The Last Crumb Cake

Writing down ideas on a forum, Zach thinks of the topics he would like to cover on Brendan's Crumb Cake. A couple of topics that come to mind are 'Why did Brendan change the recipe for the original crumb cake?' 'Why is the lemon flavor outselling the true original crumb cake?' and "Why doesn't the company have questions and comments on the packaging?"

As he mentally toggles through the topics. Anastasia drops by his messy desk.

"You worried about a crumb cake and you can't even keep your desk together I wish your teacher would drop by and see how piggish you can be, don't ask me for anymore money for snacks until you get your room together, maybe you need to write the maker of the cupcakes, crumb cakes and tell him to help you clean your room since you've been supporting him economically".

"That's a great idea, write him, but there isn't an address. I only saw an address for where it's manufactured."

"Boy, now you know you can find anything on the internet, stop pretending you're a fool, stop that, if the crumb cake is affecting your thinking, then maybe you need to substitute it for something else."

"I'm not pretending. It didn't cross my mind, my mind was on something else."

"Bye."

"Thank God, I can focus, I'll write a letter to get an internship, then I can talk him into changing the recipe back to the original and dumping the lemon ones, it's popular, but it's not the best, Brendan just distributes more of them, does he truly like lemon more than the original, lemon crumb cake, like who thinks of lemon with crumb cake, and he's pushing his preference on us which isn't fair."

Returning to the forum, Zach implements all the questions. A ringing sound accompanies a visitor entering the 'Why doesn't the company have questions and comments on the packaging?"

"Hello, you can buy a 59 pack of expresso tea for $11.99. We'll ship anywhere. Even if you live in another galaxy. We're the only company that isn't exclusive to Earth. Please click on the link to receive your coffee", says the advertisement.

"Spam."

Zach copies and paste the link for the forum into social media sites. He explains the cause with a brief synopsis. He's doing his best to remain patient, but this isn't his strong suit.

Until someone enters the room, Zach begins composing a letter on a writing program as he searches online for Brendan's Crumb Cake address. After a lot of digging he comes across it. He clicks the x on the right side of advertisements that suddenly appear on the site, blocking Brendan's and the company's profile. The address, email address, and phone number is listed.

Zach scoops a fully charged phone from the wall charger at the foot of his bed. He dials. A voice repeats the number dialed and says it 'is temporarily disconnected'. He closes out the writing program and goes to his email service.

'Dear Brendan, why did you change the crumb cake formula. I loved the original recipe and I know many more people loved it as well. The new version of the crumb cake is trash. The original version with the original recipe was hard to find. The only store I knew that had it was Drew's. I'm not sure if your familiar with Drew's or not, it's on Lake Valley Center Road, a couple of blocks from my high school, only thing you had to do was make more original and they would have sold, but it was just too few of them, now you have lemon flavored, why lemon, you could have done an extra crumb cake version, you know like extra cheese with pizza, now that would have been more popular than the lemon flavor which is doing really well, but I still dislike it, the tart taste throws everything off and it's too lemony. BTW, I would love to intern at Brendan's Crumb Cake, I have some ideas that can benefit your company, I hope you're not angry with the first part of the letter. I just like to get to the point. And before I forget, you need someone who's as honest as me. Yes men can destroy your company and product. I created a forum for people who love your product (the original, others are buying the lemon because it's new, don't wait to the hype ends to focus on the original crumb cake) and you need to redo the packaging. It's missing a comment and question section, sincerely, Zach Baker.

After finishing the letter, Zach is interrupted by a ringing sound. He finally thinks he has a Forum User named 'IndigoGreen'. The person types 'he changed the recipe because it wasn't exciting enough. Stop being so boring. I don't know why I clicked on this dumb link, no one's in here, but you, the administrator and I like the lemon flavor, a bit tangy, but it has a bite to it unlike the original. Discontinue the original and give us different flavors. I can see a raspberry, apple, shortcake, pumpkin pie....'

Zach kicks him out and bans him from the forum. Five people enter the forum. Four of them remain silent. One user named 'Sweets4Sweetie' chimes in. 'Hello, Hello, anyone, there's 6 people in here, but no one is saying anything, and no one's in the other rooms.

Zach speaks.

"Thanks for joining "Why did Brendan change the recipe for the original crumb cake?"

"Ok."

"Do you have an answer?"

"Lalalallalalallalalallalalalallaka."

Zach kicks her out and bans her.

He takes a break and thinks about how he's gonna change the culture at Brendan's Crumb Cake. Zach daydreams about a brand new company name.

"Zach and Brendan's Crumb Cake, we can use that instead, now that sounds more exciting, that's exciting IndigoGreen. And I should own 95% of the company because I know the original, original crumb cakes are going to sell and I'm going to force him to sell me the recipe, and yeah, I can take some stock certificates too".