The Candy Shop War

“Taking a final peek at the map, John set off up the street. Another lonely road in the middle of the night. Not unsettling, except that it felt so familiar. Alone in the dark, he was at home.”

As in the preceding quote, this statement creates a disjunction between Dart’s experience of life and the terrain he is traversing in Colson. Most of the tasks that Mrs. White will later assign to her assistants must also be conducted under cover of darkness. So, the Blue Falcons might make a similar comment about their new familiarity with nighttime.

“‘I saw some children playing out there.’ ‘But I don’t know them.’ ‘Then go get acquainted. When I was your age, I was friends with whoever happened to be out roaming the neighborhood.’ ‘Sounds like a good way to get stabbed by a hobo,’ Nate grumbled.”

Nate’s father has just advised his son to make friends with the neighborhood children in their new town. Nate’s grim remark is meant to be humorous. However, he is about to be introduced to an alternate reality where getting stabbed isn’t an outrageous possibility. In the realm of magicians, it’s an everyday occurrence.

“Licorice, jawbreakers, caramels, gingersnaps, cookies, marshmallow treats, peppermint sticks, gumdrops, malt balls, jellybeans, lollypops, chocolate bars, and numberless other sweets burdened the shelves, some sheathed in shiny wrappers, some visible in clear jars. They had entered an extensive and sophisticated library of delicious confections.”

This description aptly conveys the dizzying array of confections that the candy shop holds. The children respond with delight and enthusiasm, which is natural under the circumstances. What they fail to realize is that these sweets are a sticky trap meant to draw them into Mrs. White’s web of deceit.

“Mrs. White folded her arms and shook her head. ‘It is hard to put curiosity back to bed once you awaken it,’ she conceded. ‘Very well. I have a line of extra-special candy that I don’t offer to the general public. The secret candy is far superior to anything on the menu, but is certainly not for everyone.’”

Upon her first encounter with the Blue Falcons, Mrs. White seems to drop a hint, as if by accident, that she has “special candies.” Of course, this is an artful attempt to bait the trap she has set for the children. She is well aware that she piqued their curiosity. Rather than directly offering the treats, she lets curiosity do the work for her. By framing these delicacies as special and rare, she increases her victims’ interest in acquiring them.

“I know I’m dealing with children. I don’t expect you to pay for the candy in cash. Its monetary value far exceeds what even your parents could afford. I am willing to give you the opportunity to earn more candy by performing small services for me.”

Again, Mrs. White emphasizes the value of what she is offering the children. By suggesting that these rare treats are beyond their reach, she effectively generates even more enthusiasm to acquire them. At the same time, she is minimizing the risk of the tasks she will require the Blue Falcons to perform by referring to them as “small services.” In fact, they are criminal and life-threatening.

“I closed the shop so we could discuss this in peace. It’s now or never. For the record, if you ever decline an assignment, our arrangement for sharing magic candy permanently ends at that moment. I require helpers I can count on.”

Mrs. White is ready to close the deal. She has artfully shut the shop to avoid all distractions. Like any good salesperson, she makes this a limited-time offer. She doesn’t want to give the children time to think about the proposition or discuss it with one another. After offering a rare commodity, she now suggests that she will permanently revoke the offer. Time is of the essence. Pressed to make a snap decision, the children naturally agree.

“Pigeon left the room. Walking up the stairs, he shook his head. It was as if the laws of nature had been turned inside out. He had just escaped an inevitable punishment for no good reason. Whatever was in that fudge had saved his life!”

Pigeon has just returned from the burglary at the museum and near capture by Dart. His ordinarily fretful mother barely notices his arrival in the middle of the night. At this early stage, Pigeon and his friends are all viewing the white fudge in a positive light. It has succeeded in getting their parents off their backs. Unfortunately, they will soon see the downside of that situation.

“‘I gave Miss Doulin fudge,’ Pigeon said, ‘and it took all the fight out of her. Same with my mom. This morning, as an experiment, I took my cereal into the living room and ate it over the carpet. Mom didn’t say a thing. So I used a pair of scissors to pick at my teeth while I had a conversation with her. She acted like she didn’t even notice. Normally she would have screamed. It’s like she’s been lobotomized.’”

Aside from Pigeon’s worrisome mother, Miss Doulin is set up early in the book as the children’s main adversary and authority figure. Like the parents in town, she becomes obsessed with her fudge addiction to the exclusion of everything else. This is a handy method to eliminate adult interference, but it also deprives the children of any mature guidance in their dealings with Mrs. White.

“‘I don’t want candy that could kill someone,’ Summer said. Mrs. White sighed, glancing at her wristwatch. ‘Lots of things have the potential to kill someone, my dear. A baseball bat. A ladder. A bicycle. It all depends on how you use them.’”

Summer frequently voices her suspicions and concerns about the candy. As in an earlier quote, Mrs. White uses the tactic of minimizing the downside of her confections. By glancing casually at her watch, she conveys the impression that Summer’s concern is trivial and she has many more important things to do than to entertain such nervous imaginings. Ms. White is well aware of the lethal nature of her treats.

“Guys, I’m worried that we’ve gotten in way over our heads. Candy that makes you float around is one thing. Candy that lets you create infernos and control people’s minds is another. Whoever Mrs. White is, she is very powerful, and I’m starting to really worry she might not be one of the good guys.”

Pigeon has just called a secret meeting of the Blue Falcons to order. He echoes Summer’s earlier concerns that the candy has a steep downside. He might have reached this conclusion about Mrs. White’s motives much sooner if he had been able to discuss the matter with a mature adult. However, the children have only each other in their search for a moral compass.

“‘Here’s the other question,’ Nate said. ‘Is the candy so awesome that you would do all this just to be able to use it? The answer for me is yes. I’ve hoped all my life that something this cool would happen to me.’”

In making this statement, Nate is articulating a plausible motive for his continued involvement with a shady character like Mrs. White. Aside from the dangerous nature of the treats themselves, they offer excitement and adventure. Life in a small town carries a level of monotony that is particularly difficult for children to bear. Nate frankly admits his desire to break out of the ordinary. Sadly, he will come to regret getting what he wished for.

“As you know, most of my confections work best on children. But a few function equally well on adults, like the white fudge. Interestingly, adults tend to remain most susceptible to magic that dulls their senses and reduces their vision.”

This quote might best be understood if paired with the preceding comment. While Nate yearns for excitement, he finds the perfect solution in Mrs. White’s superpower candies. In contrast, most adults are faced with stress and worry on a daily basis. They have too much excitement in their lives. A candy that narcotizes them provides a welcome relief. Under its influence, they all cease to worry.

“‘This relationship requires trust,’ Mrs. White said. ‘I trust you with candy so powerful that most grown, responsible adults would misuse it. You trust me that the assignments I select are in our best interest. Otherwise we should end the relationship.’ ‘You can’t just expect us to blindly do whatever you say,’ Summer said. ‘You have to earn trust.’”

The book contains multiple conversations on the subject of trust. Who deserves it? How is it acquired? Can trust be destroyed? At many points, Mrs. White talks a good game. Her words in this quote suggest integrity and fair dealing when her true motives are the opposite. She sounds like someone who ought to be trusted, but Summer believes actions speak louder than words.

“‘You might be able to try quitting like me and Pigeon,’ Summer considered. ‘Just return all the candy and walk away. But with what she told you about Mr. Stott, you may know too much.’ ‘Plus if we quit and try to pretend like none of this happened, we won’t be able to learn any more info,’ he said. ‘I have to find out what is going on.’”

Again, Nate offers a comment that explains his motivation. The reader might be inclined to ask why anyone would continue to take orders from Mrs. White after her true colors have been revealed. Nate indicates that he wants to get to the bottom of her scheme before quitting. In saying this, he demonstrates that he is no longer seduced by the lure of the candy. He wants the truth even though it may carry personal risk to find out what it is.

“‘But now I fear the only way to stop her and those like her may be to locate the treasure myself.’ ‘And what would stop you from using it for bad purposes?’ Summer asked. ‘Mrs. White makes the same claims about you as you make about her.’ ‘No magician would trust another with a talisman such as this,’ Mr. Stott acknowledged.”

Stott’s involvement in the story creates confusion for the children. He and Mrs. White are both after the same prize. As she so often does, Summer questions the truth of what adults tell her. Stott’s answer doesn’t offer much consolation. He understands the temptation that magical power represents by admitting his own susceptibility if he possessed the talisman. It offers the one gift he can’t acquire for himself—youth.

“Trevor opened his eyes. Mrs. White stood above him wearing a lavender robe with lace embellishing the neck. She shook her head sadly. ‘I had so hoped to spare you from the horrors of my dark side.’”

Trevor has just been cornered in Mrs. White’s shop. Her entire attitude is one of mild adult disappointment at the antics of a youngster. While her words are uttered in a grandmotherly tone, they carry a dire threat. Fortunately, Trevor is able to escape back inside the mirror before she can demonstrate what those horrors are.

“He walked up the stairs to the bathroom, closed the door, sat on the edge of the bathtub, and cried. Once he got going, he found himself overwhelmed by violent sobs. It had all been so terrible, abandoning his friend to an unknown fate, almost getting captured himself.”

Because the novel is action-driven, the children rarely reflect on the emotions they experience as they sink farther into the dark world of magic. This is a rare moment when Nate seems to register the enormity of the disaster he and his friends have orchestrated. Despite the danger, they enjoyed the thrills of becoming burglars and grave robbers. The thrill has worn off, and only the horror remains.

“It was nightmarish to think of him roaming from mirror to mirror, unable to sleep, no heartbeat, surrounded by darkness and silent windows to the world he had left behind. Summer had worried that Mrs. White might be dangerous, but Trevor’s fate surpassed her worst expectations.”

Summer expresses a similar sense of despair as she contemplates the same loss that Nate is thinking about in the preceding quote. The downside of magic has suddenly become quite real to both children. Their dilemma is made doubly hard because of the lack of support from their parents. The three remaining Blue Falcons must get themselves out of the mess they created.

“He and his friends were about to undertake another mission. This time they were invading a library. Each new mission felt more dangerous. Once Trevor had gotten trapped in the mirror, any semblance of fun had vanished. Magic candy was now only a tool to hopefully help undo the trouble they were in.”

Nate is considering their plight as they undertake another impossible mission. This time they are working under Stott’s orders. However, there is very little difference between one magician’s tactics and another’s. Nate is aware of the irony of his predicament. The Blue Falcons got into trouble by ingesting magical candy. The only way out of their dilemma is to use more of the substance. Stott furnishes an upgrade to their existing arsenal.

“He turned back to the chalkboard, erased his name, and wrote in imposing letters: DON’T TAKE CANDY FROM STRANGERS! Nate squirmed. ‘Now, that may not seem like news to anyone,’ Mr. Dart said. ‘This message, in various forms, has been drilled into children across many cultures for centuries.’”

John Dart has finally returned to the narrative. His story arc now converges with that of the Blue Falcons, and both align to achieve the same goal. Dart’s turn as a substitute teacher allows the author to fill in the gaps of magical lore related to candy and the issue of trusting strangers. Because children are innocent, they are inclined to accept adults at face value. Candy is only a metaphor to illustrate that wariness is a useful survival skill when dealing with strangers who pretend to be friendly.

“‘You can trust this John Dart guy. He won’t let anybody harm your family.’ ‘No, Pigeon, I can’t trust anybody with this,’ Gary said. ‘I have to leave town. Look, I believe that you stumbled into this unluckily. I don’t know what to do. I can’t let you share what you know.’”

This is yet another instance when a character in the novel says that no one can be trusted. The future version of Nate made the same comment to his friends when he warned them against Mrs. White. He extended that warning to cover the world in general. Not trusting anybody becomes a mantra voiced by multiple characters under multiple circumstances.

“He noticed some children around his age walking home from school and felt a little jealous. He longed to be equally oblivious to magic candy and magicians and engineered apprentices. Of course, all he had to do was go home and devour a box of white fudge!”

Nate makes this comment the morning after the epic battle at the library and his subsequent attack at home by the wooden Indian. He has fallen into a bizarre world that is fraught with peril. To see ordinary children engaged in ordinary activities creates a pang of envy. This is a radical reversal from his earlier longing for adventure. It echoes John Dart’s observation in the Prologue that he longs for a job that would take him to tropical beaches. The dark side of magic has affected the outlook of both characters adversely.

“‘One of us has to take the risk—I’ll do it. But if I end up stuck in there, you guys better never rest until you get me out.’ ‘We won’t,’ One and Two promised. ‘I know you won’t,’ Three sighed. ‘I wouldn’t.’”

Nate Three has just made the decision to enter the mirror world to free Trevor. This comment demonstrates a trait that has been implied throughout the novel but never really expressed—loyalty to one’s friends. Even though Nate is technically talking to himself, and it would be natural to assume he would act this way for the sake of self-preservation, he is also demonstrating his loyalty to Trevor by agreeing to take his place. In a world where all the adults are drugged, the children create their own support system with each other.