Coming soon to Amazon and Smashwords, the first book from Kris P. Kreme… The Kraving…
Please enjoy this sampling of the first chapter and look for this work soon!
The Kraving
by Kris P. Kreme
Chapter 1: Creating a Stir
Passion Falls was a typical slice of small town America, a place where families raised children, sat out on their porches, enjoyed the occasional barbecue in the park, and generally enjoyed a slow pace of wholesome casual values. It was a town named for the passion one has for life, the passion for freedom, and of course the passion for the unique falls found on the outskirts of town.
While the falls may have been what originally attracted people to form a town here, it no longer was what kept that town growing. No, what really served to keep the passion in Passion Falls was something much less pleasant, much more basic, and unfortunately far too common. The economy was what encouraged new residents to leave the big expensive cities behind and find their way here, to a peaceful quiet community where the average dollar could go much further, where it was still possible to afford raising families and enjoying barbecues in the park. And so the town of Passion Falls had begun to grow.
As with any growing community there were the occasional growth pains, and with those pains would come the small problems found in every community. However Passion Falls was soon realized to not be every community. Perhaps it was something in the very water that flowed from those falls, the very water that made its way into the reservoir and eventually into the homes of these new residents. Perhaps it was something else, something in the land. Maybe Passion Falls had once been the site of an ancient indian ceremonial land. No one really knew why; no one ever really seemed to look for the answers. One thing everyone who lived here for any length of time knew though, was that Passion Falls had something it was hiding. Somewhere in all the relocating the strange had set up a permanent residence in this quaint community.
There were rumors about the mall that opened a number of years back and apparently attracted rather unusual tenants. Whether those tenants were selling magical shoes that could warp one’s very nature into a perversely sexual being devoted to nothing but pleasing others or whether the tenants were simply using hypnotic training sessions to make their employees more proficient at selling their goods; something was always being reported about the Passion Falls Mall. Oh sure, the reports remained whispers in secret conversations, backhanded remarks that many never knew quite whether to take seriously. This was all par for the course with the strange goings on of this town.
Over the past ten years, Passion Falls police had received calls ranging from reported leprechauns granting wishes on St. Patrick’s Day, to parents complaining that their daughters became pregnant after touching Easter eggs left by an actual Easter bunny. They’d seen and heard it all. There were reports of not just mythical creatures creating bizarrely sexual havoc but impossible scenarios such as the time it was reported that a street brand of bubblegum was being passed around, bubble gum which supposedly created bubble-headed bimbos of anyone who chewed it. Sure there was the evidence, a few parents bringing in their older teens who had enormous breasts and tiny thoughts going on in empty heads. But these were older teens, the key word being older, which to most meant they were simply having growth spurts. It was much like the town. Sometimes growth comes with a little bizarre aftertaste.
Perhaps it was only fitting that the events which took place one particular day happened in the town of Passion Falls. After all, whatever cosmic cloud settled in over the town those many years back, it certainly fit the nature of what began innocently enough in a donut shop in the middle of downtown.
It was a typical day for the residents of Passion Falls. The weekend had arrived and the morning was crisp with that rare summer breeze, the breeze that often meant one had better enjoy it while they can since storms might be on the horizon. On the outskirts of town, McClane Private Academy was having special classes for seniors, an unfortunate thing for the students since most other schools were out already and enjoying not just the weekend but the summer as well. Down the road from the school, suburbia spread, neighborhoods of endless wooded lots rolling into the hills that surrounded the real meat of downtown.
Once one crossed into downtown, the landscape changed dramatically. First you would meet the Passion Falls Mall, home of supposedly anything one could imagine, if you believed the whisperings. Shortly after would be the older section of town, the parts that growing pains had left behind, such as the abandoned church and empty apartment buildings. Next came the regular downtown shops, stores, typical ma and pa businesses that were slowly following the way of the church and being sent into a silent death by modern progress and the magic of the mall.
Finally one would reach the very center of town, Hyde Park, where on a day such as this, sports activities of one type or another were always going on. A short distance away, not a mile or two outside the center of town, was the Donut Shack.
As with every business that wasn’t part of a franchise and wasn’t supposedly offering magic, the Donut Shack was experiencing tough times. When times like that struck, a decision needed to be made, one that might just turn their profits around, one that might make their product something no one has ever seen before, and of course one that might just create a stir in the community that had never been experienced before.
Perhaps the owner of the Donut Shack should have recognized that in a town like Passion Falls, creating a stir that had never been experienced before was bound to come back and bite him. Perhaps he should have seen past the rumors and realized the truth, the truth that some towns are just not like the rest of the world. A donut is just a donut, and cravings never hurt. Maybe the eyes of those in Passion Falls were already glazed to the truth; maybe that was what kept events like the one that began in the back alley of the Donut Shack happening. One thing was sure, passions were not going to fall anytime soon in this town.
“So this is good stuff, right?” Kris asked the chubby delivery driver. He signed the electronic pad, looking up at the man.
“Hey I just make the deliveries; I don’t work for the company, and I’ve never tried their stuff.”
“Really?” Kris asked, looking closer at the man.
The delivery driver folded his arms, his annoyance clear around more than his lowered eyes. “Hey just because I’m overweight doesn’t mean I spend all my time eating donuts.”
“No, I’m sorry. I didn’t intend to insult you; I just figured you’d probably tried the ingredients before. I hear this is impressive stuff. I even read it’s new to the market, something about FDA approval and everything; you know all the hoops a business has to go through to get stuff like this.”
The delivery driver closed his electronic pad and walked back to the door of his truck. “I don’t know anything about that. I only started driving for them three weeks ago. Good luck with the donuts though.”
Kris Kraven stood next to the stacked boxes watching as the truck drove off. He sure hoped these ingredients were everything they promised to be. His business depended on it. Only a year ago he’d opened his store, The Donut Shack, and since then it had been a downhill spiral that challenged even the most impressive spiral swirl in one of his creations.
Oh, sure, he had some customers who came in occasionally but not the increasing drove he had hoped for. The economy probably played into it just as much as the healthier attitudes some were adopting concerning snacks, and maybe donuts specifically. Still Kris had always tried to be an optimist and he’d been sure that somewhere was some improvement or extra something he could add that would heighten his sales.
He’d tried it all in the last few months. Advertising had been the first attempt at boosting awareness of the Donut Shack and in a town like Passion Falls, he’d naturally played up the name. Hot and Fresh Passion Daily still hung in neon on the old iron bar out front of the Donut Shack. It seemed if anything to only stir up some chuckles, not so much sales.
Lugging the boxes in the back door, Kris read the invoice on the top. ‘Glazing ingredients – M&C Culinary Research’.
He’d stumbled onto an ad in the paper about two weeks ago. It stated that if you were a local restaurant owner looking to up your return business you should call their hotline. They specialized in organic additives that were guaranteed to stimulate your sales and, as Kris now hoped, save his business.
“Hey Doug,” Kris called out to his lone employee who was putting some donuts in the oven. “Unpack these new ingredients and work them into the glazed donuts today. I want to see if they sell more.”
“You got it boss.” Doug said smiling.
“Oh and Doug, no sampling the product. You know we can’t afford that.” Kris said walking into his office and closing the door.
As he sat behind his desk and looked over some books, far too many red marks jumped out at him. Black was good in a business of one’s own and black was a color rarely seen by Kris Kraven. He needed something to make people come back, something to captivate their taste buds, to melt their mind and make them crave his particular product. He’d joked about it before with Doug and any other who he’d told about this venture before he dove right in.
The Kraven Kraving, he called it. People would flock to experience it and yet so far, he had minor success but no one was flocking to see what Kris had this week. He felt like he’d tried it all, even having a sexy model pose for an ad in the paper. One thing he now felt sure of. In a business like donuts, sex just didn’t sell.
Or did it… his mind wandered, eyes blurring over the red scribbles and mind-numbing numbers of the profit and expense books.
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