Elves, cookies & a moral dilemma. I promised I'd post this, just for fun. I'm sure it will never be published.
(Also, maybe it's not for younger children, unless you're ready to answer awkward questions.)
Matter of Taste
"Stupid commercials," Joielo, the elf in chief of pastry production, muttered to himself. It was bad enough that they had to move the real factory to a hidden grove, and turn the now famous "Magic Tree" into a gift shop. The hidden grove was twice as far for Joielo to walk to work in the morning. On top of that, the floating chocolate cookies were not moving off the shelves as well since the gnomes started marketing their Roaring Animal Crackers (TM), the ones which made realistic animal sounds as they were being eaten.
Joielo walked across the clearing and into the treeline where Research and Development was located. The CEOs had decided that in order to stay afloat they would need a new, exciting product. R and D was given the project, complete with a "sooner rather than later" deadline.
As he approached the hidden entrance he heard laughter from inside. He hoped it was a good sign.
"Okay troops," Joielo announced himself as he stepped into the burrow. "You have something to show me?"
Eonovelia, the head R and D elf, stood up from the round table where the elves were all seated, brushed her dark hair out of her face, then offered him a plate with several dark colored cookies on it. He took one and looked at it closely. Two hard dark disks, presumably chocolate, in between the two some kind of white frosting. Disappointing, he thought, another sandwich cookie. It had been done before, and this one didn't even look interesting.
He took a bite. It was a bit bland, which in itself was not a bad thing. Too often new products had such a complicated taste that many palates could not sort it all out. It would be best to avoid the Suncrackle (TM) disaster of last year. The taste of strawberry, cinnamon, vanilla, lime, coffee, mustard, marshmallow, butterscotch and chocolate was way beyond most non-elves.
As he was considering the taste of this new cookie, Joielo had an uncontrollable urge to belch. Before he could stifle it, or even get his sleeve up to his mouth, he burped, loudly. Out of his mouth came the most unexpected cloud of bright blue vapor.
All of the elves of R and D were laughing, loudly.
"What the . . ?" Joielo started to say, and burped again; fluorescent green.
The elves were falling out of their chairs. Eonovelia was hunched over the table, pounding it with her little fist.
Joielo waited somewhat patiently for them to finish laughing at him. It was annoying, but he could see the marketing angle. Young boys, he thought, especially around the age of ten, would love these cookies.
"What do you think?" Eonovelia finally managed to wheeze.
"You may have something here," He admitted. "Have you run it past marketing?"
"Of course," She said. "Regoa is all for it. We brought you here to see if there would be any problems in mass producing them . . ."
"Just tell me how you made them," Joielo started to brag.
" . . . And to remind you of your nondisclosure agreement."
"Nondisclosure agreement?" Joielo started to get a bad feeling in his stomach as he unsuccessfully tried to hold in a bright red belch.
"You signed an agreement," Eonovelia said carefully. "It would be bad for the company if anyone besides the few of us ever learned the particulars of how we made these cookies. Regoa doesn't even know."
"What did you put in these cookies?" Joielo said, looking hard at the cookie in his hand.
"Suffel root," She said, and the other elves broke into laughter again.
Suffel plants grow fast and thick, and soak up just about all of the moisture from the surrounding soil, which is why the company had planted two rows of suffel plants to be used by the employees as private areas. Joielo gulped as he realized. When he had been relieving himself the day before he had seen places where the ground beneath the suffel plants had been dug up, and filled back in. He had thought it was the work of the gardeners, thinning the roots.
He quickly put the rest of the cookie down on the table.
"You can't be serious!"
"Get over it," Eonovelia said, giving him a pat on the arm. "It's perfectly safe, and it's not like drinking the straight stuff. It’s a by-product of the plant."
"It doesn’t matter!" Joielo argued. "We can't feed this to people without their knowledge."
"If we tell them what it is," She was using a calm, soothing voice. "They won't try it, will they? Then we won't make our profit goals for this quarter. There would be cut-backs."
Eonovelia was staring him down. She appeared calm, but there was a definite implied threat to her stance. If he didn't do what the company wanted, they would not think highly of him. There was no way he could afford to lose his job now, not with Jzaereh, his oldest daughter, going to the University. It would be a good time for him to keep his mouth shut and do his job.
"There there," Eonovelia pushed a rolled parchment into his hand. "Just figure out how we can make these. Our office will supply all of the ingredient you need. It doesn't take much."
He was shuffled out of the burrow. Joielo walked slowly back to his office, overlooking the production line, holding the offending parchment under his arm. Once there he spent the rest of the afternoon looking at the formula and mapping out the assembly line. It would be a simple thing, the suffel root was just a minor ingredient. He could arrange the process to make it easy to hide. He rolled up the parchment and put it on the center of his desk.
It was just wrong.
At the end of the day, Joielo made his decision. He lit the parchment with the candle on his desk, and dropped it into the trash can as it turned to ashes. Then he went home, deciding not to visit the suffel plants on his way out.
Joielo did not sleep well that night. He kept sitting up in the darkness, wondering where he would end up and how he would pay his unpaid debts. When he shuffled back to work the next day he was beyond weary. But Joielo was determined to stand his ground, and be fired. That was the way it had to be.
When he walked into his office he was surprised to find Eonovelia frantically rummaging through his desk.
"What are you doing?" He demanded.
"We must hide it," She squeaked. "We have to get rid of it. They're sending inspectors. Talk about the wrong time for them to be found out, now they'll come after us all."
"Start over," Joielo said, sitting at his desk. "What are you talking about?"
"Don't you watch the news?" She demanded. He had to leave for work earlier, and no longer had the time to catch the morning news.
When he shrugged, she continued. "The news broke this morning that one of the ingredients of Roaring Animal Crackers (TM) is gnome spit. The gnome factory has been shut down, and inspectors are being sent to all of the cookie factories, including ours."
Joielo sat back in his chair and did something which caught poor Eonovelia completely by surprise. He started laughing.
Several investigators were at the factory for more than a week. They didn’t find anything untoward. There was nothing to be found. On the other hand, there was the strange occurrence in R and D. The inspectors arrived to find several of the elves looking rather sheepish and burping up colored smoke. There was never a satisfactory explanation. After the initial week of inspection, they established a full time office in the elven cookie factory.
Other inspectors did, however, find something at the fairy snack cake factory. The key ingredient, so they found, in the cream filling of Tummy Giggles (TM) golden snack cakes, was fairy milk.
The inspectors announced it with a look of distaste on their faces. The sales of Tummy Giggles (TM) doubled in less than a week.
Hope you enjoyed.
B5
(Also, maybe it's not for younger children, unless you're ready to answer awkward questions.)
Matter of Taste
"Stupid commercials," Joielo, the elf in chief of pastry production, muttered to himself. It was bad enough that they had to move the real factory to a hidden grove, and turn the now famous "Magic Tree" into a gift shop. The hidden grove was twice as far for Joielo to walk to work in the morning. On top of that, the floating chocolate cookies were not moving off the shelves as well since the gnomes started marketing their Roaring Animal Crackers (TM), the ones which made realistic animal sounds as they were being eaten.
Joielo walked across the clearing and into the treeline where Research and Development was located. The CEOs had decided that in order to stay afloat they would need a new, exciting product. R and D was given the project, complete with a "sooner rather than later" deadline.
As he approached the hidden entrance he heard laughter from inside. He hoped it was a good sign.
"Okay troops," Joielo announced himself as he stepped into the burrow. "You have something to show me?"
Eonovelia, the head R and D elf, stood up from the round table where the elves were all seated, brushed her dark hair out of her face, then offered him a plate with several dark colored cookies on it. He took one and looked at it closely. Two hard dark disks, presumably chocolate, in between the two some kind of white frosting. Disappointing, he thought, another sandwich cookie. It had been done before, and this one didn't even look interesting.
He took a bite. It was a bit bland, which in itself was not a bad thing. Too often new products had such a complicated taste that many palates could not sort it all out. It would be best to avoid the Suncrackle (TM) disaster of last year. The taste of strawberry, cinnamon, vanilla, lime, coffee, mustard, marshmallow, butterscotch and chocolate was way beyond most non-elves.
As he was considering the taste of this new cookie, Joielo had an uncontrollable urge to belch. Before he could stifle it, or even get his sleeve up to his mouth, he burped, loudly. Out of his mouth came the most unexpected cloud of bright blue vapor.
All of the elves of R and D were laughing, loudly.
"What the . . ?" Joielo started to say, and burped again; fluorescent green.
The elves were falling out of their chairs. Eonovelia was hunched over the table, pounding it with her little fist.
Joielo waited somewhat patiently for them to finish laughing at him. It was annoying, but he could see the marketing angle. Young boys, he thought, especially around the age of ten, would love these cookies.
"What do you think?" Eonovelia finally managed to wheeze.
"You may have something here," He admitted. "Have you run it past marketing?"
"Of course," She said. "Regoa is all for it. We brought you here to see if there would be any problems in mass producing them . . ."
"Just tell me how you made them," Joielo started to brag.
" . . . And to remind you of your nondisclosure agreement."
"Nondisclosure agreement?" Joielo started to get a bad feeling in his stomach as he unsuccessfully tried to hold in a bright red belch.
"You signed an agreement," Eonovelia said carefully. "It would be bad for the company if anyone besides the few of us ever learned the particulars of how we made these cookies. Regoa doesn't even know."
"What did you put in these cookies?" Joielo said, looking hard at the cookie in his hand.
"Suffel root," She said, and the other elves broke into laughter again.
Suffel plants grow fast and thick, and soak up just about all of the moisture from the surrounding soil, which is why the company had planted two rows of suffel plants to be used by the employees as private areas. Joielo gulped as he realized. When he had been relieving himself the day before he had seen places where the ground beneath the suffel plants had been dug up, and filled back in. He had thought it was the work of the gardeners, thinning the roots.
He quickly put the rest of the cookie down on the table.
"You can't be serious!"
"Get over it," Eonovelia said, giving him a pat on the arm. "It's perfectly safe, and it's not like drinking the straight stuff. It’s a by-product of the plant."
"It doesn’t matter!" Joielo argued. "We can't feed this to people without their knowledge."
"If we tell them what it is," She was using a calm, soothing voice. "They won't try it, will they? Then we won't make our profit goals for this quarter. There would be cut-backs."
Eonovelia was staring him down. She appeared calm, but there was a definite implied threat to her stance. If he didn't do what the company wanted, they would not think highly of him. There was no way he could afford to lose his job now, not with Jzaereh, his oldest daughter, going to the University. It would be a good time for him to keep his mouth shut and do his job.
"There there," Eonovelia pushed a rolled parchment into his hand. "Just figure out how we can make these. Our office will supply all of the ingredient you need. It doesn't take much."
He was shuffled out of the burrow. Joielo walked slowly back to his office, overlooking the production line, holding the offending parchment under his arm. Once there he spent the rest of the afternoon looking at the formula and mapping out the assembly line. It would be a simple thing, the suffel root was just a minor ingredient. He could arrange the process to make it easy to hide. He rolled up the parchment and put it on the center of his desk.
It was just wrong.
At the end of the day, Joielo made his decision. He lit the parchment with the candle on his desk, and dropped it into the trash can as it turned to ashes. Then he went home, deciding not to visit the suffel plants on his way out.
Joielo did not sleep well that night. He kept sitting up in the darkness, wondering where he would end up and how he would pay his unpaid debts. When he shuffled back to work the next day he was beyond weary. But Joielo was determined to stand his ground, and be fired. That was the way it had to be.
When he walked into his office he was surprised to find Eonovelia frantically rummaging through his desk.
"What are you doing?" He demanded.
"We must hide it," She squeaked. "We have to get rid of it. They're sending inspectors. Talk about the wrong time for them to be found out, now they'll come after us all."
"Start over," Joielo said, sitting at his desk. "What are you talking about?"
"Don't you watch the news?" She demanded. He had to leave for work earlier, and no longer had the time to catch the morning news.
When he shrugged, she continued. "The news broke this morning that one of the ingredients of Roaring Animal Crackers (TM) is gnome spit. The gnome factory has been shut down, and inspectors are being sent to all of the cookie factories, including ours."
Joielo sat back in his chair and did something which caught poor Eonovelia completely by surprise. He started laughing.
Several investigators were at the factory for more than a week. They didn’t find anything untoward. There was nothing to be found. On the other hand, there was the strange occurrence in R and D. The inspectors arrived to find several of the elves looking rather sheepish and burping up colored smoke. There was never a satisfactory explanation. After the initial week of inspection, they established a full time office in the elven cookie factory.
Other inspectors did, however, find something at the fairy snack cake factory. The key ingredient, so they found, in the cream filling of Tummy Giggles (TM) golden snack cakes, was fairy milk.
The inspectors announced it with a look of distaste on their faces. The sales of Tummy Giggles (TM) doubled in less than a week.
Hope you enjoyed.
B5
