I blew on a spoonful, sipped it, then waited for the Barney’s chicken broth to make the world go all happy endings, at least for a bit.

And I waited and waited…

• • •

We had the next day off, and by the time I woke up, light was pouring into the Airstream. I rolled over.

Josh jumped up from the table. “I have an idea. It’s not the Donut Robot. But it’s something.”

I swiped crud from the corners of my eyes. “What?”

“Sorry. I’ve been up for a while. Cronut?” He picked up a paper bag from the table and shook it.

“You got Cronuts?”

“I woke up early.”

I climbed down from the bunk. “Where is everybody?”

“They went to your grandmother’s. Something about your cousins coming into town today? They said they’d call later about where to meet them.”

That was the last thing I needed: a family reunion where all anyone would want to talk to me about was Can You Cut It?

When I came out of the bathroom, Josh had put the Cronuts on a paper towel on the table.

“You didn’t eat yours yet?”

“I’m not going to lie. It took superhuman strength to wait—oh, I almost forgot.” He pulled a carton of milk from a plastic bag on the floor and set it on the table.

“It’s okay. I only drink milk with chocolate.”

“It’s not to drink. It’s my idea for The Doughnut Stop.”

“Milk?”

“Not just any milk. Mohawk River.” He tapped the container.

“Still not following.”

“Okay. So, all day yesterday, I was reading about the Tea King and Majani, trying to get ideas and coming up with nothing. Then last night, we came back from the movie, and I was lying in bed googling on my phone, and there was this video of Okello giving a speech, and it was all about how Majani was Krakow, and about how if he’d started the business someplace else, it would be a completely different business. He said he used Krakow’s strengths, the people there who needed Majani to succeed as much as he did. And that’s what made me think of Mohawk River.”

“You lost me again.”

“Okay, so Mohawk River is a dairy collective up by us. It was created by the dairy farmers in upstate New York because they couldn’t compete with the big dairy companies by themselves, so they work together. And that’s when it came to me. What if we created our own sort of collective to make the doughnuts? What if The Doughnut Stop was like Mohawk River and we could find people to make the doughnuts for us?”

“You mean, other people would make our doughnuts in their houses and then we would sell them?”

“Yes! We’d be able to give people jobs and grow the business.”

“But how are people going to know how to make the doughnuts?”

“Easy. You’ll teach them.”

Now that I understood the plan, I began to run through it step-by-step. “So, first we’d have to find people who are good at following directions. I mean, they don’t even need to know how to cook. They just have to be able to follow really specific directions. Then we train them and get them the ingredients they’ll need. We’ll probably have to buy some equipment for them too.”