Life In The Gumball Machine Page 5

  Up ahead, the children could see that Gordy and Vinnie were now rolling at lightening-speed. They were way ahead of the three kids.

  “Wait! Why are you rolling so fast? Gordy! Vinnie! Wait for us,” Daisy shouted, as she started to run faster. Now, the boys were running too. Their legs felt heavy, but they didn’t want to lose sight of Gordy or Vinnie.

  Gordy turned back to look at the children.

  “Come on! It’s Pudding Hill! You’ll love it!”

  “Near the hill? I can’t hear you. Did you say ‘near the hill,’ Gordy?” Daisy shouted. She was out of breath. “It sounded like you said ‘near the hill.’ What does that mean?”

  Vinnie and Gordy were still rolling around and around – with their heads, and then their feet, sticking up and then back down – up and then back down. Vinnie shouted back, “You’ll see!” But his voice trailed off each time his face rolled toward the ground.

  Turning to the others, Patrick asked breathlessly, “Did he say, ‘you bee’? ‘your knee’? I can’t understand him! What the heck is he saying to us?” None of them knew.

  In the next instant, Gordy disappeared . . . and then Vinnie disappeared too! “Whoa!” said Daisy. The three children stopped in their tracks. They were completely out of breath, and they couldn’t believe their eyes.

  “Where did they go?” asked Michael.

  “They just disappeared,” replied Patrick.

  “Wait . . . listen,” whispered Daisy. “I hear something.”

  They stood there quietly, listening.

  “I don’t hear anything,” whispered Michael. “What are we listening for?”

  “Shh! There it is again,” Daisy whispered back. “Did you hear it?”

  They heard a faint sound and started walking toward it. After walking a short distance, they noticed that the road came to an abrupt end. It just dropped off, like a cliff. They inched their way slowly toward the edge of the cliff.

  “Do you think they fell down there and hurt themselves?” asked Michael.

  “I don’t know,” answered Patrick. “I sure hope not.”

  “D-A-I-S-Y!! M-I-C-H-A-E-L!! P-A-T-R-I-C-K!! We’re down here!” The voice was coming from far below, but they couldn’t see anyone. The bottom was so far down, it made the children dizzy.

  They stepped back a few feet so they were safely away from the edge. “They did fall. They need us to help them!” cried Patrick. “I hope they’re not hurt. What should we do?”

  Daisy turned to the boys. “One of you should crawl to the edge and look down there. But be very careful.”

  “I’m not going to the edge. You go to the edge,” Patrick said firmly.

  “Well, I’m not going to the edge either,” Daisy responded.

  Michael was angry. “Fine! I’ll go.” He stomped his feet as he walked toward the edge. “What a bunch of chickens I’m stranded with,” he grumbled to himself. He suddenly realized that he was walking a little too quickly. The edge of the cliff came up sooner than he expected, and he slipped. He tried to grab something to catch himself, but it was too late, and he fell over the edge. As he was falling, he managed to grab onto a branch and he hung on to it as tightly as he could. His feet were dangling beneath him as he reached for a rock on the top of the cliff. He grabbed it and started to scream.

  “HELP!! YOU GUYS, I’M FALLING!! H-E-L-P!!” he yelled frantically. He was terrified and he didn’t want to look down.

  “Oh my gosh, he fell! We’re coming, Michael! Hang on!” shouted Daisy, as she and Patrick ran toward him.

  “Be careful! The edge comes up fast,” Michael shouted from below. He was beginning to lose his grip on the rock and branch. He started to moan, as he struggled to hang on.

  When they reached him, Daisy and Patrick knelt down and grabbed his arms. Michael grunted, panted and kicked, as he tried to find something to brace his feet. His kicking caused rocks and gravel to come loose and fall far below. They struggled to pull him up. Daisy and Patrick could see the fear in Michael’s eyes. Suddenly, he slipped a bit from their grasp. They all screamed.

  “Don’t drop me you guys!!” he pleaded. Daisy knew he was terribly frightened. She was terrified.

  “Hang on Michael,” yelled Patrick. They used all of their strength to hold him and pull him up, until he was finally safe.

  They heard a distant voice from below say, “What are you guys doing up there? Come on down! But you have to RUN! You can’t do it the way Michael just did, or you’ll never get down here!”

  The three children, too afraid to walk to the edge, laid down on their stomachs and crawled to see who was shouting at them. Whoever it was, he sure must have been a long way down, because they could barely hear him.

  As they reached the edge, they looked down. Far below, they could see Gordy and Vinnie looking up and waving at them. They were so far down, that they looked like tiny grains of salt. At that same moment, they noticed something off to their right that looked like a slide. It was coated with something shiny and pink, and it started just below where Michael had fallen.

  “Wow! Where’d that come from?” asked Michael. They hadn’t seen it before because of some tree branches that were blocking its view. The slick pink slide traveled around and around in an “S” shape, down to the bottom, where there was some kind of pond filled with what looked like pink goo.

  Daisy smiled. “That must be the pudding! Oh, now I get it – this is Pudding Hill!” she said.

  “Are we supposed to go down that slide?” Patrick asked fearfully.

  “I think so,” answered Daisy. She was nervous too.

  Patrick whined a bit and then, shaking his head, said, “I can’t take much more of this. I’ve never been more afraid in my whole life as I have been in just this one morning.”

  Michael was getting angry. He turned toward the other two and said, “Do you mean to tell me that all this time I thought I almost killed myself going over that edge, when those two goofballs down there could have just told us about that slide?!! I’m going to . . . .” Michael was suddenly interrupted by voices they heard coming from behind them. They turned and saw some smaller gumball people – two purple ones, an orange one, and a turquoise one – laughing and running toward them. Their running quickly turned to rolling.

  “Hi!” said the turquoise gumball, as he ran past them. “Come on down Pudding Hill. It’s a blast – and it’s bubble-gum flavored. Try it!”

  “Yes, try it,” added one of the purple gumballs. They didn’t stop to see if the children would join them. They just kept on rolling right to the edge, and jumped. Each gumball screamed with delight as they rolled like bowling balls down the slide.

  The orange one, who was the last one to jump, said, “Don’t forget to take a good running start before you go, or else you won’t make it all the way down. You’ll just stop right in the middle of the slide.” And then, he too, was gone, disappearing over the edge, right before their eyes!

  “Wait a minute, wait a minute,” said Patrick to Michael and Daisy. “It’s bad enough that we have to go down this GIGANTIC slide, but I am not making a running start for it, too. I mean, it’s like jumping to my death! I just CANNOT do it. I’m too scared!”

  “You heard that orange gumball. You have to run or you’ll stop halfway down. Do you want to be stuck halfway down?” Michael asked.

  “No, but . . . my glasses. I’ll lose my glasses. I’ll be in big trouble if I lose my glasses.”

  “Now you’re just making excuses, Patrick. We are already in big trouble just by being in this gumball machine,” said Daisy. “This is no time to worry about your glasses.”

  Michael nodded in agreement. “I don’t think we have a choice. Who wants to go first?”

  No one said anything. They just looked at each other.

  “Are you kidding me?” asked Michael in disbelief. He huffed and puffed, and stomped his feet in anger. “Fine. Fine!” he said angrily. “I guess I’ll go first, even though I just fell over this cliff five seconds
ago! I have to do everything!” He was very mad – and very afraid.

  Daisy smiled. She knew they had nothing to worry about. The gumballs wouldn’t let them get hurt. To tease Michael, she giggled and said, “Make sure you get that good running start!” She was beginning to realize that they would be just fine.

  “I just wish the slide was a little bit wider,” Michael said, as he started walking back far enough to give himself a good running start.

  “I think it was made for people without legs,” Patrick added.

  “Yes, so land in a sitting position, and keep your feet together and your arms at your sides,” Daisy suggested.

  Michael nodded. “Right. Okay. Here – I – G–O–O–O!!” he shouted, as he started to run. He ran right past Daisy and Patrick, and leaped into the air. He disappeared over the cliff just as quickly as Vinnie, Gordy and the others did. Patrick and Daisy looked at each other in amazement. “Wow,” said Daisy. They couldn’t believe he actually did it.

  Now, one of them would have to go next. They looked at each other uncertainly, as they slowly walked to the edge and looked down. They could see and hear Michael going down the slide. They couldn’t tell if they were hearing screams of laughter or screams of terror. Probably terror, they both thought to themselves.

  “At least he landed on the slide in one piece. That’s a relief,” said Daisy.

  * * * *

  Michael landed hard on the slide, but he was relieved because he made it. Keep your feet and hands in, he reminded himself. Flying down the slide at lightning speed, he could feel the wind whipping his face. He screamed in a high voice, like a little girl in kindergarten. He could be heard throughout the valley. “AAHH!!”

  Up ahead, he saw a giant dip in the slide. Uh-oh! What the heck . . .? The slide took a dip – up – and then back down. Suddenly, he was going straight down. His arms flew above his head, and it felt like his stomach jumped into his throat.

  He again yelled at the top of his lungs. “AAHH!!” Michael tried to keep his hands and feet inside the slide as Daisy suggested, but he was moving so fast that he was barely able to stay on the slide. It was as if he was riding just above it. He bounced a bit, and then he landed hard; then again – he bounced, and then he landed hard. This continued all the way down. Suddenly, the slide began to twist and turn, and Michael soon found himself actually enjoying the ride. His screams of fear transformed into screams of laughter.

  “Whoo-h-o-o!” This isn’t so bad, he thought, as he screamed and laughed. When he came around another bend, he saw that the end of the slide was quickly approaching. He braced himself for the sudden drop-off. Soon, he would land in the pond of bubblegum pudding. He could see Vinnie and Gordy waiting for him. He hoped the pudding wasn’t too shallow.

  “HERE – I – GOOO!!” SPLASH! Landing feet-first, he plunged deep into the pool of pudding. When he came up for air, Vinnie and Gordy were standing there waiting for him. They laughed as they high-fived him. He was covered from head-to-toe with thick, pink, gooey pudding. It was dripping down his hair and into his eyes and mouth. He could smell the strong bubblegum scent. His clothes were soaked with the sticky stuff, and they felt heavy and warm.

  He wiped the pudding away from his eyes and started to laugh. “Whoo-hoo! That was one awesome ride!”

  The other group of gumballs who went down the slide before Michael, joined in the celebration. Everyone cheered and congratulated him for braving the ride. He was so happy and proud of himself that he swiped a big glob of bubblegum flavored pudding off of his forehead and put it into his mouth. He proceeded to chew it up and make a HUGE bubble. Vinnie, Gordy and the other gumballs stood and stared at him, with their mouths open.

  Michael popped his large bubble and it smeared all over his mouth. Wiping it off with his hand, he said, “Oops. Did I just eat one of your friends or something?” The gumballs continued to stare, and then suddenly, Vinnie said, “Nah. Just messing with you. You didn’t eat one of our children, if that’s what you’re thinking. This is Grandma Gumble’s famous bubblegum pudding recipe. She’ll be thrilled that you like it! Ha ha!”

  “Ha, ha. Very funny,” Michael said. The gumballs continued to laugh and celebrate as they jumped around in the pudding. Over their laughter, they heard screaming coming from above. They looked up and saw Daisy racing down the slide, and heading straight for them. Her hair was flying wildly around her face, so they couldn’t tell if she was screaming with fear or screaming with laughter. Michael was concerned for her, and stopped celebrating to make sure that she, too, was enjoying the ride. He caught only brief glimpses of her as she came around the curves, but when he did see her, he saw that she was indeed smiling.

  Relieved, Michael shouted, “Daisy’s coming down. Get ready!”

  They all backed away in time for her to fly off the slide and drop into the pudding pool with a big splash. Her screams were muffled as she plunged deep into the pile of pink goo. She came up gasping and smiling, dripping with sticky pudding from head to toe. Coughing and laughing at the same time, she said, “That was amazing!”

  The celebration continued for a while, until Michael realized that Patrick was still nowhere to be seen. Daisy saw Michael looking up and knew something was wrong.

  “Where’s Patrick?” she asked. There was some concern creeping into her voice. “He was really afraid to jump, but I thought he was coming right behind me.”

  ****

  At the top of the hill, Patrick was seated near the edge of the cliff, looking down the slide. He was petrified. He wished he would have gone down before Daisy, because then he would be down there with Michael right now. Instead, he was still sitting on top of the world – a crazy gumball world – all alone. There was no one to talk him into going down. Everyone was already down there. He started to cry a little bit, but was startled by a small gumball child who approached him from behind.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked. Patrick turned around to see that the small gumball girl, who Daisy had named Pinkie Winkie from the party, was standing right behind him. He assumed that Pinkie Winkie was a girl, because she was pink and she kind of had a girl voice, but he didn’t know for sure whether she actually was a girl.

  “I’m really afraid to go down that slide,” he said.

  “Oh, I know what you mean. I was really scared to go down my first time, too. But my dad told me that being afraid will keep me from trying new and exciting things. He told me he would never let me do anything that he knew was dangerous. I trusted him. And, you know what?”

  “What?” asked Patrick.

  “He was right. The slide is fun. You won’t get hurt. I promise. Go ahead. You’ll see. I’ll be right behind you.”

  At that moment, Patrick heard Michael and Daisy’s faint voices calling to him from far below. “Okay,” he said to Pinkie Winkie. “I’ll do it!”

  “Good. Don’t forget to get a good running start,” she said.

  “How could I forget?” he asked. “I think I’ve heard that a million times just this morning.” He sighed. “Okay. Let’s get this over with.” Patrick walked back to where Michael and Daisy started, and took a deep breath.

  “See you down there,” squeaked Pinkie Winkie.

  “Yeah, see you down there.” He paused for a moment to gather his courage, took a deep breath, and then he started to run. He picked up speed until he was running as fast as he could. When he reached the edge, he abruptly stopped.

  “Oh! What’s the matter?” asked Pinkie Winkie. “Why did you stop?”

  Patrick was out of breath. “I chickened out. I just couldn’t do it.”

  “You can do it. Come on, try it again.”

  He took another deep breath and walked back to his starting point, but this time, he ran as fast as he could. When he got to the edge, he never stopped. He lifted his legs and jumped. With nothing but air underneath him, he started screaming at the top of his lungs.

  “AAHH!!”

  Just when he thought he would never land on
solid ground, his body banged onto the slide. “Ooh-owie! Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. Here I G-O-O-O!”

  At the bottom of the hill, Daisy and Michael could hear Patrick’s shrieks of fear, but they couldn’t see him. At least he made the jump, thought Daisy. They watched . . . and they waited.

  “Ooh! There he is!” shouted Vinnie. “Whoo-hoo! He’s coming down the dip! Do you see him?”

  Daisy and Michael couldn’t see him yet, but they could certainly hear him screaming.

  “AAHH!” Patrick continued flying around the curves. His straight, blond hair was standing tall on his head. Finally, Daisy and Michael could see Patrick, and Patrick could see them, as well. By the time he flew off the edge and into the pudding pool, he was smiling. When he came up for air, dripping in pink goo, he was greeted by a huge crowd of cheering gumballs and, of course, Michael and Daisy. He was covered from top to bottom with the sticky stuff, including his glasses. Everyone patted him on the back and congratulated him for facing his fear, and doing something new and exciting. Patrick had never felt so fantastic.

  After wiping the goo off of his glasses so he could see, he looked down at his clothes, and frowned. “Uh-oh. My new shirt! It’s ruined,” he said, trying to brush away the sticky pudding. He knew it was a lost cause. Just then, Pinkie Winkie flew off the slide with a squeaky scream, and landed right on top of Patrick, sending him back down into the pudding. “So much for trying to clean this shirt,” he gurgled.

  “I told you it was fun,” shouted Pinkie Winkie. She was giggling with excitement. The gumballs yelled and cheered, and lifted Patrick into the air. Soon, all three children were being tossed in the air, and then dropped back into the pudding. During all of the commotion, the gumballs that were throwing Patrick got a little too close to the shore. Patrick was thrown into the air, but landed on the hard ground instead of the pool of pudding.

  “Ooh-owie,” he groaned, as he landed hard on his behind.