Ten-thirty on a Friday evening. As I opened the oven to slide the last tray of cookies in, I heard my phone chime from where it was plugged in in the living room. After carefully sliding the sheet in and closing the oven door, I set the potholder down and padded across the kitchen to check the messages.

A text from my oddball friend Carolyn. "Having a good evening? What are you up to?"

"Not much. Making cookies", I texted back. A pause. "How about you?"

"Just getting off work", came the message. "What kind?" Carolyn did research at a hospital and sometimes worked weird hours.

"Chocolate chip", I replied, "it's all I had the ingredients for"

"Sounds yummy", she added a yummy-face emoji, "time to drive home now"

I made a mental note to save a couple in case I saw her soon. Thinking nothing more of it, I put the phone back down and started cleaning up the kitchen while the oven timer ticked down.

Ten minutes passed; the dishes already were in the dishwasher and the counters clean when the timer went off. I got up from the couch to take the cookies out of the oven to cool, sampling one from an earlier batch. Delicious as expected, but it needed milk that I lacked right now. No sooner had I finished eating that still-warm cookie than I heard a knock on my apartment door. I wasn't expecting anybody at all and had a moment of panic; calming down quickly, I fastened the belt on my robe tightly and went to open the door.

I opened the front door to see Carolyn's tired but smiling face. "Hi! Do you mind if I come in?" She was still wearing scrub pants from work and a spare wearing-home sweatshirt.

"...Sure", I said a little bit suspiciously, unsure why she was here, and stepped back enough for her to enter. Carolyn entered and closed the door behind her. She produced a small, black disk from her pocket and started fidgeting with it. "What's that?" I asked. "Um, do you…want a cookie?"

Carolyn didn't reply; she gestured at me with the disk. A beam of blue energy arced like a lightning bolt at me and suddenly I felt my body tense up and lock in place. I tried to move, by my limbs wouldn't obey me. I looked down at my hands, legs, feet; all those part of my body exposed by the robe had the appearance of off-white stone. What was going on!? I asked myself in a panic. I had the emotional sensation of my heart racing, but felt no movement within my solid chest.

"It works!" Carolyn said brightly to herself, or to me. She trailed her fingers on my shoulder as she walked past me to the stove. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see her pick up a cookie and eat it. "Hmph. Yeah, these are really good." She walked back into my field of vision, and looked up and down at me in an exaggerated motion. "And you make a very nice statue, you know."

She slipped her hand inside my robe, running it over my stone chest. Just as I could see in my transformed state, I could still feel; her exploring hand was warm and tender, and again I had the faux heart-racing feeling. "Yeah, it's fun to have you helpless like this. And do you know what I'm going to do with you?"

Carolyn's voice trailed off as she half-slid the robe off my stone shoulder, brought her face in so her lips were touching my stone ear. "I'm going to steal your cookies."

She finished that statement with a small peck on the ear before pulling away. She smiled at me, scrounged an spare grocery bag, and scooped all the freshly-baked cookies into it. She paused for a moment to consider, took one out, and set it on a plate. Then she brushed her fingers gently over my face as she walked to the front door. "Have fun statue time", she called out teasingly, as she walked out the door and pushed it closed behind her.

What was going on? I continued to wonder to myself. First, I was a statue; what was I going to do about that? Was there anything I could do? Second, what did Carolyn want with me? She hadn't seemed particularly interested in me before, but she certainly seemed more than just friendly tonight. If "friendly" could be applied to someone who turned me to stone just now!

Minutes ticked by and I continued to wait and wonder. After half an hour, I suddenly felt my body soften. My legs nearly gave way since I hadn't been using the muscles, and my heart began racing in earnest, as it had felt like when I was a statue. I was free; whatever Carolyn had done to me wasn't permanent. Was this all just a cookie heist?

I pondered this question as I picked up, regarded, and ate the one cookie she had left for me. It really was tasty, and as I ate it, my thoughts ran back to her fingers over my stone chest when she had me helpless in front of her. Somehow, it all seemed…worth it.
Tomorrow I would go out for the ingredients to bake again, and the milk besides. Another mental note: find out from Carolyn what her favorite kind is.