who lived in the household play with some sugar on the floor. Suddenly his gaze was obscured by a thick white cloud. After coughing a few times, he realized the children had thrown the sugar bag at him. He chased them around the kitchen good-naturedly a few times before returning to his cooking. Unfortunately the sugar had gotten all into the dough and several of the eggs had cracked making a big, sticky mess. Cedric wearily pulled the shell bits from the mess and hoped nobody would notice.
That night during dinner, everybody found the bread scrumptious. The old farmer offered Cedric a small salary in addition to his food and board if he were to make it for the family often. Tempting as Cedric found this offer, he remembered his quest to bring cookies back to the land. Late that night, while the family slept, he experimented with eggs, dough, sugar, cinnamon, and other objects in the household. It was three thirty when Jonathan came down for some milk.
“What ya doin?” he asked when he saw Cedric up to his elbows in sugar.
“Shhhh,” hissed Cedric, fully aware that he could be sent out onto the streets for wasting this much food, “I’m baking.”
“What ya baking,” Jonny had totally ignored the warning to be quiet. Cedric ushered him closer and gave him a taste of his latest experiment.
“That tastes great.” Jonny was actually whispering now. Cedric smiled at the boy, fetched him some milk and sent him up to bed.
From that night on Jonny and Cedric would sometimes work in the wee hours of the morning. Mixing and tasting very concoctions made from the families small food supply. Jonny grew into a sturdy young man and one day announced he was to leave the house and seek his fortune in the wider world. Cedric grieved over this, for it was a harsh land often subject to attack and tyranny since the downfall of the king. Jonathan left the house the next day, and for years Cedric worried for the boy who had become like a younger brother to him. For the first time since the death of the cookie king Cedric forgot about making cookies and dutifully served the farmers family.
One day during a trip to town to buy supplies he by chance looked at the palace where he had once lived. He thought he saw something strange on the door. He walked closer to take a second look and was greeted by a man with a large grin. The man spoke in a voice he barley recognized, “Cedric my friend, I see you have noticed my business. .” Cedric looked again at the sign in front if the castle door and read, “Jonathan’s bakery: Cookies half price today. He smiled at the man in front of him and saw the once childish features of the boy he had watched playing with sugar so long ago. He smiled. “Oh Jonny, thank you I could never have returned the cookies on my own. Cedric returned to the farmers house to inform the family and they returned to the castle and ran a very successful cookie business. Jonathan and Cedric had many adventures together but those are for another story.