11/11/2026
🍬Sweet Little Thieves🍬
Erika and Kairi were Borrowers, two tiny cousins who thought
Grandma’s glass candy jar was the greatest treasure in the house. It was filled with soft, colorful assorted taffy, each piece as big as a pillow to the little girls. Whenever Grandma settled into her rocking chair and the kitchen grew quiet, they would hurry across the tablecloth, climb the shining curve of the jar, and work together to lift the lid just enough to slip inside. There, in the sweet, fragrant dimness, they would choose their favorite flavors and pass each piece down one careful hand at a time.
They had always promised to take only one piece, but somehow, they couldn’t resist gathering as many as they could carry. Grandma noticed, of course-she noticed the tiny scuffs on the table, the lid left just a little crooked, and the candy jar that seemed to grow lighter by degrees. But she only smiled, as if she were sharing in a secret of her own, and every so often she would refill the jar with fresh assorted taffy and set it back in place with a fond little pat. In Grandma’s kitchen, Erika and Kairi were never scolded for their sweet thievery; they were simply loved, and gently allowed to be as mischievous as Borrowers could be. She wondered where her sweet little thieves had disappeared to next.
Thank you for reading my short story. This shoot drew inspiration from Jole Robinson’s “An Idea Garden” image, which encouraged me to attempt a composite behind glass. Looking around our home, my mother-in-law’s candy jar sparked further ideas. I recalled how the grandkids enjoy taking candy from it and how she chuckles when they take more than they should. From that, the concept emerged. My sweet nieces were wonderful as models for this image. Designing the background one day and capturing the girls on another made for such great fun. I utilized ChatGPT to help me build a vision board so the girls could see my idea. This image is not AI-generated; I captured and composed it, using only a few retouching tools in Photoshop that employ AI.
Looking forward to what we can create next!
