Candy Land Adventure

By Lourdes Baltazar

     Caroline sat on her front porch staring at the drain in her alley. Why would someone be talking in a drain? Caroline thought. And why would it be a kid? Yesterday, Caroline heard voices coming from the drain in her alley as she was going to her dance lessons. She assumed her black German Shepherd named Bailey heard the voices, too, because she started pulling on her leash towards the drain and barking. 

     “Caroline?! Caroline!” Time for supper! Can you please set the table?” a voice called from inside the house.

     “Sure, mom! Coming! Oh, and when is dad gonna get home? Shouldn’t he be here by now?”

     “He’s on his way, honey,” Caroline’s mom answered through the door.

     Caroline’s dad, David, worked as a school janitor. He worked at Arlington Heights Elementary in Bloomington, while he lived in Indianapolis, way too far away from home. Caroline’s school was Park Tutor. She was a 3rd grader. The school year was almost over, and she would be a 4th grader! She only had 22 days left! The reason Caroline’s dad worked so far away was because Caroline’s family didn’t have much money. David couldn’t find a job that paid him well enough in Indianapolis, and in a lot of other places nearby. The one he liked was in Bloomington, a 45 minute drive away!

     “Almost done, Caroline? Dad’s in the driveway.”

     “Yeah, all I have to do is get the paper plates,” Caroline replied to her mom.

     “Hi, everybody!” a voice called from the mudroom.

     “Hi, Dad,” Caroline replied.

     “Hi, David,” Caroline's mom, Christina, replied.

     “Is the food ready yet? I’m starving,” David commented.

     “Yep,” Christina replied. “Everybody, time to sit down and eat!”

***

     When everybody was done eating, Caroline cleared the table and went to bed.

     “Night, night, Caroline,” Christina called from downstairs.

     “Good night, honey,” David said as he was tucking Caroline in.

     “Good night, Mom,” Caroline called back. “Good night, Dad.”

***

     When Caroline woke up the next morning at 6:42am, she went downstairs to eat, and left a note on her mom’s nightstand that said,

Dear Mom,

I’m going to be over at Sylvia’s house. It’s a Saturday, so I don’t have to worry about school.

-Caroline

     Silvia was Caroline’s neighbor, and best friend from school. Caroline had to tell Silvia about the voices from the drain.

     Caroline skipped down the sidewalk with her silky brown hair flapping behind her. ‘Knock.’ Caroline knocked on Silvia’s wooden front door. The door swung open on the first knock.

     “Hi, Caroline! Coming to see if I could play? ‘Cuz guess what, I was just about to do the same thing! So funny!”

     “Really?” Caroline replied. Silvia nodded, and her blonde hair-bun bobbed back and forth at the top of her head. “Anyways, come here, I want you to do something with me. You’re the bravest person I know and one of the only people who might believe me. Coming?”

     “Mmm-hmm!” Silvia replied, and Caroline led the way to the drain in her alley.

     “See that drain?” Caroline asked when they got to the alley.

     “Yeah,” Silvia replied.

     “Well, I’m gonna need you to go down there with me.”

     “Fine with me,” Silvia said.

     “Really?”

     “Yep. I play hide-and-seek in the drain, nobody ever finds me. All it is, is a stinkiness, and the dark. Not at all that bad.” There was a pause. Then, Silvia broke the silence.

     “So, what are we waiting for! Let’s go!”

     And that day, Caroline learned something new about Silvia; she always had a rope. Silvia put a rope through the holes in the sewer lid and apparently, Silvia has super strength, or she’s just extremely strong, because she could lift the lid of the drain by herself.

     “Tie the rope around your waist and jump down. I gotcha from the top,” Silvia said.

     “Oh,” Caroline said, trying to make her voice sound like this whole thing was no big deal, but at heart, Caroline was scared to death. She jumped down anyways.

     “Aaaaahhhhh!” Caroline screamed.

     “Caroline, you’re at the bottom now,” Caroline heard Silvia say over her screaming, “and I’m coming down! Weeeee!” Silvia’s feet hit the ground with a ‘thud!’

     “So, you never actually told me why we’re coming down here.”

     “Oh, I heard voices coming from here.”

     “You heard voices too?! So did I! Although, the voices sounded like kids.” Another pause. “Anyways, let’s go investigate!”

***

As the two girls were walking…

“Hey! Ginger! Give me my toy back!” Caroline and Sylvia froze.

“That’s the same voice I heard two days ago!” Caroline whispered.

“Me too,” Silvia whispered back. “Now, let’s see whose voice it is.” Caroline gulped before saying,

“Okay.” Then, they tiptoed in the direction of the voice.

“Whoa!” Caroline and Silvia said at the same time. What stood in front of them was a world of moving, talking candy and desserts the size of people! Then…

“Humans!” A gingerbread boy screeched.

“Aaaahhhh!” All the candies and desserts yelled, and then everything was silent, and everyone was gone.

“Why did everybody hide from us?” Silvia asked, taking a step into the new world. “We just got here!”

“Maybe, they were scared we’d eat them,” Caroline suggested. Who wouldn’t want to eat a giant cookie?”

“True,” Silvia replied, “but I still want to meet everybody. Or should I say every candy?”

     “Har, har, har. Very funny,” Caroline said dramatically. “When are we gonna go look around this place?” But Silvia wasn’t there; she was knocking on doors to see if anyone would answer. Then, suddenly, a voice piped up from down the road.

***

     “Well, well, well,” said the voice. “What do we have here? Do we have some humans wandering through my candy land? Why, I think we do.” The owner of the low, evil-like voice came out of the shadow. There stood a man with lush purple skin, a tuxedo, and a mustache made of licorice. Caroline held back a giggle, but Silvia bust out laughing. By the end of Silvia’s laughing fit, her face was red, and Caroline had formed a big smile on her face. They both looked up at the purple man; he had a trying-not-to-show-embarrassment face.

     “And who are you?” Silvia asked with a smile on her face.

     “I am Sir Licorice, and I am going to throw you in my dungeon for laughing at me.” Sir Licorice stuck his hands out, and licorice came flying out. It wrapped around Silvia’s body so she couldn’t move or talk!

     “Silvia!” Caroline cried. “What have you done to my friend! Wait, is that licorice? Silvia, eat through!” Silvia shook her head.

     “I fafte fiforfish!” Silvia tried to say through the licorice.

“What?”

“I fafte fiforfish!” Silvia said again.

“Do you hate some kind of fish?” Caroline asked, trying to figure out what Silvia was saying.

     “She means she hates licorice. Very rude.” Caroline jumped. She had forgotten Sir Licorice was even there. He had been so quiet. Then, Caroline got the feeling; the feeling when someone just shows up behind you and no one tells you. She turned around, and there was a giant red licorice stick with a face and limbs. This time, it was Caroline who burst out laughing, because Silvia couldn’t.

     “Take them away, Licorice Stick - to the dungeon. Don’t let them escape. Now, go.”

     “Yes, sir.” Licorice Stick grabbed Caroline and Silvia and dragged them down the road. Then, suddenly, Licorice Stick stopped, said he needed to go to the bathroom and that they should look away, but really, he was going to drag Caroline and Silvia. Then, something stuck into Caroline and Silvia, and then…

***

“Where are we?” Caroline asks, rubbing her eyes. Then, she looked around; she was in a small room with Silvia, made out of licorice.

“Ha!” Silvia said. “Anyone can break out of this room. It’s made of licorice. Stupid.” She went over to a wall and took a bite. “Bleh. I forgot I hate licorice. So disgusting.”

     “I love licorice. I. Will. Eat!” Caroline exclaimed and ran to the wall. “Aaarrrggghhh! Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum.” Chomp. Chomp. Chomp. “Ooohhh, my belly hurts. I can’t eat it all. Silvia, can you please eat some? It’s our only hope.”

“Why don’t we tear it? It’s candy, you know. I don’t want to eat the disgusting licorice candy.”

“Licorice is too stretchy to break.”

“I will try to eat it, but if I don’t like it too much, you can’t make me eat it.”

“Fine.” Then, Silvia took the biggest dare of her life.

CHOMP.

“Eeewww!” Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew!”

“It wasn’t that gross,” Caroline said, rolling her eyes.

“Yes it was!” Silvia cried. Then, Caroline had an idea.

     “Why don’t we use your rope to break the licorice? I’ll take two more bites out of the two licorice sticks around the one that we already bit, and we’ll wrap your rope around the licorice stick we already bit, because it’s thinner, and then we’ll pull until it breaks.”

Silvia already had her rope out and was waiting for Caroline to take the bites. When Caroline was done explaining her idea, she saw that Silvia was ready, and walked over to take some big bites. Then, Silvia wrapped the rope around the one licorice stick and said, “On three, we’ll pull. Ready to escape prison?”

     “Ready,” Caroline replied.

     “One… Two… Three!” Caroline and Silvia pulled with all their might. They pulled so hard that it broke free immediately (probably from Silvia’s super strength), and Caroline and Silvia flung back from the force.

“Finally!” Cried Silvia. “I’ve been surrounded by all this gross candy for too long!”

“Honestly,” said Caroline, “it isn’t the worst candy in the world!”

“Is too! I can’t think of one that’s worse.”

“Whatever,” replied Caroline. Then, a voice came from behind them.

     “You guys gotta get outta here before Sir Licorice comes back to get you.” Caroline and Silvia spun around to see who said that. They both got a little dizzy from spinning around so quickly, and so they fell down, and when they got back up, Caroline’s hair was all tangled and in her face, and she had to use her hands to push it out of the way while Silvia and the thing that had the voice were waiting impatiently.

“Okay, ready!” Caroline exclaimed when she was finally done. “Now, who said that?”

“Caroline, you’re facing the wrong way. Turn around slowly so you don’t fall again.” Caroline ignored Silvia’s advice and spun around again and went through the same routine. She went through that routine about five times before she finally took Silvia’s advice.

     “Who’s there!?” Caroline said when she was facing the right way. In front of Caroline and Silvia was a lollipop with limbs and a sucker for a head. It was one of those giant, swirly, rainbow lollipops.

     “Sir Licorice is an evil candy. By the way, don’t eat me, that’s why everyone ran away from you little dudettes when Ginger screamed ‘humans!’ Last time some other dudes found our awesome world, they snuck in and tried to eat all the good guys, but they never went for the evil Sir Licorice.”

“Probably because they were smart, and they don’t like licorice,” said Silvia.

“They’re dumb if they don’t like licorice,” argued Caroline.

“And I find that offensive,” replied Silvia.

“Stop fighting, you two! Sir Licorice will hear you!” exclaimed Lollie.

“I already have heard you,” said a very familiar voice, coming out of nowhere. Lollie, Caroline, and Silvia all jumped, startled.

“Where are you, Sir Licorice!?” said Caroline, her voice quivering.

“What Caroline means,” said Silvia, jumping, “is, where are you Sir Licorice!?”

     “I simply cannot tell you,” replied Sir Licorice’s voice. “But I can tell you that you need to get back in that dungeon cell or… or… or… I’m still thinking of a plan so dreadful it’ll take some time, but get back in the dungeon cell!”

“No,” said Lollie.

“No!?”

            “No.”

            “Did you just say ‘no’?”

            “I said ‘no,’ so, ‘no!’”

     “Oh. Well, too bad! Besides, I’m telling the human brats to go back in there. Aren’t you scared the human people thinga-majigs are gonna eat you? ‘Member what happened last time the human disgraces came to our wonderful, and might I add delicious, world? That was awful, seeing my royal subjects losing limbs and getting decapitated. How horrible just thinking of it.”

     “I am not your royal subject! And neither is the rest of Candy Land, Sir Licorice.”

     “My name is King Licorice. I am your new, humble leader of Candy Land and, therefore, you are my royal subject. Oh, and something else you can call me is your Oh Wise and Glorious King!”

     “Horrific!” said Lollie. Seeing that “King Licorice” was occupied with Lollie, Caroline knew that this was the time to escape.

***

     Caroline and Silvia were running down Delicious Drive as fast as they could to the drain where they came down. Finally turning down Scrumptious Street, they got to the porthole they were looking for. The two girls stopped, realizing that neither of them were tall enough to reach the drain lid to get out. Then, Silvia felt a tap on her shoulder. She spun around, realizing that what had tapped her hadn’t come from Sir Licorice’s hand, but from a little chocolate bunny’s paw.

     “What on earth just happened?” Asked Caroline, very confused why Silvia turned around.

     “There’s this super cute little bunny made of chocolate that tapped me on the shoulder. You should see it. Turn around,” Silvia replied. Caroline turned around to see a super cute little bunny that had tapped Silvia on the shoulder.

     “P-P-Please don’t e-e-eat me,” shuddered the bunny. “Have the o-o-other c-c-candy I brought y-y-you.” The bunny, you could tell, was a girl. She had a soft, sweet voice, and a big tail. It wasn’t fluffy because, well, she was made of chocolate. The sweet bunny’s tummy and the inside of her ears were a white chocolate, as was the tail, and the rest of her was a milk chocolate. There was a basket beside her with two swirly lollipops like Caroline and Silvia’s friend, Lollie, two lollipops that were shaped like unicorn horns, two chocolate bunnies, and two chocolate bars.

     “We won’t eat you. Now, what’s your name?” asked Caroline, gently.

     “M-M-My name is Little B-B-Bunny Chocolate Tail,” replied Little Bunny Chocolate Tail, “b-but my village just c-calls me ‘Cocoa Tail.’ M-My parents named me after some E-Easter bunny up in y-y-your world.”

     “Do you mean Little Bunny Cotton Tail?”

     “Y-Yes.”

     “How nice. Well, my name is Caroline Trench, and this is my best friend, Silvia Applegate. We are trying to go back up to our world because we assume Sir Licorice will realize we’re gone and come after us.”

     “Sir Licorice found you!” Cocoa Tail exclaimed. “This is worse than I thought! Here, have some candy to munch on white I think.” Cocoa Tail handed the basket of candy to Silvia, and Silvia took it greedily. Then, realizing she had to share, she gave Caroline her share.

     “I have to tell the rest of Candy Land! There is no other way!” Cocoa Tail told Silvia and Caroline.

     “What if Caroline and I just go to our world through this drain? Could you give us a lift?” Silvia suggested.

     “That doesn’t go back to your world right now; right now, that’s the porthole to the Veggie Planet. It’s two in the afternoon now. So you’ll need to wait until five ‘til you can get back to your world. You see, the porthole changes where it leads every two hours. You got here at six forty-two this morning - eighteen minutes before the porthole changed. Each land the porthole leads to has two numbers - one for when it opens, and one for when it closes. Your human porthole opens at five in the morning and evening and closes at seven in the morning and evening. Everyone keeps a sheet of paper to keep track of what comes when.” Little Chocolate Bunny Tail pulled out a sheet of paper:

PORTHOLE TIMES

1 and 3: Veggie Planet

3 and 5: Book Land

5 and 7: Human World

7 and 9: Music Planet

9 and 11: Fruit Land

11 and 1: Writing World

This PORTHOLE TIMES belongs to:

Little Bunny Chocolate Tail

     “All worlds, planets, and lands have portholes to all worlds, planets, and lands. Just at different times,” said Cocoa Tail.

     “Can we just go to Veggie Planet?” Asked Caroline.

     “Why on earth would you want to go to Veggie Planet? Veggie Planet’s leader is Bad Broccoli. They try to take over all of the different world, planets, and lands. Except for yours, because they know you will eat them.”

     “Oh. What’s Book Land like? I really like to read, so surely we can go there for an hour,” Caroline commented.

     “Ah, Book Land is wonderful!” Cocoa Tail exclaimed. “It’s like a magical library. When you walk into Book Land, it’s full of shelves and shelves of books. You pick out a book, and the characters come alive! So, think of James and the Giant Peach! A giant peach would pop out of the page, along with James and all of the bugs. Then, it’s like watching a play. You see exactly what happens in the book, right in front of your face, and you’re not in the book, so anything dangerous doesn’t hurt you. You should see Cinderella! It’s wonderful!”

     “Can we go there at three?” Silvia asked.

“I hope,” Cocoa Tail replied, “but we only have one hour to get the rest of Candy Land on our side.”

“Alright!” Silvia said to Caroline. “Let’s hurry. Start knocking on doors.”

“Before you go, make sure you take the basket of candy, it’s for you so you don’t eat me,” Cocoa Tail said quickly, trying not to give Silvia and Caroline any ideas.

***

     By the time Silvia, Caroline, and Cocoa Tail had finished knocking on every door in Candy Land, they had a bit more than half of everybody on their side. They had: a gingerbread cookie family that included Ginger, Lollie’s older sister, Cocoa Tail’s father, an ice cream cone, 16 Hershey’s bars, a family of peeps, three cupcakes, seven chocolate dipped strawberries, six families of Christmas tree shaped sugar cookies, 11 Snickers bars, and 26 Hershey’s kisses, At the last minute, a Dum Dum sucker joined them, along with bubblegum.

     “Alright, everyone!” screamed Cocoa Tail. ‘Our first riot against the all evil, Sir Licorice!” The crowd roared in agreement. 

     “Let’s all go to Sir Licorice’s fortress and surround it. Arm yourselves with bubble buggers! Sir Licorice has a lot of guards.”

You must be wondering what bubble boogers are. Well, the bubblegum have boogers made out of bubblegum. The only difference between the bubblegum itself and the boogers made is that the boogers are ultra sticky. So, they can be used as a weapon. Their other weapon is a toothpick. That’s used as a sword.

Everyone was marching down Amazing Avenue straight to Sir Licorice’s fortress. When every got to Sir Licorice’s fortress, the licorice stick guards immediately got in their defense positions. The lead of the guards went to the licorice tube to tell Sir Licorice what was going on. Inside the fortress, Sir Licorice was more scared than ever.

     “Sir? Sir? Do you read me? Attack on your fortress with toothpicks and bubble boogers,” the licorice stick said. “Sir? Sir?”

     “I-I’m here!” Sir Licorice said, wishing what he said wasn’t true. Sir Licorice wished he wasn’t there. He wanted to be far, far away, and most of all, he wanted to be safe.

“Alright, Sir. Can you come outside to use your hands?”

“WHAT! I-I mean, I mean, y-y-y-yeah.” Sir Licorice got up from his couch as slowly as he could. Then, he walked slowly to the farthest door. All of a sudden, he hears a big ‘BOOM!’

     “Aaahhh!” Sir Licorice jumped a foot in the air. “What was that!?” Sir Licorice was greeted with a huge ball; it was a gigantic jawbreaker. It had crashed through the roof and landed directly in front of Sir Licorice.

Meanwhile, outside the fortress, the candy and the licorice sticks were still fighting. The licorice sticks were losing badly. But, what the candy didn’t know was they Sir Licorice was standing behind a tall bush, right behind Silvia, Caroline, and Cocoa Tail, ready to strike.

***

     Sir Licorice threw his hands out in front of him, and Licorice came flying out around Silvia, wrapping her up so she couldn’t move. Then, around Caroline, the Cocoa Tail, realizing she was next, screamed.

“Our human leaders have been wrapped up by licorice! Only one candy can shoot licorice out of his hands.” Then, all together, all of the good candies screamed, “SIR LICORICE!”

“And guess what,” Cocoa Tail screamed even louder, “Sir Licorice is hiding right behind this bush.” Cocoa Tail pointed to the bush directly behind Caroline and Silvia.

“Let’s get him!” The good candies screamed.

     Sir Licorice stood up and said, “How dare my royal subjects riot against me!” Then, he held out his hands, threatening to wrap everyone up.

     “You wouldn’t dare wrap us up, because then you wouldn’t have any royal subjects!” The cupcake with the pink frosting, blue sprinkles, and one candle said.

     “It doesn’t matter, you all wouldn’t be rioting against your king.” While the cupcake and Sir Licorice were arguing, Cocoa Tail had been unwrapping Silvia and Caroline, and all three leaders crept up behind Sir Licorice with the long licorice strips, and captured the all evil, Sir Licorice. The warriors cheered, and even the licorice sticks cheered.

“We are no longer under the Sir’s control! You have freed us!” the lead licorice stick announced to his other licorice sticks.

“What shall we do with the man?” asked a Hershey’s bar. “Shall we throw him in the Smoothie Sea and let him drown!?”

“I do not believe in murder. Period,” Cocoa Tail said.

“Then can we throw him in his own dungeon?” suggested the father peep.

     “Who will guard him? He knows his fortress best, and he would be the only one who knows where the key is. Unless…” Cocoa Tail looked at the licorice sticks. They had been talking about freedom, not paying attention to what was going on.

     “Umm… Hi?” the leader licorice stick said.

     “Were you listening to any of this?” Silvia asked.

     “Never mind that,” Caroline said. “We need you,” Caroline pointed at the licorice sticks, “to guard Sir Licorice in the dungeon to keep him from escaping, but we also need the key to the dungeon.”

     “You up for it, friends?” asked the licorice leader. The group of licorice nodded. “I’ll show you where the key is, and we can lock him up.”

“Let’s go to Book Land,” Silvia whispered to Caroline.

“What about your parents? Will they be worried?”

“Book Land’s got to be better.”

I’ll tell you about the Book Land adventure later.