No Dough

"Why would they not fund us?" he asks rhetorically. "They can't say I was a risk. I fought closing until they broke me. Only they can answer that for themselves."

There are new worries. Unpaid vendors have sued for bills amounting to tens of thousands of dollars. And the SDDC has filed its own suit against the Williamses and the bakery seeking payment of the remainder of its loan. And the loans that Bank of America made to the bakery--the initial $45,000 and the later $100,000--are both in default. Yet Richard Williams says he won't declare bankruptcy. He's going to fight on.

"I sacrificed everything," he says. "That [second] $100,000 would have been worth their time. In my opinion, they didn't really care about the money. They cared more about putting us out of business."

Then Richard Williams gets a prophetic tone in his voice, and a calm spreads throughout his 6-foot-9 frame. Scratch Bake will live again one day; he knows it. "I ain't worried," he says. "It's all going to be all right.