The Magic of Jelly Tarts

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Kristy Khem
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The Magic of Jelly Tarts

Post by Kristy Khem »

Prologue

The Mayflour Bakery was sandwiched between the old bookstore that rarely got any customers and the flower shop that always scented the air with roses. The bakery had lasted for as long as anyone could remember and although it had changed owners over the years, the pies were always fresh and the bread was just as soft and tasty as it had always been. It catered to both magical folk and ordinary people, but the regular folk had no idea that the shop had a magical side.

Rain or shine, the bakery attracted a wide range of customers daily, from indecisive children to old, crotchety women who always complained about the prices. Many respectable bakers, pastry chefs, and salespeople had worked within its walls, but the bakery had never seen the likes of one clumsy and absentminded assistant witch by the name of Gwendolyn Krieve.

Chapter 1: Rough Morning

Gwen huffed and puffed as she quickly made her way up the street to the Mayflour Bakery on Saturday morning. While everyone else was going to the cinema and to the park to enjoy the nice weather, Gwen had to go to work to pay off her university tuition. Gwen lamented over her non-existent social life and sighed inwardly as she arrived at her destination. The sweet smells of hot cakes mingling with freshly roasted almonds hit her nose as she opened the back door to the kitchen. Her mood immediately lifted but shot back down again at the sudden appearance of Mr. Hull, the old wizard who worked as the baker.
“You’re late Miss Krieve. Again,” came his greeting.

He threw an apron at her which she tried to catch, but failed. As it fell to the floor, the apron snagged the handle of an enchanted wooden spoon that had been mixing nuts into a bowl of muffin mix. Gwen cringed as the spoon clattered to the floor and splattered Mr. Hull with the sticky mixture. Mr. Hull’s jaw ticked and his gray eyebrows knitted together in frustration. Glaring at her, he used his wand to clean his clothes.

“Get to work and start filling those jelly tarts!” he barked. “Do it by hand this time, since the last filling spell you did ended up in disaster,” he added sourly.

Gwen pulled a face behind his back as he walked off towards the ovens. Her spell had gone awfully wrong the last time and customers had complained that the engorged tarts had squirted strawberry jelly up their noses every time they took a bite.

Several hours later, Gwen had managed to fill two batches of tarts, one set for non-magic customers and one set that was spiked with a potion for the magical folk. She scored a dozen loaves of bread, mixed five bowls of cookie dough, and packaged sixty sandwiches. However, she had also knocked over a large container of flour, burned a batch of muffins, and mixed up the chicken and vegetarian sandwiches. Mr. Hull had finally lost it and sent the clumsy witch to the front of the shop to help Simone, the saleswoman.

“Rough morning?” Simone asked as she noticed that Gwen’s short, brown hair was dusted with flour and she had a soot smudge on one cheek.

“Yeah. I’m not cut out for this job, but I really need it. I wish I was better at magic. And I wish I had a life. Or even a boyfriend,” Gwen vented glumly as she picked a sliver of lettuce off her blouse.

Chapter 2: “I love you”

The wind chimes tinkled loudly and a pair of customers entered the Mayflour Bakery. It was a young couple and they were clearly in love. Arms linked, they puttered around the shelves of bread and pastries.
“Honey look! Don’t these palmier cookies look like little hearts?” came the woman’s voice.
Gwen rolled her eyes and exchanged glances with Simone.

“Does everyone else have a life besides me? I can’t even get a guy to look in my direction,” she whispered as she feigned a smile at the pair when they came to the counter to cash their purchases. Simone chuckled at Gwen.

Several customers came in right after and Mr. Hull also appeared with two trays of freshly baked jelly tarts. He ordered Gwen to lay them out properly. She picked up the tray of spiked magical tarts and headed towards the special shelves which were magically concealed from the non-magical folk. She leaned down, balanced the tray in one hand, and began to arrange the tarts on the shelf marked “Magical Raspberry Sweetheart Tarts”. Then she set to work laying out the ordinary jelly tarts on a shelf on the other side of the store.

“I want one of those!” remarked a little boy with glasses. He came up to Gwen, pointing at the sugary tarts.

“Sure!” she said and packed one in a brown paper bag for him before directing him to the counter so he could pay. Gwen spotted the eight-year-old munching on his tart as he started to leave, then he turned and waved goodbye to her. Then he stopped and a dreamy expression came over him.

“You’re so pretty. I love you,” he said.

Gwen froze and the color drained from her cheeks. Oh no, thought Gwen. Simone overheard and leaned over the counter.

“Gwen…please don’t tell me you mixed up those tarts!” she hissed quietly, so as not to alert the other customers in the store.

Gwen smiled nervously, but she did not know what to do. She knew the consequences could be terrible if a non-magic person ingested a potion, more so a child.

Just then, a harassed-looking woman barged into the bakery. “Brian! There you are! Why did you run off without telling me? Dad’s waiting for us at the airport! We’ll be late for our flight! Come on quickly!” she exclaimed, then grabbed the boy’s hand and marched him out of the bakery.

Chapter 3: Simone saves the day

“Simone! Help me! What should I do? Mr. Hull will fire me! What if something happens to the little boy? What if he dies? Oh my, I’m a murderer!” she wailed, running to her friend in tears as soon as the other customers left.

Simone hugged her. “Shh. Mr. Hull won’t find out. Besides, we don’t know anything for sure. Those tarts are small. I’m sure the love potion will wear off in no time and the child will be fine. Let’s just fix the mix-up before anyone else eats them,” she said.

Gwen sniffled while Simone helped her to rectify the awful mistake.

Epilogue

As the days passed, Gwen managed to stress less and less about what had transpired. Simone had convinced her that everything was fine. Mr. Hull never found out, but he noticed that Gwen was blessedly more careful and less clumsy than she usually was. By the time the semester ended, Gwen had put the tart incident behind her. After graduation, she got a new job, leaving behind The Mayflour Bakery and her memories there, although she still met up with Simone to swap spells and have tea.

Strangely enough, Gwen’s past caught up with her fifteen years later when a young man wearing glasses showed up on her doorstep with a bouquet of scarlet roses and a box of jelly tarts from The Mayflour Bakery, which unsurprisingly never went out of business. He introduced himself as Brian and claimed that he was completely and irrevocably in love with her.

The End.

~ by Kristy Khem
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Abdo Sonbol
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Post by Abdo Sonbol »

A very delicate and poetic story, I feel that harmony in your few wonderful words.

best wishes. :)
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Kristy Khem
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Post by Kristy Khem »

Abdo Sonbol wrote: 04 Jun 2021, 10:57 A very delicate and poetic story, I feel that harmony in your few wonderful words.

best wishes. :)
Thank you for reading and commenting on my story. I'm glad it resonated with you!
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Reader-247
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Post by Reader-247 »

The title, the name of the bakery, the scene setting and overall writing-everything is very creative. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your story :)
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Kristy Khem
Previous Member of the Month
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Joined: 20 Feb 2018, 13:22
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Post by Kristy Khem »

Reader-247 wrote: 15 Jun 2021, 15:42 The title, the name of the bakery, the scene setting and overall writing-everything is very creative. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your story :)
I'm so happy you enjoyed it! Thank you for reading and leaving a comment :D
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