14 KISS THE COOK

CHAPTER FOURTEEN KISS THE COOK (GOOD-BYE) The fire inside the Muffin Man blazed and his eyes glowed with menacing orange flames. "It's over, Muffin Man," Franny said, and she gestured toward the kids who were shoveling the muffins into the trash. "They realize now what you're making them sacrifice. Your muffins are history." The Muffin Man laughed a hollow, metallic laugh.

"You think this is the end?" he roared. "This muffin recipe is perfect. I'm going to share this with the whole world. Even if these kids have stopped eating them for now, they'll start again. And then I'll make EVERYBODY EVERYWHERE HAPPY."

Franny looked at Igor. "You remember any of your gymnastics?" she asked him, and she hoisted him onto her shoulders. With a jump and a twist, Igor flipped through the air and shoved the humming Visualizer Helmet down on the head of the Muffin Man. The Muffin Man stood in a state of shock as the Visualizer Helmet showed him a vision of his future. It was a sad, bleak future where people shuffled around aimlessly. They ate nothing but his muffins, and they did it without joy. It was a horrible, unhappy world that he had created, and the Muffin Man couldn't bear to look at

it. He slowly removed the helmet. "But… I promised never to do anything destructive," he said sorrowfully. He dropped the helmet to the ground. "I promised to make the best thing I possibly could."

The Muffin Man slouched and the fire inside him shrank to just a few glowing embers. "My muffins don't really make people happy, do they?" he asked Franny.

"At first, they think they're happy," she said. "But that doesn't last long. People are usually happiest when they're creating things, or learning things, or trying to make the world or themselves better." The Muffin Man nodded. "No more muffin making," he said. And he dropped his little chef's hat and shuffled away, clinking and clanking up the stairs. "He's gone!" Mona said. "You beat him, Franny!" The kids cheered. "It wasn't me," Franny said. "I knew I could never beat him. You all wanted those muffins so badly, it was clear that I could never make you stop."