5 THE BAKER MAKER

CHAPTER FIVE THE BAKER MAKER Franny assembled an electronic brain and downloaded every recipe on Earth into it. She studied the fast and graceful movements of the best chefs, and constructed arms and hands that were just as confident and nimble. She also made one of those puffy chef hats because, c'mon, those things are adorable.

Franny welded and bolted for hours, twisting and shaping the discarded furnace into a marvelous creation. She might not have been very good at baking goodies, but if you ever needed a giant steel robot with flames shooting out of its mouth and smoke coming out of its ears, she was your girl.

And now this huge monstrosity stood before her, its inner fire burning steadily, patiently awaiting the orders of its creator. "You're a baker," she told it. Franny stared into its rusty metal face.

"I promised that you would never do anything destructive. You got that?" The furnace nodded. "Good. Now I want you to also promise that you'll make the best thing you can possibly make," she told it. Its iron neck creaked as it nodded again. "It should be less sweet than a cupcake, but bigger and better than a cookie," she began. "Something kids will really crave." The machine's electronic brain hummed. "I will make a muffin," it croaked in a hollow, mechanical voice.

"YES!" Franny cheered. "A muffin! That's perfect! Mona will love that." The machine's inner fire crackled and grew slightly. Franny laughed and shouted, "I shall call you… the Muffin Man!" The Muffin Man's internal fire raged and he glowed with heat. As a furnace, all he ever wanted to do was to give kids exactly what they wanted. Now he knew he could do precisely that. He grinned. "I want these muffins to be irresistible," Franny said. "They need to be perfectly delicious. We need to sell a lot of these things, Muffin Man, so do your best."

The Muffin Man nodded and got to work, carefully measuring ingredients and combining them in the proper way. They watched him, marveling at his skill with measuring cups and the way he swiftly stirred the ingredients together.