Elsie was a little girl. A little girl like any other. She liked pink, played with her dolls and occasionally dressed up in her mother’s high heels, party dresses and make up. When she would be a grown up, she would be a princess. Or a ballerina. Or whatever her mind was up to. And she liked candy. She really liked candy! Candy was her favorite food of all times. And it didn’t matter what kind: sweet, sour, liquorish, edible, suckable, lollypops, chocolate. Her parents loved her very much, so they treated her to the sweetness whenever she asked for it. After a few years you could see she liked it, because from all the sugars she had become very chubby. Every time she grew out of her clothes in length, she also grew out of them in width. Her parents loved her very much and didn’t want to deny her anything, but they were getting worried.
So one day they told little Elsie that she couldn’t have candy anymore, because it was bad for her. Elsie could not believe it! No more candy?! That was impossible! Why were her parents so cruel to her?! What had she done to deserve this?! So Elsie decided to start screaming. “I want candy! Why can’t I have candy? I like candy!” She screamed her little lungs out. Nothing could stop her. It drove her parents mad. They tried everything: Ignore her, try to get her to eat healthy snacks, ask the neighbors for help, but noting worked. Finally, Elsie fell asleep tired from all the screaming, and because of the lack of energy (she hadn’t had candy for more than three hours now, and she wasn’t used to it).Her parents went to bed, worried about what would happen the next day.
The next morning came. No sounds. They could hear little Elsie get out of bed, get dressed, but without a single sound. When she finally came downstairs to the breakfast table, her face was like a thunder waiting to break loose. During breakfast, Elsie did not say a single word, and after a while her parents stopped their attempts at a conversation. They sent her off to school and looked worried while she rounded the corner. They both went to work. Father at the office, mother at home.
Later that day, Elsie came home from school. She looked a lot happier. “It’s good to see you in a happier mood my love”, mother said relieved. Elsies face showed a meaningful smile. “I have a message from the school doctor.” She handed over a piece of pink paper to her mother. It was a torn page from her daughter’s poetry album, but she read it seriously none the less:
“On docturs advize, your dohtur must eat delico dilisjou sweet candy 4 times per day. If I your child do not get candy that much, she will be very sickly.
Signed,
My school doctur
P.S.: do not telephoon the doctur, becauze he has gone on holiday for the whole next year.”
Mother really had to make an effort to avoid laughter, and reassured the expectant looking face of her little Elsie that she would discuss it with her father, they would let her know in the morning. “And now go and play with your friends outside”, she said while pushing her daughter to the door. She took off the kid’s backpack and laid it on the table. Elsie’s poetry album fell half out. That night, when Elsie was already in bed, she heard father come home. He had to work late. After the normal greetings she heard her father burst out in big and thunderous laughter, soon followed by the higher sound of her mother’s laugh. The next day Elsie rushed down the stairs, still putting on her sweater, expecting a nice candy treat on her breakfast plate. But alas, no success. Her parents had not fallen for her trick. Father explained that it wasn’t a very nice thing to do to fake a letter from the school doctor, and told her she still couldn’t have candy. “Trust me, you will feel better after a while, you don’t need all that candy.” She finished her breakfast sulking – “brrrr, healthy!” – and went to school. She had to come up with a better plan to get her candy privileges back.
When Elsie left for school, she wasn’t a happy child. What difference was it when she came back in the afternoon. Whistling and hopping her mother would see her approaching the garden fence. With a cheerful “Hello sweet mother” she entered the house, and sat down at the kitchen table, looking expectantly at her mother again. Mother was curious to what her daughter had figured out this time, so she decided to ask right away. “How was your day at school, sweetheart? Is there anything you want to tell me?” At first Elsie told about all kinds of trivial things that had happened, like miss teacher dropping her cup of coffee, Jeany from near the train station (NOT Jeanny from three streets down) had new pink shoes and they were great, and on and on, until the story came to the fact that they had watched TV the first half hour after lunch break. Miss teacher had put on an episode of Sesame Street
The next Friday night, father and mother went out to the theater, to see a play. They had asked Lily, the 15-year old girl from next door, to babysit on Elsie. She didn’t like Lily, because her braces made her look scary and she was never very nice to Elsie. But to Elsie’s parents, Lily was always very nice and polite, so they asked her every time they went away. So her parents went away, kissed Elsie goodnight and gave Lily instructions. After they were gone, Lily planted herself on the couch and turned on the TV. Elsie played with her toy kitchen in the real kitchen, pretending to bake real cotton candy in her plastic oven. While waiting for her cotton candy to be done, her eyes wandered off. And then they stuck. To the big jar next to Lily on the couch. It was full. Full of candy! Unbelievable! She had never seen more candy together! This was what candy heaven must look like. At that moment the doorbell rang. Lily jumped up and ran to the door. Usually some friend of hers would come over when she was babysitting, and they would talk about boys. Why they would do that, Elsie did not know. Boys were stupid! But tonight she didn’t care. Because while the two girls were chatting in the door opening, the big jar of candy was standing there unguarded. Elsie looked at it. Then looked to the hallway. The girls were totally gone in their conversation. She decided to go for it. Silently she slipped out of the kitchen into the livingroom, and jumped up the couch. It cracked. She sat still in fear, but the sound of the TV and the endless girl talk were loud enough for the cracking to go by unnoticed. Elsie’s hands slid over the glass, to the cap on top. She slowly and carefully screwed it off. Lily wouldn’t mind her taking one piece of candy, now would she? Of course not, so a sweet piece of liquorish vanished in her mouth. A few. Lily wouldn’t notice a few pieces of candy missing, right? It was such a big and full bowl, nobody would ever find out. Justifying every piece of candy like that, soon the jar was half empty. Oh my god, how she loved candy! Candy was the greatest! Within half an hour the entire jar was empty, and she was surrounded by dozens of candy wrappers, and her hands and face were covered in chocolate stains. She so enjoyed it! But then… What was that? A burp. A feeling of nausea quickly spread through her full tummy. She had eaten so much candy in so little time, that she had gotten ill from it. At that moment Lily ended the conversation with her friend, and entered the living room again. Seeing what Elsie had done, she shouted angrily: “What the hell have you done, you stupid child? You know you are not allowed to eat candy, and I saved all week to be able to buy that jar!” But then she saw the sad little face of the sad little child, and her anger was instantly gone. “Are you alright, Elsie?” The child shook her head, and said in a tiny voice “I’m feeling ill, my belly hurts. I want my mommy!”
Lily, realizing she couldn’t handle this alone, ran to the fridge, where the phone number of Elsie’s parents was written down. She called them and explained the situation. In half an hour father and mother were home. In the meantime Lily had gotten Elsie some water, and they had to go to the toilet several time, because Elsie had to throw up. Mother immediately took over from Lily, father paid the babysitter for her duties and her care, and then sent her home. Her mother took really good care of Elsie, and caressed her gently. That made Elsie feel a bit better. That night Elsie slept in her parent’s bedroom, between them. So they were there for her whenever she needed it. Her parents had given her some medicine, so she slept through most part of the night without waking up or vomiting. The next day she felt a lot better. Her belly didn’t feel too weird anymore, and she could eat breakfast and keep it in. Luckily it was a Saturday, so she didn’t have to go to school. Her parents took care of her all day long, and they watched cartoons together, and played games.
In the afternoon father and mother drank coffee, and Elsie had apple juice. They offered her a piece of candy, but she refused instantly. “I will never eat candy again. It is horrible!” But her parents insisted. “Candy is not disgusting, you just shouldn’t eat to much of it. A piece of candy once in a while is great, see.” And as an example both mother and father took a piece of candy and ate it. Seeing her parents apparently enjoy their candy so much, Elsie decided to try as well. She carefully put a sweet in her mouth, but hesitated in swallowing it. She sucked on it a bit first. It did taste good. With caution she swallowed the sweet, and didn’t feel sick. “You see,” father said, candy is great, as long as you know you can’t take too much.” And father was right. From that day on, Elsie only took one piece of candy per day, when she got home from school. And she loved it. And as father had said before, she actually felt much better without all those big amounts of candy. She could play with her friends again without them laughing at her when she had to run. Candy is great, in moderation…
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