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It was mid August and the Bad Boys were sitting in their newly purchased and very empty cafe: the Bread Bridge: Cafe + Bistro.
The Cafe got its name from Grian's first collage level architecture assignment that Jimmy and Joel, roommates at the time, helped finish.
It was a milestone in their friendship, as it was the Bad Boys first all-nighter, the reason that Grian was a coffee addict, and the first time the cafe idea came up.
The Bad Boys were currently trying to plan out the Bread Bridge's menu, and after flying through the bistro part of the menu, the topic of baked goods came up. And Jimmy realised, very quickly that, even if starting the cafe was a group decision, the idea of baking food that would be sold in said cafe seemed to have slipped everyone's minds.
"What do you mean, you don't know how to bake?" Asked a very confused Jimmy, "This was your idea Joel!"
"I just forgot, okay? It was exam season and majoring in construction isn't as easy as it seems!" Joel shot back, "Yes, it was my idea, but if it was so bad, you didn't have to agree to it!"
Jimmy groaned in frustration, "l agreed because I figured, out of the three of us, at least two of us should know how to bake! We're running a cafe for watcher’s sake!"
"Don't worry about it Tim," Grian put his hand on Jimmy's shoulder and gave him a little shake. "It's just bread and maybe some other baked goods. How hard can it be?"
"Fine." sighed Jimmy reluctantly, "I just want both of you to know that when I can't bake enough to keep this shop running, and we end up getting bankrupt and living on the street, then you will be hearing “I told you so” for weeks."
— — — —
As it turns out, without the proper materials and appliances, Jimmy was indeed correct in his assumption that one person's mediocre baking skills wasn't enough to keep the Bread Bridge fully stocked for longer than a Monday after a long weekend.
It wasn’t Jimmy’s fault for misleading the others, because they knew that he was an art major. But as the one Bad Boy who liked to cook, it started to make more sense why Joel and Grian assumed that he was attending or had attended some type of cooking class.
"I told you so." Said Jimmy for the fifth time that day. He finished wiping his hands after scrubbing his way through a mountain of dishes and went over to join Grian who just finished helping a customer at the cash register.
"I know you did Tim," Grian groaned dramatically, "And I'm sure that we’ll never hear the end of this. It'll be immortalized on your grave:
Here lies Timmy - I told you so".
"It's not my fault!" Jimmy added, as he leaned over the counter "The stupid bread dough takes forever to rise! It takes a full day thanks to the yeast."
"Why didn't you just use store bought dough?" asked Grian, not seeming to understand that for the Bread Bridge business to count as a cafe, Jimmy needed to make the things they sold themselves and store bought dough was clearly cheating.
"You know why," sighed Jimmy.
The bell over the front door rang, signaling Joel's entrance into the Bread Bridge.
"Hey Joel, did you get it?" Jimmy asked while waving him over to the counter.
"No, the office was closed. You'd think that they would know to mention am vs pm when describing their opening hours." Joel sighed, "What's going on?"
"Timmy has a problem with store bought bread dough."
"I do not!" Protested Jimmy, as Grian snickered, "That dough makes everything taste like plastic. And as the baker at the Bread Bridge, I should be able to make something myself."
"Like I said, a problem."
"Could you work with a sourdough starter?" Joel piped up, "Me and Lizzie are watching our neighbors sourdough base, they named it Dragon. I'm sure that you could borrow some."
"Wouldn't your neighbor notice if their dough has shrunk?" Jimmy asked skeptically.
"No, that's the cool thing about it. It grows." Explained Joel, "If you leave your chunk in a jar then that chunk would grow into our own supply of dough."
"That sounds great Joel!” Jimmy agreed. Honestly, he had never worked with sourdough before, but anything was better than Grian’s idea. “Thanks for actually helping me in this situation”
“Hey!”
— — — —
The next day Lizzie visited the Bread Bridge with her dog Merri, and a jar of sourdough starter the same size and weight of a small child, that was indeed named Dragon.
Jimmy scooped out a couple of cups of sourdough starter for his own jar, and the day was made even better when Jimmy was able to find some simple sourdough recipes that looked doable for his low skill level.
Unfortunately, or fortunately (from a certain perspective) His luck was crushed when Grian thought to ask why Lizzie and Joel were essentially babysitting bread dough.
"What do you mean “You need to feed it!?” It's dough!" asked a very shocked Jimmy.
“Calm down Jimmy. Look everything is fine.”
Joel said, unsuccessfully trying to reassure Jimmy that, just because the sourdough starter needed food that didn’t mean it was any threat to his safety or job.
“It’s not too bad, all you need to do is keep it in a room temperature location and feed it daily. You will be fine.”
“But it still needs to be fed,” Jimmy was panicking now and pacing around the Cafe's wooden floors, “What does it need, blood sacrifices? Mice? Human bones? What do I need to sacrifice? How often does it need to be fed?”
“Tim.” Grian stood in front of him with his hands on his Jimmy’s shoulder “Like you said, its dough. Not any sort of monster or demon, its grain and water. Give it a week, and if you still think that it'll eat you in your sleep, then bake it into a loaf of bread and feed it to the ducks for all I care.”
“Actually,” added Lizzie, who was playing with Merri nearby, “You really shouldn’t feed bread to ducks, it's unhealthy for them due to bread’s lack of nutrition.”
“Fine,” sighed Grian, “You can bake it into some bagels and we'll give them out to the homeless or something like that. If it actually starts eating you or your frog, then we'll call Lizzie and Joel, so they can come over and shoot the living daylights out of it.”
Jimmy eventually gave in, after promising that if the sourdough starter wanted blood, Jimmy would give it Grian’s address and send it on its way. Grian laughed and reminded him that they were roommates, Lizzie left with Merri and Joel gave a quick reminder to everyone that the Bread Bridge would be opening soon.
— — — —
As it turns out, remembering to feed what you thought was an inanimate object was a lot harder than Jimmy thought.
He really wanted the sourdough to work out and yes, he walked past it every day, and yes, he tried his best to stick to the feeding schedule but just like a new years resolution, after the first week you start to lose what little interest you had in it.
Although this was a little more important then your normal new years resolution as forgetting to go to the gym everyday wouldn’t impact your business and ability to make good bread.
The sourdough's slow starvation became very apparent on a chilly September morning, when Jimmy walked into the kitchen to start prepping for the day and saw that the sourdough starter looked like it had shrunk an inch and now had a thin layer of a black liquid that might have been water.
“Oh god. I’ve killed it”.
— — — —
“Timmy. How did you manage to kill bread?” Grian yawned, as he had just walked through the door and hadn’t had his fifth shot of espresso for the day.
“I don’t know,” Jimmy was wide awake now, “Some days I might have fed it too much, so I tried to make up for it by not feeding it for a couple of days, but I might have left it for too long, and now it’s dead!”
“Are you sure?” Asked Joel, “How do you know it's dead?”
“Just look at it! I had one job and that was to feed it. How did I mess that up?” Jimmy was back in panic mode and started pacing around the kitchen.
“Okay, calm down.” said Grian “Have you done any research on this sourdough starter? Or asked anyone for a second opinion?”
“No I haven't, but just look at it!” Jimmy picked up the jar, shaking it in Grian's facs, “Does this look alive to you?”
“Okay, okay.” Joel said, trying and failing to deescalate the situation. “Stop your pacing Jim, it will be fine and we can fix this. Do you think we can revive it?”
“I'm not worried about reviving it, I’m worried about its brethren seeking vengeance.” said a very frantic Jimmy, “Joel, did you know that sourdough starter is actually made up from bacteria? What if it's part of some type of hive mind? Can I borrow your gun for protection?
“What? No! Jimmy, I'm not giving you my gun!" Responded Joel, “We have been over this before Jimmy. It's just bread, not an alien hivemind from outer space. Now how do we resurrect it?”
Before Jimmy could answer with another conspiracy he found on Reddit, Grian piped up,
“Hey Tim! The dough is okay”
“Really?” asked Jimmy, “Are you sure? How do you know?”
Before Grian could respond, he was cut off by Joel, who had just checked the clock hanging on the wall of the Bread Bridge’s kitchen.
“Guys we need to open the shop, it’s 8:20. Get to your positions! And Jimmy, figure out what's going on with that dough.Try doing more research then just Reddit and WikiHow
Jimmy admitted defeat with a sigh, “Fine, I’ll do “Proper” research. Let's hope we have a slow day today.”
— — — —
Just as Jimmy’s luck would allow, that day just so happened to be the Bread Bridge: Cafe + Bistro’s busiest day of the month.
So that meant, along with missing his lunch break, Jimmy didn’t have a chance to do proper research until after he had gotten back to his shared apartment when he remembered the sourdough starter and the sad state it was left in.
Thankfully this nearly midnight research session was relatively simple. Searching “How to know if sourdough starter is dead?” was enough to easily find a couple of different articles and forums where lots of people were happy to show off their sourdough starters like proud parents showing pictures of their dogs.
What Jimmy learned at was:
1. His sourdough is fine. (just starving)
2. Sourdough starters aren’t alien hiveminds.
3. If his sourdough starter ever started to turn orange or pink, to throw it out because that was mold.
4. The black liquid was called Hooch and is perfectly normal. (just stir it into the dough and it will be fine)
5. Grian was (unfortunately) right.
“Grian!” Jimmy called out to his roommate, “The sourdough is fine! We don't need to use the store bought stuff!”
“Knew it!” Grian yelled back, “I told you so! Now get to sleep!”
“Fine, see you tomorrow!”
“Night!”
Jimmy yawned and picked his phone up again. He should probably learn how to get his sourdough starter back to a workable state by tomorrow.
— — — —
Jimmy was up and at the Bread Bridge earlier than normal the next morning. Entering the building at a crisp 5:10 am meant that he had three hours to himself and the sourdough loaf to get it working before the store opened and at least two hours before Grian and Joel arrived wondering where he was.
“Alright sourdough.” Said Jimmy, while grabbing a bag of flour and some measuring cups, “It's just you and me for a while, so these articles better be correct.”
The article in question that he had binged at midnight declared that reviving your sourdough was a simple task.
All you needed to was feed it a little more then normal then switch back to your normal feeding sizes. This wasn't as simple as it seemed though because Jimmy hadn’t been feeding the sourdough consistently since the afternoon he got it.
Thankfully the article seemed to be prepared for that as it made sure to specify that you SHOULD be feeding your sourdough at least one cup of flour per day, So Jimmy poured a little over one cup of flour into the jar, stirred it into the gooey dough and waited.
And waited,
And waited.
...
Okay, so maybe this would take longer than 10 seconds.
“Come on, sourdough. You will work with me or you will be the death of me.”
As the bacteria in a sourdough starter doesn't speak English, it didn’t respond.
Jimmy started again, “Look, I need this bread to keep this business afloat. I need to get this working so you are going to have to cooperate or I don't know what I'll do! I can't let Joel and Grian down, I've already messed up before and I can't deal with that again.
Is it food? Do you want more flour or are you being stubborn? I’m sorry for starving you but I don't speak bread, so -”
At that moment Grian burst through the kitchen doors with Joel right behind him panting heavily, only to see Jimmy holding the sourdough jar at eye level like he was a football coach giving his team a pep talk.
“What are you doing?” Grian asked slowly. “And why didn't you leave a note?”
“I did leave a note!” Jimmy protested, quickly putting the sourdough jar back on the counter and closing the lid. “Did you check the kitchen fridge?”
“Tim. writing “I KNOW THE BREAD WORKS, SEE YIU AT BRIDGE BYE.” and sticking it on the fridge upside down does not count as leaving a note.” Grian explained as Joel asked “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” Jimmy responded quickly, trying to change the subject."Both me and the dough are fine. Do you want some coffee Joel? Grian?”
“Thanks for offering, but let me get you a cup. I don't know when you got up but you might need it to get through the day.” Yawned Grian as he headed back to the front of the store.
Joel stood beside Jimmy and put his hand on his shoulder. “This is about more than sourdough right?”
“You know it.” Jimmy was starting to crash now that the adrenaline rush that came with thinking he had FINALLY understood his sourdough, had worn off. “I just wanted to get it right and not mess it up again.”
“You aren't messing this up Jimmy, we are all working through this and messing up together.” Said Joel, “Lizzie told me that at least five times during finals week. The best thing to do is step back from the situation and recharge.”
“Fine.” mumbled Jimmy.
“I mean it Jim. Refuel your body, just like the sourdough. Give it some food and water, then let it rest. Look,”
Joel pointed at the sourdough jar sitting on the counter,
“It already looks better now that it's been fed. I know things were bad, but now they're okay.”
Joel patted his back and headed over to the kitchen door as he said, “Grian's got a pot of coffee on, so come on out when you can. And Jim,”
Joel paused when he reached the door,
“What happened with you and Tango was not your fault.”
And with that Joel left the kitchen and Jimmy was alone with his thoughts, an opened bag of flour and his sourdough. He glanced at the jar and announced,
“I'm going to name you Executioner.”
Then he followed Joel out of the kitchen to get something to drink.
— — — —
Joel was right. Things were, and would continue to be okay.
Jimmy took the rest day off and after feeding himself and Executioner, he promptly passed out.
And as the days passed the sourdough slowly (really slowly) started to rise again.
Although Jimmy still forgot to feed it or would overfeed it by accident, with enough research and time, he was soon the proud adopted parent of his own sourdough starter: Executioner.
Although Grian thought the name was weirdly morbid and Joel didn't quite understand it but made the jar a name tag and went along with it, Jimmy was proud of the sourdough.
It was his sourdough and he soon learned to enjoy the monotony of a proper daily routine.
— — — —
It was another chilly day in the midst of October and Jimmy happened to be the first of the Bad Boys to arrive at the shop that morning.
Normally he and Grian walk to the store together and Joel shows up later but on that day Grian had been up late and slept in. So Jimmy left a “proper” note on the fridge and went to the Bread Bridge on his own.
Jimmy unlocked the storefront as he took off his coat and grabbed his apron by the storage closet also known as the staff room, then made his way into the kitchen to feed his sourdough.
The kitchen was covered in a warm glow cast from the morning sun breaking through the falling leaves as Jimmy fed Executioner one cup of flour and stirred it into the jar.
As Jimmy looked at the sourdough, he couldn't help but feel proud at how far it had come. Starting as a scoop from Joel's neighbor’s sourdough to Executioner, Jimmy's sourdough that was alive and thriving.
It might have just been dough, but it was Jimmy's sourdough and he wasn't giving up on it.