The Candymakers and the Great Chocolate Chase Read online

  He fully expected to find the suitcase empty, but when he unzipped it and flipped the top open, the smell of chocolate was almost overwhelming. From the strength of it, he’d have thought the suitcase would be filled with the stuff! Instead, all he found was the corner of something white peeking out from an inside pocket. Logan gripped the corner firmly and pulled it all the way out. He smiled when he recognized his grandfather’s handwriting on the homemade card.

  The front of the card had a picture of a stick-figure boy drawn in crayon. An arrow pointing to the boy said Logan. Next to the boy his grandfather had drawn a tree with rainbow-colored, football-shaped fruit growing right out of the trunk. The pods were much bigger than they should be in comparison to the tree—more like watermelons than cocoa pods—and real cocoa pods weren’t rainbow colored, but Logan knew it was supposed to be a cocoa tree. Plus it read Chocolate… yum! underneath. Logan had only the faintest memory of seeing the card before. He traced his hand over the tree and tried to picture his grandfather holding on to the little crayons with his big hands.

  He figured he’d see a Get well soon message, or maybe even one of Grandpa’s practical jokes, like sneezing powder or some kind of flat rubber snake that sprang out when you opened the card. But the only words inside were the days of the week, written in a circle. Every day except Sunday had a small rip in the paper beneath it, like something had been stuck there and then peeled off.

  Logan turned the card over, but the back was blank. He laid it on his dresser. His mom would get a kick out of seeing it.

  It took only fifteen more minutes to find everything on his mother’s short list. He didn’t know how she expected him to get by on four changes of clothes. She must be planning on doing laundry along the way, because he could go through four outfits in a single day!

  The suitcase was barely half full. Hmm… it would take up the same amount of room in the van whether it was full or only half full. May as well add a few more things.

  First in was his latest batch of comic books, a sketchpad, and a pack of pencils. They hardly took up any space at all. He lifted his stuffed dinosaur off the shelf, tossed it into the suitcase, then snatched it back out. Somehow bringing a stuffed animal to sleep with didn’t exactly scream, “I’m mature enough to go on a road trip.” Still, it would be nice to have something that reminded him of home.

  He knew what to do. He yanked his pillowcase right off his pillow and ran toward the front door. First stop, the employee lounge, only to find the NQP shelf totally bare. “The groupies cleaned us out,” Randall explained, getting up from one of the round tables. He tossed out his apple core and joined Logan. “Can’t blame ’em. What do candy lovers love even better than their favorite candy?” Without waiting for an answer, he said, “Their favorite candy all messed up!”

  Logan laughed. That’s exactly why he was such a fan of the NQPs, too. He held out his pillowcase. “I’m loading up for the trip.”

  Randall nodded in approval. “Smart. Although I’m pretty certain your dad wouldn’t hit the road without plenty of candy within arm’s reach.”

  “True,” Logan agreed. “But you may have noticed my father’s not the best at sharing his personal candy with others.”

  Randall laughed. “Also true! Here, you can bribe him with this, if necessary.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Fireball Supernova, freshly packaged and ready to ship.

  Logan opened his pillowcase and Randall tossed it in. “Thanks!” He felt more grown up already, having a “for adults only” candy!

  “Hey,” Randall said as they headed out of the room together, “what was in that box I delivered this morning? If you don’t mind my asking.”

  Logan realized he hadn’t thought about the box at all after giving it to Miles. “It was a whole bunch of Grandpa’s old papers and journals. Miles is going through it for me. He even found a map or two, so he’s happy. He loves maps.”

  They were right outside the Cotton Candy Room now. As much as Logan loved his cotton candy (which was a lot), he knew it wouldn’t travel well. He inhaled deeply, then began to walk on, expecting Randall to stay in step. When he didn’t, Logan looked over his shoulder, ready to say his goodbyes. He had a lot of candy to collect, and the closing bell would ring in a few minutes. But Randall’s expression made him come to a full stop.

  “What is it?” he asked. “Do you smell something weird? Is it the grapefruit-flavored cotton candy? Takes some getting used to but tastes delicious, as you must know.”

  Randall shook his head. His face looked pale, or maybe it was just the lighting in the hall. “Who did you say sent the box?”

  “I didn’t say,” Logan replied, trying to picture the signature at the bottom of the letter. “But it was Franky, or Franco, then something with a G, I think.” He could swear Randall’s eye twitched.

  “Franklin Griffin?” Randall asked.

  “Yes, that was it,” Logan said, eager to be on his way. His dad took closing time very seriously. And if he waited until tomorrow to collect the candy, the visitors would likely have left only crumbs behind. “Gotta go,” he told Randall. “See ya in the morning.”

  “Okay,” Randall said, but still he didn’t move. Logan wondered why Randall cared who’d sent the box, but he wasn’t curious enough to ask—not when it could mean the difference between eating candy on the road and not eating candy on the road.

  By the time he got down to the Tropical Room twenty minutes later, Logan had collected samples of every candy currently in production except the Pepsicle and Some More S’mores. Those he put in a category with cotton candy in terms of their low odds for survival on the road. He temporarily stashed the bag in the large refrigerator in Avery’s office for safekeeping. It wouldn’t take long for everything to melt into one big blob of chocolate and sugar in the tropical heat.

  He headed to his destination—the aloe plants. He broke off a few of the spiky green stalks and stuck them gently into his back pocket before reaching for some more. He’d never had to plan ahead before, and he didn’t want to run out on the road and not have enough to put on his scars. He may have limited knowledge of life outside the factory, but he did know aloe plants didn’t grow on street corners.

  “G’day, road tripper!” Avery called out across the room.

  Logan scanned the treetops until he spotted Avery waving his blue bandana from the top of a cinnamon tree. Logan stuck the rest of the stalks in his other pocket and headed over. “You heard already?”

  “You know how fast news travel here,” Avery replied with a grin. “Especially good news. I knew before you did.” He stuck his knife into the holster on his belt and tossed down a burlap satchel, which landed beside the tree with a plop. Logan knew that at this time of day it would be filled with long ribbons of bark. The lower part of the tree was already bare. He watched Avery slide down the trunk, wishing as always that one day his parents would let him try climbing one of the trees.

  “You excited?” Avery asked as his feet touched the ground.

  Logan nodded enthusiastically. “So excited!”

  “It’s a big deal,” Avery said, gripping Logan’s shoulder. “Leaving home for the first time, facing the great unknown on the road. You could return a whole different boy. You could return a man!”

  Logan stopped nodding. “I didn’t think of it that way. I wasn’t nervous before, but maybe I should be?”

  “Nah,” Avery said. “You’ll do great. You’ll have all your best mates with you. What could go wrong?” He slung his satchel over his shoulder and sauntered off with a wave. “Send me a postcard from someplace supercool.”

  Logan waved back, but only halfheartedly. Unless a miracle happened and Daisy left her mission, he’d only have two out of three of those mates. But he knew Daisy never left a mission unfinished.

  A few minutes later, Logan stepped through the factory’s back door and inhaled the scent of chocolate from the vents that opened out onto the lawn. The scent blended with the smells of