Melia's Sesame Street Adventure
The forest green door at 123 Sesame Street is an inviting sight on this breezy autumn day. Colored leaves begin to gather on the front steps, while others float past along the sidewalk in a slow dance. Melia’s brown hair is blowing in the breeze as her French braid starts to loosen. She hoists her backpack higher onto her shoulders and starts climbing the concrete steps. The windows of the bottom floor apartments are closed. Her blue eyes are drawn to the pale green ruffly curtain with white polka dots that covers the window to her left. That is her destination. Elmo’s apartment. She is slightly nervous about what will happen once inside the building because she has been gone for such a long time – ever since her family moved away 10 years ago. With her shaky hand on the brass doorknob, and her black boots on the rainbow-colored welcome mat, she takes a deep breath and pushes the door open.
Melia nervously enters the foyer and steps up to the door of apartment 1-A. She wipes her sweaty palms on her jeans and knocks. The door opens and there he is – Elmo. He looks the same as he did when she last saw him. Muppets never age.
“Melia, you’ve come to help Elmo!” Elmo chirps out in his childlike voice. He wraps his red fuzzy arms around her in a giant bear hug. She feels every muscle in her body relax as she is transported back to the safety and loving embrace of her childhood best friend.
“Yes, Elmo. I got your message and immediately came to Sesame Street. What can I help you with?” Melia responds.
“Elmo has kept up with all your achievements, Melia. Your win on Food Network’s Kids’ Baking Challenge when you were only 11, all the way up to your most recent win on Cupcake Wars just before you turned 20. Elmo is so proud of you!”
Melia blushes but is very happy to know that he had followed her baking career.
“Elmo thought Melia would like to have her own bakery inside Hooper’s Store.”
“Oh, Elmo! I would love to!” Melia exclaims while she hugs her monster friend.
The two friends stay up late catching up and talking about the new bakery idea. Elmo tells Melia that she can stay with him until she finds her own place. When they finally decide to turn in for the night, Melia lies on Elmo’s plush beige couch thinking how lucky she is to have such a great opportunity to do what she loves with such great friends.
The next morning, Elmo and Melia go to Hooper’s Store to talk to the current owner, Bobby, about their idea. He is excited that they want to help save the store and the three of them immediately start making plans. Bobby clears a section of the store for Melia’s bakery, cleans the glass display case, and helps Elmo set up some tables and chairs so customers can enjoy their treats. Melia decides to paint the wall behind the display case pink – her favorite color. Abby arrives at noon with lunch for everyone. The friends all take a break to enjoy peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches with apple slices and milk. After lunch, Abby stays and helps Melia paint colorful flowers and leaves on the surfaces of the round tables, and matching flowers on the backs of the chairs. The new bakery area looks fantastic.
“What do you want to call your bakery, Melia?” Bobby asks. “We can make a sign and hang it outside.”
Melia thinks about that for a few minutes. She began baking at age 2 with her grandmother, Nonni. She still swaps recipes with Nonni and they have an annual Christmas Cookie Exchange with the entire family. Melia decides that she wants to include Nonni in this new adventure.
“Let’s call it Nonni’s. She taught me how to bake and most of my recipes are hers. It’s only fitting to include her in the name,” Melia responds.
“Elmo likes that name,” Elmo says. “And we FaceTime with Nonni during the Grand Opening of the bakery.”
“And I can make the sign for you, Melia,” Abby volunteers.
“Great ideas! Thank you everyone,” Melia responds.
Later that day, Elmo and Melia go to visit Cookie Monster in his apartment, right next door to Elmo’s place.
“Melia, me so happy to see you again!” Cookie says as he buries her in blue fur with his big hug. “Elmo told me about the bakery. Me can taste all the cookies for you.”
She laughs at Cookie Monster. “Absolutely! I need you to tell me which cookies and treats taste the best.”
That evening, Melia cooks a big meal and invites her friends over to share it with her. She makes spaghetti and meatballs, using Nonni’s recipe. Grover brings garlic bread, and Elmo brings a salad. For dessert, Melia presents a multi-layer truffle that she made with Cookie Monster’s help earlier that afternoon. It has chocolate sponge cake, chocolate pudding, whipped cream, strawberries, and crushed graham crackers. There are no leftovers that evening. After everyone goes home, Melia cleans the kitchen with Elmo’s help.
“Elmo is so happy you’re here,” Elmo says.
“Me too,” Melia responds with a huge smile.
The bakery is going to have a Grand Opening in a few days. Melia makes colorful flyers and hangs one in the window of Hooper’s Store. Elmo helps her and they set off to hand out flyers to Sesame Street residents. Melia goes to Big Bird’s twiggy nest and puts one in his large blue mailbox. Next, she knocks on Oscar’s dented old metal trashcan, but all she hears is him yell “Scram!” so she rolls up a flyer and slides it into the handle of the lid. She sees Bert and Ernie sitting on the front steps of 123 Sesame Street and gives them flyers. Elmo takes some flyers and hands them out to people in the playground. He sees Rosita, Julia, Abby, and Zoey. They are all excited to hear that Melia has returned to Sesame Street and tell Elmo that they will be at the Grand Opening.
Melia spends the next couple of days baking. She makes chocolate chip cookies using the recipe that Nonni gave her when she was first learning to bake. She also makes oatmeal raisin cookies, snickerdoodles, peanut butter cookies, carrot muffins, blueberry muffins, brownies, and blondies. Cookie Monster tastes each thing and loves them all! Melia must hide most of the treats, so he won’t eat everything. The last thing she makes is sugar cookies. She makes many different kinds so each of her loved ones have a chance to enjoy their favorite cookies.
Before she rolls out the dough, she takes out her box of cookie cutters. She has been collecting cookie cutters since she was a child and has a very large collection. There are different shapes, animals, flowers, stars, and multiple holiday cookie cutters. Melia selects which cookie cutters she will use. She cuts out pineapple shaped cookies, football shaped cookies, and tulip shaped cookies. When all the sugar cookies are baked and cooling on several wire racks, Melia cleans up the kitchen. She decides to decorate the sugar cookies in the morning.
Late that night, after Elmo and Melia have gone to bed, they are both awoken by a loud “BUUURRRPP!” The two friends bump into each other as they rush to the kitchen. They find Cookie Monster in the pantry eating the cookies for the Grand Opening.
“Cookie!” Melia shouts.
“Me so sorry, Melia,” Cookie says sadly, “Me ate all of the treats for the bakery.”
Melia starts crying. She knows she doesn’t have enough time to bake more cookies before the Grand Opening the next day. Elmo comforts her and says he has a plan.
Elmo leaves the apartment for a few minutes and then returns with friends eager to help, still wearing their pajamas.
“What’s all this?” Melia asks.
“Elmo woke us up and told us what happened,” Ernie says.
“We’re here to help,” Bert announces.
“And I’m here to gather the ingredients you need from the store,” says Bobby.
Melia is overjoyed. She goes to her recipe box and starts handing out recipes to her friends. She gives the muffin recipes to Bert and Ernie, and some cookie recipes to Zoey and Abby.
Melia starts to bake her cutout sugar cookies again. Once they are cool, she mixes up a large bowl of royal icing and separates the white icing into several small bowls to create the different colors she needs. She ices the pineapple cookies yellow with green leaves, and sprinkles pineapple sugar on top for extra flavor. Next, Melia ices the footballs with brown icing and adds white laces with her piping bag. Lastly, Melia ices the tulip cookies in different shades – pink, yellow, and lavender. With all her treats ready, Melia brings the treats over to Hooper’s Store and starts setting up the display case. Her friends all finish their baking jobs and bring more goodies to the store.
“How much are you going to charge for your cookies and other sweets?” Abby asks.
“I was talking to Count about that. He is going to help me with finances at the bakery. He thinks that if I charge $3 per cookie, and $6 per brownie and muffin, I should be able to make enough money to help Hooper’s Store. As more people come to the bakery, we hope that they will also shop for other items at Hooper’s Store,” Melia explains.
“That sounds great!” Ernie exclaims.
The sun is rising as they finish getting the bakery set up. The brownies, muffins, and decorated sugar cookies are in the display case and the glass cookie jars are filled with the other cookies. Everyone is tired, but they are ready for the Grand Opening.
“Thank you everyone! I couldn’t have done it without your help,” Melia says.
Back at Elmo’s apartment, Melia gets ready for her big day. She puts on jeans and a pink t-shirt, laces up her black hiking boots, and puts her hair into two braids. She selects her favorite apron. It is a Florida Gator apron that used to belong to her grandmother. It’s her lucky apron and she knows it will be lucky for her today. Once she’s ready, Melia heads outside and finds Bobby enjoying coffee on the steps of 123 Sesame Street.
“Are you ready for today, Melia?” Bobby asks.
“Absolutely!”
They walk to Hooper’s Store and very soon dozens of Sesame Street residents start to gather around. Everyone is there to support Melia and is excited about her bakery’s Grand Opening. Bobby and Grover hold strings connected to the tarp over the new bakery sign.
“Good morning, everyone. Thank you for coming today. On the count of three, let’s reveal the new bakery,” Melia announces. Elmo stands close by with Melia’s Nonni on FaceTime.
“1 – 2 – 3!”
Bobby and Grover pull the tarp down and a beautiful white wooden sign is revealed. It has colorful flowers painted on it, as well as “NONNI’S” in decorative script. Everyone gasps and claps. Some are whistling and cheering.
“Oh, Melia! I’m honored!” Nonnie exclaims over the phone.
“I love you, Nonni,” Melia responds.
Everyone files into the store and gathers around the glass display case filled with the sweets Melia and her friends made. Cookie Monster enters the store and goes directly up to Melia.
“Me so sorry,” Cookie Monster says again.
“It’s okay, Cookie. I’ll just keep the extra cookies locked up so you can’t get them,” she laughs as she gives him a big hug.
The first customer is Elmo. He buys a yellow tulip cookie.
“That’s ONE, one cookie sold!” bellows the Count.
Immediately the sales take off and before long, Melia starts running out of goodies. She has a perfect, busy first day at her new bakery. She feels the love from all her friends. Melia knows that Nonni’s is a great addition to Sesame Street and that Hooper’s Store will last forever.
THE END
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