Jax did indeed have a story. His mother and Bash’s mother met during a family day at Sugardrop Beach 30 years prior, striking up a forbidden conversation on the sand, and had remained friends through letters and secrecy.

They introduced the boys when Jax was born and Bash was 2 years old, and they had been friends ever since. Molly wondered just how many people in the realms of Candyland had secret friendships with people outside their own. She was starting to think many, and it gave her hope.

Now though, the clock was ticking for them to get in and back out of the mountain unseen.

“I wish I had time to explore this place. It’s amazing,” she whispered to Jax.

Beautiful weeping willows surrounded the area, and marshmallows of all shapes, sizes and colors grew throughout the drooping branches. Almost every house was made of white stone, and each had a marshmallow pond in front with tiny chocolate-covered peepling ducks swimming happily.

They stopped outside a building that had thick sugary clouds coming from its smokestacks, and a robotic marshmallow snowman smiled and waved from the entrance.

“This is it,” Jax said. He walked up to the smiling snowman and swung its nose aside, revealing a number keypad. He quickly pressed in a code, and the door swung open.

The gate closed tight behind them, and just inside was a plain white room with small vehicles, each on different tracks leading into separate tunnels.

“Each car leads to an underground production floor,” Jax said. “Let’s just pick one and see where it goes.”

They jumped in one of the cars and were immediately sent flying down a winding maze of tunnels, going deeper and deeper every second into the mountain.

At the bottom they came to a stop in a large room with machinery, presses and dozens of shelves filled with bags of marshmallows. Bullseye.

Molly ran to the closest shelf and grabbed a small bag of what looked like tiny rainbow marshmallows.

She jumped back in the cart and Jax pressed the controls that had them rising back to the surface.

They managed to make two more trips before they ran out of time, and Molly added a jar of marshmallow fluff and a pack of nutcracker peeplings to her collection.

Back outside, they crept around the outskirts of town, but were stopped abruptly by a giant patrol peepling shaped like a gingerbread man.

If Molly wasn’t terrified, she’d take a moment to appreciate the craftsmanship of her people’s most famous creation. Instead, she backed away so quickly she stumbled over her own feet.

The peepling stared down at them angrily as it charged. Before they could even run, the gingerbread peepling was knocked down from behind. As the large guard struggled to right himself, Steve stood behind him with a twisted smile on his green sugary face. Bash came running from behind, gesturing for them to hurry.

“They’re coming! There’s no time to get out the gate,” Bash said, quickly ushering them in the opposite direction.

They followed him to the back yard of a house, where he knelt and peeled back a layer of grass, revealing a manhole.

“This will lead you just outside Lollipop Landing. Good luck,” he added. “I look forward to hearing about your success, Molly.”

“Me too,” she said with a laugh. “Thank you so much — and thank Steve for me!”

Jax held the cover open and motioned for her to climb down. Just before she was underground, she glanced over at a small shed on the edge of the yard. Something about it struck her, and she was mesmerized.

It was a warm brown, with round windows and shingles and had beautiful stenciling around the sides and door. The color and texture reminded her of hardened gingerbread bark, and all at once she could see it. It came together in her mind with decorations and flavors from every realm.

This wouldn’t just be something that people could eat during the holidays. It would be an event, a tradition that families could create together.

She needed to get somewhere they could rest so she could sketch out her idea: a building made of gingerbread and candy.

Molly was going to make a gingerbread house.

Read chapter 8 in tomorrow’s newspaper.