Her daydreaming was interrupted as a plump man hurried out of the gray, brick factory.
“Welcome, children, we are so glad to have you here at Babushka’s world famous bakery. You can call me B.J.,” the man said, smiling and wiping what looked like leftover powdered doughnut from his face. “Let me introduce your tour guide, Claire. She will take you around the factory and answer any questions you have.”
The tour guide, a striking blonde woman named Claire, walked out of the factory in a form fitting white lab jacket, yellow helmet, and goggles, which did virtually nothing to impede her leggy, model-like beauty. There were some obvious whistles and jabs among the boys, and even Brody stood a few inches taller within her presence. She smiled warmly at them, red lips framing perfect white teeth, and motioned the class to follow her into the factory. Her walk sashayed and her red heels clicked on the cement sidewalk to a rhythm that only she could hear.
The boys followed like puppies, mere inches behind the tour guide, while the popular girls, including Savannah, hung back shooting hateful glares toward Claire. A challenge had clearly been drawn, without one spoken word, and the girls flipped, powdered, and glossed their lips in preparation to retaliate. Mina felt a moment of pity for the poor tour guide; she had personally seen what it was like to be on the receiving end of jealous girls from Kennedy High.
Mina looked at Nan to see if she noticed, but Nan was preoccupied with her texting. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed Nan’s sleeve and led her after the group of students into the factory with Nan texting the whole way.
Claire took them through a fluorescent-lit hallway lined with photo murals of the Babushka's baking factory’s history. She paused every few feet to explain the history, as Mina grabbed a chewed up pencil and notebook out of her broken backpack and struggled to catch up. “This is our founder, Larry Brimwell. In 1911, he started the bakery out of his two-bedroom home, and later moved it into a rented building in the international district in 1913.” A grainy, black and white photo could be seen of a man with a white apron and hat, rolling small balls of chocolate on a small kitchen table. Out of focus and barely visible underneath the table was a small brown-haired boy playing with a wooden car.
The next wall mural was depicting a smiling Mr. Brimwell outside of a small vacant building with a “For Rent” sign in the dirty, paned window. A severe, unsmiling blonde woman stood next to Mr. Brimwell, one hand holding a small clutch purse. This was obviously his wife, holding the hand of their little boy. Mina stopped to stare at the picture of what was supposed to be a happy family, but the picture seemed odd, almost forced. Mina wondered what was really going on in Mrs. Brimwell’s mind.
“It was Mrs. Brimwell who saw the potential of turning the bakery into a full-scale factory and invested all of her inheritance into the company against her father’s wishes. Soon after they purchased this current factory, Larry died of scarlet fever. His wife and son were left to take on the family business, alone.” Claire stopped speaking, her voice quavering for only a split second, before she cleared her throat and dazzled the group with her smile again. “Through hard work and perseverance, they made it into the baking empire it is today.”
“Who runs it now?” Pricilla Rose, or Pri for short, had raised her hand but asked the question before being called on.
“Mr. Brimwell,” Claire replied.
“Why, that would make him almost a hundred years old,” Pri said, surprised.
“Silly me,” Claire chuckled. “Please forgive me, I meant to say his grandson, B.J. Brimwell, who met you at the front door. He didn’t look quite 100, did he?” Heads bobbed in understanding, and a few boys even laughed at the dull joke.
More facts were mentioned and the tour kept moving. Mr. West told them they would have a paper due concerning their tour, and Mina needed an A on this paper, badly. Sometime during the lecture on the usefulness of different sugars in the chocolate process, Mr. West had become separated from the tour group, but only Mina seemed to notice their ward’s absence.