Inspection
By Robin Zemek

“Ma’am, do you know what percentage of cocoa this is?”
Shirley stared blankly off into the distance before opening her mouth.
“Dunno. Isn’t it milk chocolate?”
Damien tapped at it gingerly.
“No. It’s not. It’s way too dark.”
“How dark?”
“Hard to say. Could be upwards of 80%.”
He took out a small chisel and chipped off a piece, then scooped it up with tweezers.
“Harrison, get in here. I need you to take a look at this.”
Another man stepped into the room, his eyes narrowing. He ran his hands through his grey hair.
“Sweet Athabasca cooking oil, what do we have here?”
“Think it may be too dark sir.”
Harrison took the sample off the tweezers and placed it in his mouth. He didn’t even chew.
“Bitter.”
“Just as I thought sir.”
“This is way too dark.”
“That’s what I was telling Mrs. Nougent here.”
“This is way over regulation.”
“Of course.”
Shirley squeaked in a word.
“What seems to be the problem?”
“Mrs. Nougent what we have here is building code violation. Due to the abundance of gum drop precipitation around these parts, Candyland officials have made it there duty to see that all load bearing walls are made of nothing but milk chocolate. This wall here is an infraction in every sense of the word.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that the next gum drop storm you could loose everything. This house shouldn’t have been built with such high cocoa concentrations. Dark chocolate just doesn’t hold up in this climate. Maybe in Fudgetown, or the Gingerbread forest, but not here.”
Damien placed his chisel back in its leather case. He looked back at Shirley.
“We know a contractor who will fix these walls right up. Don’t you worry.”
“Thank you.”
She smiled.
“No thanks needed, Mrs. Nougent, we’re just doing our jobs. Candyland needs to get it’s buildings up to code. We don’t want another candy cane Katrina mess on our hands...”
Harrison put on his sunglasses and somewhere in the distance Don’t Get Fooled Again started to play.

Determination
By Robin Zemek

“You must think you’re tough.”
“I know I’m tough.”
Alex just laughed. It was a slight snort with a smile attached.
“You’re tough like jelly.”
She lifted the weight again. Alex watched it go up and down each time.
“I’m serious Roxy, I have seen bowls of jello tougher than you.”
“Shut up. I can do this,” she blew a strand of hair out of her eyes and a short second later it returned to its position.
“You can do what? My breakfast could lift those weights faster and higher. My oatmeal could outpace you ten times over. My orange juice could do laps around you... My... what else did I have for breakfast?”
“Ego?”
“No! I had determination! And not just powerbar sized determination, I had a whole box!”
“Where do they sell that at costco?”
“They don’t! You have to earn it! You earn it with every drop of sweat, every aching muscle, and every rep. You don’t buy abs! You earn them!”
“I’m sure I could buy them somewhere...”
Alex put his hand of the weight, stopping it. He looked her in the eyes.
“You know why you’re doing this? You know why you walked into my gym and picked up my equipment? Or are you just dicking around? Do you want anything out of your life? Do you want to look great?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you want to feel great?”
“Yes.”
“Then Roxy I need you to do twenty more reps.”
He let go of the weight and it slowly sunk back down. She let out a heavy breath.
“Twenty.”
She brought it back up.
“Nineteen.”