The Candymakers and the Great Chocolate Chase

  She walked in a daze toward the Harmonicandy Room. She wasn’t surprised about the little boy’s mom not being able to care for him for a while. After all, Daisy’s grandmother had pretty much raised her—was still raising her. She knew the adult spies did very important work, and someday she would, too. Protecting identities was their number one priority. She wouldn’t press her mom for more details. She was grateful for what she’d gotten. And at least she finally knew why she always wanted to hug that tree!

  The factory was supposed to be off-limits to picnic-goers, but many of the workers had brought their families in for tours. Daisy got a lot of hellos and high fives, which helped her pull herself out of her own head and be present at this special occasion. As she passed the Taffy Room, Fran whipped a piece of purple taffy at her. Daisy caught it with one hand. “Thanks!” she said, popping it into her mouth.

  “You know there’s always a summer job waiting for you here,” Fran replied.

  Daisy nodded. “I may take you up on that one day!” She got as far as the lobby before her vid com went off again. She answered by saying, “Hold your horses, Philip. I’ll be there in two minutes.”

  “No horses,” Grammy replied. “Just a couple of pelicans.”

  Daisy grinned. “Sorry! Hi, Grammy. I see you’re back in your waterfall.”

  “I took your advice and wet my hair. Better?”

  “Much. What’s up? I’m at the candy factory.” It felt so good to be able to say that instead of hiding her visits from her grandmother. Once Daisy had gotten back from the road trip, she’d told her grandmother everything—about the trip, and Paradise, too. She hadn’t seen Grammy in over a month at that point, and she didn’t want to spend the next five years, until she was eighteen, lying. Grammy hadn’t been thrilled, but she hadn’t been surprised, either. In the end all she’d said was “Sounds like a successful mission.”

  “I figured you were at the factory,” Grammy said now. “Unless you’ve installed a chocolate fountain in your bedroom without telling me.”

  “Nope.”

  “I’ll be brief, since clearly Philip is anxiously awaiting your arrival.”

  Daisy felt her cheeks reddening. Maybe telling Grammy about her friends had been a little hasty.

  “Do you remember that before you left for your mission at Camp Tumbleweed I told you I was considering a big mission for you when you got back?”

  Daisy nodded. She’d been thinking about that recently but had been afraid to ask. She was enjoying her time off. “Mom told me we have a family mission out west. Is that it?”

  Grammy shook her head. “If you take this mission, you’ll skip that one. Marissa or Clarissa will step in for you.”

  A stand-in daughter? “Why wouldn’t I go?”

  “Because you’ve been accepted here.” Her grandmother pressed a button on her screen, and a typewritten letter appeared.

  Daisy’s eyes widened when she read the letterhead. “The Unit? The best spy school in the country? You sent in an application for me?”

  “I did.”

  Daisy couldn’t believe it. “You’d let me go to boarding school two thousand miles away?”

  “It’s not my first choice,” her grandmother admitted, returning to the screen. “But I think it would be good for you to be with kids whose lives are similar to yours. And before you say anything, no, it’s not to keep you away from the candy factory kids. You’d still be home on vacations and for summers, and you’d still get to do some gigs, although you’d get graded on those.”

  Her eyes opened wider. “Graded on missions?”

  Grammy nodded. “The spies who did your Camp Tumbleweed dead drop got an A on the project.”

  “What?! That crazy scytale thing? And the fake bear poop? And the birdhouse?”

  “Yup. Extra points for creativity.”

  “So if I went there, I’d meet them?”

  “Yes.”

  Daisy had a thought. “How old do you have to be to go there?”

  “It accepts boys and girls between ten and seventeen.”

  And maybe mystery brothers, she thought.

  “You don’t have to decide now,” Grammy assured her.

  “That’s good,” Daisy said, relieved.

  “You have till tonight.” Her grandmother winked, patted a pelican on its head, and hung up.

  LOGAN returned to his room after dropping off a gift on Avery’s desk. He’d forgotten to get him a postcard from “someplace supercool,” as Avery had requested (Paradise didn’t have a gift shop!), so he’d painted him a picture of the River of Light with the red-and-green sky above it. On the bottom, he’d written the poem Miles had given him on the trip, about returning home and seeing it—and life—with new eyes.

  He hoped the heat in the Tropical Room wouldn’t make the paint run before Avery got to see it. The painting had taken him three weeks to do, since the paintbrush kept slipping. He found it didn’t help to put something sticky on his hand first, because he had to keep shifting the angle of the brush to paint. Still, he was proud of how it had turned out. It had a lot more detail than the map his grandfather had made, which now hung on his wall next to the painting Daisy had sent at the beginning of summer. His mom had suggested they research the artist—Ava Simon—but they hadn’t been able to turn anything up on her. They decided he had a one-of-a-kind piece of art that was probably worth a lot of money. Not that he’d ever sell it.

  His walkie-talkie crackled, and his father’s voice came through. “They’ve reached a decision! They’re going to call a meeting in a few minutes. Stay tuned.”

  “Roger that!” Logan said, fumbling for the button. Finally!

  Old Sammy—the long-time president of the Confectionary Association—and the other judges and committee members of the New Candy Contest had been in heated debate over the future of the Harmonicandy. As soon as they’d returned from the road trip, Logan, Philip, and Miles had gathered all the people who’d attended the Harmonicandy’s first tasting when it came off the conveyor belt. It wasn’t easy, but they explained how they’d used the old batch of Magic Bar chocolate by mistake, and therefore using the factory’s current chocolate supply would break the contest rules. They couldn’t tell the part about Henry giving Philip the bowl of chocolate, or anything about Paradise, which made it really hard to convince them.

  Openly upset, the Candymaker and Max had insisted that maybe they could find more of the old beans, but Randall was quick to put that argument to rest. He’d been around in the days of the Magic Bar, and something in his eyes told the boys he knew at least a little bit about what had happened back then.

  Once the situation was brought to the Confectionary Association’s attention, they’d agreed that Philip would, regrettably, have to step down as winner, but they had to debate whether or not Life Is Sweet would still have the right to produce the candy. Essentially, every candy company that had sent competitors to the contest would have to agree to it, and that would be very tough.

  Even though no part of the apartment looked out on the great lawn in the back, Logan could hear the cheers and the music through the walls. He’d waited seven years for the picnic, and he couldn’t believe it was finally happening. He grabbed one of his grandfather’s old notepads and slid it in his back pocket. He liked keeping it close. Frank’s original letter had proven true—seeing his grandfather’s trials and errors really did make him feel better. It showed how every time you learn what doesn’t work, you get closer to what does.

  To keep his mind off the Harmonicandy situation, he’d been experimenting with the Bubbletastic ChocoRocket recently. The chocolate-to-gum part was really quite simple—the sugar and gum base (made from chicle harvested from his favorite sapodilla tree) went in the dehumidifier, which pulled out the moisture overnight and turned it into powder. He then added cocoa powder and corn syrup and pressed the mixture into the shape of a rocket. He’d already done those steps for the contest, although not as well. So he could turn the chocolate in
to gum, but every attempt to turn it back to chocolate had failed. He couldn’t extract the chicle back out. It just wasn’t within the laws of nature.

  Finally he realized something that on some level he’d known all along—life moved in only one direction. Forward. He’d never been one to look back, ever. So why did he want his candy to do it? Besides, he had his sights set on another candy, one he’d have to figure out how to mass-produce—what equipment would be necessary, what kind of packaging to use, basically all the questions a real candymaker would have. He could tell that Philip’s grandmother was caving a little each time he spoke to her. Which was every day. If he’d learned anything from Philip, it was to go after what he wanted, if it was important enough.

  “It’s time!” the walkie-talkie announced. “Gather your friends and meet us in the Harmonicandy Room. Over and out.”

  Logan didn’t need to be told twice! Whatever the answer, at least it would finally be over. He ran out of the apartment and was halfway down the main hallway before he realized he didn’t have his vid com with him. He’d have to find his friends the old-fashioned way—by actually looking for them!

  Running through the factory wasn’t as exciting when he knew Henry wasn’t there to tell him to stop running. He’d been in touch with people from the factory who had marshmallow-related questions, but he still wouldn’t tell anyone Henry’s whereabouts. When they were feeling optimistic, they told themselves he’d found a doctor somewhere to fix his eyes, or maybe he’d gone to visit Frank. When feeling pessimistic, they feared he’d gone completely blind and couldn’t come to work.

  Out of habit, Logan glanced into the Marshmallow Room as he approached it, then stopped short. Marshmallow production had continued in Henry’s absence, but none of the candymaking machines were running today because of the picnic. But the door was open, and only one man had the key during off-hours.

  “Henry!”

  Henry stood by the largest of the Bunsen burners, his back to the door. He turned at the sound of his name, and Logan’s heart plummeted. Henry wasn’t wearing glasses, but Logan knew it wasn’t because he didn’t need them. His eyes were completely glazed over and unfocused. An angry purple bruise burst across one cheek. Both knees had bandages on them. For a moment, neither of them spoke.

  “Has anyone seen you yet?” Logan asked.

  Henry shook his head. “Only the nice nurse who walked me in. She’s waiting out back. Probably cheering on a duck.”

  “Don’t move,” Logan commanded. “Don’t you move, Henry. I’ll be right back.”

  He ran from the room, then stuck his head back in. “I mean, you can move, but just don’t leave the room, okay?” He ran away again without waiting for a reply. Grabbing his walkie-talkie off his waist, he called his dad. “I still have to find everyone, so it’s going to be a little while.”

  “Old Sammy’s not getting any younger,” his father said. “And I’d like to get back outside. Your mother’s here, and it’s almost our turn for the three-legged race!”

  “Roger that,” Logan said. “Over and out.”

  As soon as he got outside and saw that the great rubber duck race was beginning, he knew where to find Miles, at least. He and his new cousin, Jade, had been talking about the race for days. They’d each picked out a duck earlier and had been carrying them around and whispering to them all day. “Trying to build its confidence,” Miles had told him, as if the ducks were real instead of made from bright yellow rubber.

  Even more people had come to the picnic than had attended the Kickoff. That was more for candy insiders, while this event was intended for the Spring Haven community. Logan loved seeing the shopkeepers from town and all the workers’ kids and families. It was very tempting to stop and join a potato-sack race, or to make a s’more at the Some More S’mores campfire, or to measure himself against the tallest sunflower, which had indeed grown higher than his head, but he was on a mission.

  While dodging a game of chess played with giant chess pieces, he nearly tripped over a bench near the strawberry fields. He bent down to rub his leg and saw something sticking in the dirt. A discarded candy wrapper, no doubt. But knowing that his mom hated trash, he didn’t want to give her any reason to cancel the picnic in future years.

  “Huh?” he said as he picked it up. It wasn’t trash at all, but a six-of-diamonds playing card. He turned it over. The Great Shoudini! The fancy letters, though faded and dirty from mud, were unmistakable. Evy had been here! She’s who Henry was out meeting that night before the road trip. That’s why she knew about his eyes. Logan sped up again.

  “Go, ducky, go!” Jade’s cheers blended in with the shouts of the huge crowd gathered on the banks of the pond. She jumped up and down, her bare feet squishing in the shallow water. MILES jumped right along with her, backpack bouncing, while both sets of parents looked on with delight. The ducks had left the starting line of the great duck race a while ago, and on such a clear, windless day, it was going to be a long time before any of them reached the other side. Miles popped a sample of a new candy, temporarily named You’ve Never Tasted Peanut Butter Like THIS, into his mouth. Hmm, delicious!

  A lot had changed in the three weeks since AJ dropped Miles off back home. He’d spent most of the first night staring up at the stars and remembering the view of the Milky Way and the billowing waves of the aurora. It comforted him to know that even though he couldn’t see it from Spring Haven, the vast universe of stars and planets was still up there, even in the daytime, reminding him he was a part of something huge, something that maybe went on forever.

  The maps that covered his walls also gave him a sense of the hugeness of the world. When Frank had told him he could pick out whichever ones he wanted, Miles had thought he must be kidding. But Frank just stepped aside and said, “Take them. Love them. Do whatever you like with them. So many maps wind up forgotten in basements of universities and libraries. If you take them, I know that won’t happen.” While Miles picked through the bounty, Frank gazed on, clearly pleased. “I envy you,” he said. “You and the other mapmakers of the future. With new telescopes to see the biggest things, and new microscopes to see the smallest, you’ll be at the forefront of amazing discoveries. You’ll get to map time and space! The brain! The atom!” Miles had hugged him for a long, long time until Frank reminded him how late it was and ushered the kids out.

  Every night since he’d left Paradise, he’d traced the lines of Smoranthia, which covered most of one wall in his room. He tacked up the small pencil drawing Henry had given him beside it. He realized he’d had an original Frank Griffin map all those months! He knew he’d donate them both to a museum someday, on the condition that they wouldn’t end up in the basement.

  On their last night in the RV, the others had helped him hatch a plan for the best way to break the news to his dad that he had a brother. He’d considered bringing his dad out onto the garage roof because they always had good talks out there. But what if his dad fell off in shock? Probably better not to risk it.

  His next thought was to invite Arthur and his family over to the house, but that could be really awkward, since his dad would have nowhere to go if he was upset. Daisy suggested geocaching, but his dad hadn’t been overly excited about it the last time he and Arthur took him, so that was out, too.

  Logan was the one who suggested Miles find a neutral place, somewhere both men felt comfortable. And so it was that during the seventh-inning stretch of the Spring Haven Pirates versus the Willow Falls Hawks, the two men embraced as brothers for the first time. Since then there’d been a flurry of meetings, dinners, pictures, stories, and tears. And now, the Life Is Sweet annual picnic!

  “There you are,” Logan said, reaching them through the crowd lined up ten rows deep on the banks of the pond.

  “Do they have a decision?” Miles asked hopefully.

  “Yes!” Logan shouted over all the people cheering for their duck. “But that’s not all. He’s back! Henry’s back!”

  Miles grabbed L
ogan’s arm. “He is? Finally! Let’s go!” He told Jade that he had to attend to candy business but that if his duck won, she could keep his two dollars and they would buy Pepsicles with them. The girl was insane for Pepsicles. That turned her frown upside down very quickly.

  Every one of Miles’s senses lit up as they ran across the great lawn toward the factory. The smells of chocolate, spun sugar, corn dogs, and ripe fruit filled the air, along with the dance music coming from hidden speakers. Hundreds of balloons and colored lights hung from tree branches. Kids (and parents) laughed with glee when Paulo from the Bee Room fell into a dunk tank full of powdered sugar. Potato-sack races ran all day, along with contests to see who could make their High-Jumping Jelly Bean jump the highest and (for those eighteen and over) who could keep a Fireball Supernova in their mouth the longest.

  When they reached the back door and the crowds had thinned, Logan stopped Miles. “Do you have your vid com? Can you tell Philip and Daisy to meet us at the Marshmallow Room as soon as they can?”

  Miles nodded and reached around to his backpack. Before fishing out the vid com, though, he pulled out a small brown notebook tied with a rubber band. He had planned on giving this to Logan at the end of the day, but no time like the present. The larger item hidden in his backpack was for Daisy. The afterlife map had been hers all along.

  He pressed the small notebook into Logan’s palm. “This was in Sam’s box. The contract was stuck inside it.”

  Logan held the notebook, surprised. Then he flipped the pages. “It’s all blank.”

  Miles shook his head. “Actually, if you look really close, you’ll see he’d written in it. Filled up all the pages. I think it talks about finding Paradise.” He’d tried to think of a better name for it but so far hadn’t been able to top the name it already had. At least he had his own geocaching handle now—and if Mr. Sweet approved of the spot, MiddleEarthBoy would soon be hiding his first cache inside the jug on the front porch of the factory!