Savory Sweets

I went on my tiptoes and took a deep breath in through my nose. Ahhh…I loved everything when it came to this time of year, though nothing could really compare when it came to my feelings for this hybrid species, a cross between both water mint and spearmint. It was sweet. It was indigenous to Europe and the Middle East (two places I would in all likelihood never have the chance to visit in my life, and anyway, even though this unique species did have its start in those places in specific, through the years, it had now been cultivated and spread out to all regions of the world.) In fact it was even found in the reclusive sections of the wild with other species, including its parent one. It was small, usually patterned in small red and white stripes, had a preemptive scent to it that seemed to tickle my whole body starting at my trembling toes in anticipation of it and reaching into some of my deepest, most memorable memories. (It is weird how touching some things can be to the slightest things, like memories, isn’t it?) Then, when the scent had reached the finale of its impact, I found myself, almost involuntarily lifting the small treat up to my lips for a small taste. Then it hit me, it felt like fireworks in July. The explosion of the tartness combined with the sweetness on my tongue, it was so heavenly. I reached down for yet another of these treats eagerly. Peppermint has always had this effect on me. Ever since I was young, and begging my mother for a quick trip to the candy shop at Christmastime so I could have one more string of peppermint, in the form of a candy cane most often. I would hop up and down in my red and green holiday stockings, surprising even myself with the abrupt effect the small, super sweet candy would have on my actions. I would not admit to myself for several more years that no matter the argument against this, I let this simple candy of a tradition or tradition of a candy have much too large an effect on me. Why would I? If I started that at too young age, it meant that perhaps I would not let myself enjoy my ultra-sweet (at least with the extensive amounts of peppermint that I consumed regularly) childhood, and even today, I think that an enjoyable childhood like that is never too much to ask for. Currently, I was attending an annual peppermint convention that was being held in Syracuse, Utah. Yes. Throughout the years my extensive love of peppermint did eventually lead me to a career at a bakery where my particular specialty happens to be peppermint. Some people may have told me that my peppermint dreams of endless sugar were silly, and that I would assumably grow out of them, eventually, but I didn’t. My peppermint obsession came to an honest benefit a few years ago when I met Ellen Runnels, a fellow dreamer much like me (although they may not have been in the heavenly clouds with shockingly sweet and solitary peppermint). She had talent and she didn’t wish to waste it (much like her father did, while he kept and taught all the recipes he knew solitarily in their small home, thinking that his family should be the only real ones to be blessed by his unique cooking style). Ellen knew her father, honored him, but she didn’t see how he could possibly keep his secluded style of baking solitarily in their small, little home, so she got started on making a baking business out of it as soon as she could and after a few years, she had her own cookie bakery addressed by the name of Savory Sweets where she hired me as the specialist in her peppermint delights as soon as she could. Savory Sweets was a reasonable goal, honestly, for Ellen. Ellen had the vital knowledge of how to set a seemingly gargantuan goal, and how to go after it and to chase it until the satisfying outcome was all hers. In fact, while she was trying to establish herself, she was so lucky even to find a particular man to help her and in between all her hard work, fall in love with him and his like her own mindset. (His name was Jackson Sherman, they married as soon as they could, mere months after meeting each other and discovering that they were in love <3 and while I was sinking in my own lovey and comforting thoughts of peppermint, they already were expecting their first child in only a few more months to add to the small but sure Sherman clan…one of the primary reasons why I was sent to this convention and not her, because although she was the complete owner of sweet and quaint (but successful) Savory Sweets she was also at the point in her pregnancy where traveling anywhere and smelling anything as sweetly pungent as peppermint made her horribly sick, so she couldn’t travel anywhere and get sick on anything where the main focus of that was to get ideas and inspiring scents even for foods. (It just felt wrong, so, of course, she sends her best friend and partner in baking, particularly in peppermint with truly nothing better to do, Lindsey Goldhardt, instead.) Now, I don’t wish to make it sound like I really had nothing that anyone would ever be concerned with going on in my life. I truly wasn’t just counting the seconds until my last breath or the weekend finally came took place (well, maybe sometimes I would for the weekend, but doesn’t everybody do that?). I was not painfully uncreative or like brown paint on a wall, seemingly lying there forever, or at least until it dried. I was…I was, I think it is fair to say unique (in a good way) here. I was obsessed with peppermint, I knew it, I would often use that obsession to my advantage in things like my career and in the forthcoming future, I really did not anticipate that ever changing, and I was happy about that. Peppermint was my thing, there wasn’t anything wrong with that, so why would I ever change. Now peppermint may never be able to give me flowers (somewhat like the ones that Jackson gave Ellen) or serendipitously serenade me into oblivion, but it was my life. It was what I worked on day in and day out for a justifiable paycheck and that made me happy. It made my life both savory and sweet. I was happy. Things weren’t as good as my young mind preferred to see things eventually working out for me, like maybe a few kids and a husband who loved me. (What a silly idea!) Though now that I had a few years of experience under my built (boys who cheated on me, played me, didn’t even show up for the date, you name it) and truly knew that peppermint would always be there for me where others starkly weren’t. Reality is a hard lesson to learn, but one has to learn it. Sweet peppermint would always and forever be there for me where others weren’t. Why would I ever change that?