The bright Monday sun was shining across the dusty parking lot of Dominance Pastries as a red Toyota Camry drove into it. A fat, potbellied man dressed in a white shirt and khaki-colored trousers stepped down from the car holding a brown leather bag in his left hand and a box that contained some new baking supplies in the other. He walked slowly towards the door of the small pastry store and opened the glass door calmly. He walked into a small, bright room with a large glass case displaying cakes and ice creams on the left side of the room and a wooden shelf where breads and other small treats were arranged.
"Good morning, sir," came the calm voice of a young girl who was behind the counter in front of the store. "Morning, Sandra. How are you doing and has Grace arrived for work?" He asked the girl while his eyes were scanning the store for any changes. "Yes, sir, she arrived some minutes earlier. She's in the kitchen," said the young girl, still in a calm voice. "Ok then, is there any new order?" Said the man with his eyes returning to where Sandra was sitting. "No sir, just the pending ones," she said, and the fat man nodded his head and walked towards the kitchen door. "Good morning, Grace," the fat man said as he stepped into the kitchen. Grace, who was busy kneading dough, looked up immediately. "Good morning, sir. I decided to start with the birthday cake before you arrive." She said, smiling. Grace was also a young girl and was dressed in a short white gown with a flour-stained black apron worn over it. "That's so good of you. We have a lot of work to do today, actually. We have to start making those cupcakes for Mr. Alex's party. We're meant to deliver them tomorrow, and they're much," the fat man said tiredly and rubbed his bald head. He went over to the back of the kitchen where other aprons were hung and picked a blue one. He then walked to one corner of the room where a wooden drawer stood. He opened it, picked a badge, and fixed it on the left side of his apron. On the badge were the words "Bryan Kingsley, manager". Bryan then went on to search for the rest of the ingredients needed for the cake. "The king escaped the trap again." Grace told him as he dropped the ingredients on the table.
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Bryan hissed, then said, "What sort of rat is this, for God's sake? I'm going to strangle this rat if I finally get hold of it." Grace laughed. "Hope it didn't attack anything again," he asked, wrinkling his nose. "Just made some holes in the flour bags," she replied, smiling.Bryan had been at war with this particular rat, which they nicknamed King, for two weeks now. He knew that it was just one, as it had white patches on its body (it fell into a paint). Unlike the rest, which usually managed to enter the kitchen, this particular rat was very intelligent, as it avoided any trap set to catch it. Bryan and Grace had been searching for any hole that this rat could possibly be using to enter into the kitchen, but they couldn't find any, which added to the annoyance of Bryan.
When they were done with that day's work, Bryan was packing up to go home when he spotted something black running into the back of the refrigerator. He knew it was the rat, so he waited to see if it'd run out of there, but it didn't. "Grace, can you help me push this refrigerator a bit forward?" he told Grace, who was also packing up to go home. They both pushed it forward, and Bryan smiled mischievously after he saw a crack on the wall with a small hole at the bottom." That must be the way King and the rest have been coming into the kitchen," he told Grace, who had also noticed the hole in the wall. "We need to patch it up, don't we?" She said, now looking away from the hole. "We'd do that tomorrow, but I need to take my revenge first," Bryan said, still smiling mischievously. He then went to fetch a glue board, placed it directly in front of the hole so the rat wouldn't have any chance of escaping when coming in, and left for his home filled with anticipation.
When he entered the kitchen the next day, he headed to the place where he placed the board and was relieved when he saw a medium-sized rat with white patches lying helplessly on the glue board. He gave a sigh of relief. Finally, the king had been caught. "Won't you strangle it now?" Grace asked him, smiling mockingly. He looked at the rat and smiled; it wasn't big enough to strangle. He was just relieved that it had finally been caught, and he had been able to identify the way rats had been entering the kitchen. Now he could focus on his work without worrying about sabotage on his materials and ingredients.
What a nice way to start the day