I couldn’t believe it. The Tea King had bought us a Donut Robot?

We’d been doing much better with our doughnut collective than we’d done without it, but it was messy and complicated, and we still couldn’t meet demand. But the Donut Robot would change all that. We could give people jobs to run it around the clock, to make all different flavors. We could hire more drivers to deliver doughnuts all over the area.

“Come on,” Otto said. “We got it all the way here. You’re not going to tell us what’s inside.”

“A robot,” I said.

“Oh, okay. Sure. Somebody sent you a robot the size of a jeep. And you didn’t even know it was coming.” Duke rolled his eyes.

“Really,” I said.

“Oh, yeah?” Otto said. “What’s it do then, this robot? Like clean your house and drive your car?”

“Massage your feet?” Duke laughed.

“It keeps towns from disappearing,” I said.

Duke and Otto cracked up, but I didn’t care, because I knew it would—or we would with the robot’s help, and everyone else’s too. Petersville would never become a D-word.

So come taste The Petersville Experience yourself! Feel the rush you can only get from filling your own life-changing doughnut with any one of five mind-blowing creams. Sample the Pop Shop’s mystery flavor popcorn. Make your own mozzarella at the Stinky Cheese Farm Store. Watch the Wizard of Oz on a big screen while you get your hair cut in the style of your favorite character and make a yellow-brick road quilt. Have an award-winning chicken potpie dinner at The Station House, then spend the night in an old shipping container, and wake up to a breakfast of atole and pupusas. Who knows? Maybe we’ll even have a five-yolk egg to show you by then. Either way, we’re not going anywhere. I promise.

Keya’s Spiced Butter Tea

Ingredients

2 teabags of Rooibos, English Breakfast, or Earl Grey

½ tsp cloves

½ tsp cardamom

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp turmeric

¼ tsp ground ginger

½ cup of coconut milk*

1 ½ tbsp unsalted butter (the better the butter, the better the taste; try grass-fed)

brown sugar

sea salt

Directions

1. Pour 4 cups of water into a saucepan and put on medium heat. Add spices to the water and stir until simmering.

2. Put heat on low. Add tea bags for 2–4 minutes.

3. Remove bags.

4. Add coconut milk and butter, gently stirring as the butter melts.

5. Turn off heat. Then sweeten with brown sugar to taste (1–2 tbsps).

6. Drop in pinch of sea salt and stir.

7. Pour into mugs and enjoy!

*Fun fact: under the rules of One-Ingredient Masterpiece, the coconut milk is the one ingredient that counted!

One-Ingredient Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients

4 ounces of good quality semi-sweet chocolate

3 ounces of water

Directions

1. Fill a large mixing bowl with ice cubes and nestle a smaller mixing bowl in ice.

2. Melt chocolate with the water on the stove on low.