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It was fun writing the opening to a Halloween story — in part because I didn't have to worry about how to end it.
That would be the job of the kids who entered the annual NOW! Halloween Writing Contest. And they sure came through.
I wondered what they would do with a story that begins with two trick-or-treaters being transformed into the candy they love too much.
Some turned my story into a lesson on good nutrition. Others turned it into a suspense tale. A lot of them made me laugh with their funny dialogue between kids facing the prospect of spending their lives as Hershey bars or Pixy Stix.
There was candy warfare and candy witchcraft. What imaginations.
Today we present the best of the tales, as judged by members of the The Dispatch staff.
See Halloween Contest artwork.
And the story begins . . .
By Joe Blundo
"If you eat any more Twizzlers tonight, you're going to turn into a Twizzler," Jon's mother said as he entered the kitchen with yet another red rope of candy hanging from his mouth.
"But, Mom, it's Beggars Night," Jon said. "Kids are supposed to eat candy then."
"Not 10 pounds of it. That's your last piece," his mother said.
Jon pulled the Twizzler from his mouth and studied its spiraling form. Wouldn't it be cool, he thought, if you really could turn into a Twizzler?
He had no way of knowing it, but his friend, Jill was having the same thought, although with a different type of candy. Her mother had warned her she would turn into a Pez dispenser if she didn't stop eating so much of Pez candy.
"I'd like that," Jill said.
Jon and Jill were both 9 and good friends. They went trick-or-treating together, returning with a huge haul of candy.
Now, banned from eating any more of it for the night, the two were on the phone with each other, talking about what fun it had been.
Both mentioned that their mothers warned them that they'd turn into candy if they didn't stop eating it.
"I think I'm going to eat some more Pez before bedtime just to see if I can make it happen," Jill said.
When she awoke for school the next morning, Jill's head and neck felt different. To her amazement, she realized that if she pushed on the top of her skull, a piece of Pez candy would come out of her mouth.
"It happened!" she cried.
She showed her little brother, Andy, who ran to tell their mom that Jill could make candy come out of her mouth.
"Jill, are you spitting out candy for your little brother to eat?" her mom called.
"No, mom. I turned into a Pez dispenser."
"Sure you did. Come to breakfast. You're going to be late for school."
Jill was so excited about her new talent, she couldn't wait to tell Jon. She ate her cereal in less than a minute, grabbed her backpack, kissed her mom and ran out the door.
Down the block, she could see Jon coming. But something was different. He was dressed from head to toe in red and he looked . . . twisted, somehow. Jill's eyes widened. It happened to him, too! He'd turned into a Twizzler.
As they walked, other friends joined them and Jon and Jill soon realized that . . .
>> Matthew Runyon, 13
>> Maura Hackett, 13
>> Francesca Marino, 13
>> Sophie Zora Beacom, 12
>> Max Danner, 14
>> Clair Grywalski, 12
>> Sam Foley, 11
>> Ryan Bussard, 11
>> Tim Herman, 13
>> Justin Efebera, 12
>> Timmy Marek, 10
>> Kylee Bratton, 11
>> Penelope Hartley, 12
'The start of something big'
. . . that it happened to their friends, too. Abby turned into a lollipop, Parker turned into a Lifesaver and Jane turned into Laffy Taffy.
We all had the strange urge to eat each other. Since they were all candy, they made up the name "The Candy Bunch" to call themselves.
Then, when the Candy Bunch got to school, all the kids gasped and gave them funny stares as they made their way to first period. When they got to class and the bell rang, there was a mad frenzy that broke out.
The other students were trying to eat them! Parker was picked at the most out of everyone.
After the principal finally intervened, Abby had broken lollipop sticks stuck into her. Parker's wrapper was shredded and thrown all over him, as was Jane's. Jill's head was cracked and somebody bit Jon in half!
Thankfully, with some candy glue and tweezers, everybody was safely put back together.
Since it wasn't safe at school, the Candy Bunch got jobs at a candy factory. They had so much fun at their jobs! They met other candy, they all lived close to the factory so they could walk to work, and they got to try new candy that they loved! They even went into the candy business after candy college.
In the end, they all opened candy stores and lived happily ever after.
'Be careful what you wish for'
. . . they were very, very popular and they soon attracted a big crowd of their peers on the way to school. Jon and Jill were enjoying their newfound popularity and handing out Twizzlers and Pez all the way to school.
Soon they got to their first class and their popularity rose to all-time highs. The teacher even gave them no homework because they handed out candy at snack time, and the rest of the week they continued to be the talk of the school.
On Saturday, everyone wanted to come over to their houses. Jon and Jill talked about their popularity on the phone. They both thought it was great.
Jon got off the phone and his mom asked what all of the phone calls were about.
Jon said, "Everyone at school wants to be my friend."
"Why?" Jon's mom asked.
Jon replied, "Because I'm a Twizzler and everybody likes Twizzlers. I want to be one forever and ever!"
Jon's mom shook her head and replied, "Be careful what you wish for." Jon just walked off to play the game Twister with one of his new friends.
On Monday, Jon and Jill were still popular. At lunch Jill started getting annoyed that everyone kept asking for candy. Jon was getting annoyed, too.
The next day the begging continued. Jill and Jon tried to find someplace quiet but everywhere they went they were followed by a group of kids. As soon as school ended, Jon and Jill burst out of the school as fast as their candy legs would carry them with a mob of sugar-crazed kids close behind.
As they were running, Jill said, "Hey let's try something I saw in a cartoon."
So they ducked into a dirty alley. "Whew, that was close," Jon said.
"Yeah," agreed Jill.
"Where are we going to go? We can't stay here," Jon said.
"We could go to my house," Jill suggested.
"Nah, your brother would eat us whole," Jon said.
"Yeah, he would," giggled Jill.
"But we could go to my house," Jon said. So they cautiously headed there.
As soon as they got to Jon's house, they ran inside and slammed the door behind them.
Jon's mom came at the sound of the slammed door. "What happened?" asked Jon's mom worriedly.
Jon and Jill quickly explained.
Jon's mom replied, "I don't mean to say I told you so, but I did tell you be careful what you wish for." Jon and Jill both nodded their heads in agreement.
Jon replied, "I don't want to be a Twizzler anymore."
"Yeah, and I don't want to be a Pez dispenser anymore," agreed Jill.
"Well, I might have something that can fix that," Jon's mom said with a smile.
"Really!" exclaimed Jill and Jon in unison.
"Yes," she replied. "Follow me."
"What is it, what is it?" Jon and Jill said excitedly.
"I went to the grocery store today and I picked up something while I was there," Jon's mom said while rummaging in the fridge. She pulled something out of the fridge and set it on the table.
Jon and Jill moved in for a closer look. "Celery!" they both exclaimed, slightly disappointed. "How will celery help us get back to normal?" asked Jill quizzically.
"Well, think about it," said Jon's mother. "If eating a bunch of candy turned you into candy, eating something healthy might turn you back. Right?"
"Well I guess," Jon said. "But celery is gross."
"Do you want to be candy forever?" Jon's mother asked.
"No," they both said slightly disappointed.
"OK, eat up then," said Jon's mom enthusiastically.
So they ate and ate until there was no more celery left, and soon they started to revert back to normal.
Jon's skin turned pale again and he was no longer bendy.
Jill could no longer make Pez candy shoot out of her mouth.
"Yeah, it worked," they both exclaimed happily.
Jon hugged his mother gratefully. "Thank you Mom!" he said. "I won't be eating any candy any time soon."
"Yeah," Jill agreed happily, "especially Twizzlers and Pez."
Jon and Jill smiled at each other. Jon's mom kneeled down next to them and looked into their eyes. She said, "Remember it's not on the outside that counts, it's what's on the inside that counts and a good friend won't care what you look like or, in this case, what you taste like. Now who wants some more celery?" she said with a smile.
'A magic potion'
. . . a couple of their other friends had also turned into candy! Bill had turned into an Airhead, and Emma had turned into a Jolly Rancher. A couple of their friends, however, had not turned into candy. They were confused and scared when they saw their friends.
The teachers were also very scared when they saw the kids. At first, Jill, Jon, and their other friends had thought it was fun to be candy, however, they became worried that they could never turn back. They began to panic.
At the end of the day, Jon walked out of school and saw his neighbor Mr. Smith waiting for him and his friends. Mr. Smith was a nice old man who lived next door.
"What are you doing here?" Jon questioned. He realized that Mr. Smith was not shocked by Jon's new appearance.
"I'm here to help you, Jon," Mr. Smith answered. "I know how you can change back. This happened to me when I was little. To change back, we must make a special potion. In the potion, you must have a golden tooth, a golden apple and a golden pumpkin. The hard part is finding out where we can find these objects. It's like a scavenger hunt."
"Where can we find a golden tooth?" Jon asked.
"Let's go to the dentist's office!" Jill exclaimed. Mr. Smith drove the kids to the dentist office a couple blocks from school. They ran inside.
"M-m-may I help you?" stuttered an assistant who looked very shocked by the candy children.
"Do you have a golden tooth that we can use for a potion?" Bill asked sheepishly. The assistant looked very confused.
"Guys look!" Emma exclaimed. Sitting on one of the chairs in the waiting room was a golden tooth with a note under it. The note said: Hope this helps!
"Sometimes there are people who have turned into candy before and they like to help out kids who turn into candy by leaving the parts of the potion in places that are easy to find," Mr. Smith explained.
"Now we need to find a golden apple," Jon said.
"There is a golden apple growing in Mrs. Green's garden!" Emma exclaimed. "She lives on my street. I noticed it on the way to school. I thought it was strange. I don't know why I didn't remember that before!"
Mr. Smith drove the kids to Mrs. Green's house. Sure enough, there was a golden apple sitting in her garden. The kids and Mr. Smith walked into her yard, but Mrs. Green came out.
"What are you doing in my yard?" she asked angrily. She suddenly realized the candy children. "What happened to you?" she asked, her eyes bulging out of her head.
"We turned into candy because we ate too much last night," Emma explained. "We need a golden apple to make a potion so we can turn back."
"So because you ate too much candy, you turned into candy?" Mrs. Green asked slowly.
"That's right," Jon replied. "I turned into a Twizzler because I ate too many Twizzlers, and Jill turned into a Pez dispenser because she ate too many Pez candies."
"Pez candies are my favorite!" Mrs. Green said suddenly smiling, even though she still looked stunned.
Jill suddenly had an idea. "Wait!" she exclaimed. "If I give you some candy, will you let us have your golden apple?"
Mrs. Green thought for a moment. "I suppose so," she said.
"Great! Thank you, Mrs. Green!" Emma exclaimed. Jill gave Mrs. Green some candy and the children and Mr. Smith took the apple.
"Now, where are we going to find a golden pumpkin?" Bill asked.
"Let's go to the pumpkin patch. It's not too far from here," Jill said.
Mr. Smith drove the kids to the pumpkin patch and they looked around for almost an hour. There were not many pumpkins since Halloween was over, but they could not find the golden pumpkin. Just as they were about to give up for the day, a squirrel ran by them. Something glinted in its mouth. The children ran in the direction the squirrel had come. Sure enough, hidden behind a bale of hay was the golden pumpkin.
"YES!" Jon exclaimed. "We found it!"
The children rode back to Mr. Smith's house where he made the potion. All the children turned back to normal after they drank some of the potion.
The next year they were very careful to not eat as much candy.
'Healthful eating not all bad'
. . . all the other kids that live on the block were different types of candy, too! From a far distance it looked like Cameron wore all blue today. But in fact it was a Crunch Bar wrapper! Her hair had changed colors from sandy blonde to the luscious color of chocolate.
"I ate 16 Crunch Bars last night and this is what I get," Cameron said. Other kids soon told Jon, Jill, and their other friends their stories about Halloween.
"I was eatin' Dots like crazy. My mom told me that I looked like I hadn't eaten in days. Dots are my favorite candy you see? I just couldn't stop eaten' 'em!" Michael said. He now looked like a huge green gum drop, shiny and gummy.
"I ate so much candy corn last night you wouldn't believe it," exclaimed Danielle as she twirled her strawberry blonde hair. "Look at my hair! It's got streaks of white and yellow! And I'm shaped just like a candy corn!" Danielle then pointed to her yellow, white and orange stomach.
Everyone gasped in realization that they were their favorite candies.
"I read something like this in my mom's magazine. What was the headline called? 'Healthy Tips on Trick-or-Treating,' " Cameron exclaimed. "The magazine said that the more kids eat candy, the more they become that candy! At least I think that's what it said," she stated.
They chatted about all of this nonsense and waited for the bus to arrive. When they got on the bus, all of the students were exactly like them! Everybody, but the bus driver, looked exactly like their favorite candies. They all wondered how any of this could be possible. What could have possibly happened to them?
The greatness of Jon and Jill being candy started to fade away. Jon could no longer write because his arms were Twizzlers. Jill could not nod without candy coming out of her mouth. At recess, Jon and Jill made a plan to get all of their friends back to normal again.
All of them exchanged ideas. Danielle was upset. "I can't move! I feel too fat to move. Being a candy corn is not as fun as I thought it would be," she complained.
Everyone agreed in unison.
"YEAH!" They all screamed at the same time. But Jon and Jill were sure that their plan would work.
"OK, guys, Jill and I made a plan," Jon started. "We need to stop eating junk food. We need to start eating healthy foods, like peas and carrots."
"Eww, peas and carrots," Michael said. He looked at Jon and Jill for a few seconds and then agreed to the plan.
"OK, everybody, absolutely NO junk food tonight! Only healthy foods," Jill clarified with the group.
The next day, Jon waited at the end of the block. Soon he saw Jill appear in the distance. She was normal! She didn't look like a Pez dispenser at all!
Jill was so excited to see that Jon was back to normal, too! His arms and his body weren't Twizzlers anymore. They waited for their other friends to arrive. Danielle and Cameron walked together to the block. From a far distance you could see that they were normal, too! They looked like regular people again! They all talked about how successful the plan had been. They then realized that Michael was not there with them.
"Where's Michael?" Danielle asked.
As soon as she asked, they all saw a figure walking toward them. It was big, round, and oddly enough, it was green. They soon realized that it was Michael.
When Michael had reached them, Jon exclaimed, "What happened to the plan? You weren't supposed to eat any candy!"
"I couldn't resist! Dots are my favorite candy!" Michael answered. "I'll start eating healthy . . . NOW!"
They all laughed as Jill said, "Well, you know what they say! You are what you eat!"
'An annual event'
. . . No one else had turned into candy. Everything was nothing short of great at first for them, but it went downhill quickly as they arrived at school. All the other kids made fun of them at first, but they got used to it. However, Jill messed up her star move in gymnastics. Jon missed his three-point shot in basketball because his twisty red arms flopped down when he tried to raise them. And on top of all that, it seemed as if only children could see they were candy. They discussed their situation over dinner that night at Jill's.
"Being candy really isn't all that great," Jon complained. "My arms barely work."
"I agree," Jill said. "I can't even bend over!" They considered for a minute.
"Do you think we can change back?" Jill asked. "I want to."
"Maybe if we ate a bunch more candy, we'd turn back. I mean, maybe it'd reverse it."
"Yeah!" Jill said. "Let's try it."
The next day, they stockpiled Pez and Twizzlers, and began to eat. Twizzler wrappers covered the floor as well as empty Pez dispensers. They ate all through school, gymnastics and basketball practice. They finally slowed down slightly after dinner. But when they woke up the next day, neither of them was human — or even close to being human.
Jill called Jon over for a meeting over grilled cheese that afternoon.
"What are we going to do?" said Jill, now slightly panicked. "Reversing it didn't work."
Jon nodded. "We need to figure something out. In the meantime though . . ." He pulled out a bag of Laffy Taffy, a second-favorite candy of both of them. Jill smiled. After practically inhaling her strawberry-flavored one, she opened the joke flap. However, instead of a corny joke, there was a strange little poem.
So you want to go back?
The answer is not to snack.
To return, you must learn to think outside of the trick-or-treat bag.
From: Hal O. Ween in Hershey, Ohio
Jon and Jill exchanged glances.
"He lives in Hershey, Jon said with a smile. "And so do my grandparents who I'm visiting this weekend. I'm sure you're allowed to come along."
Jill grinned. "I'll pack."
After a boring drive to Hershey, the duo arrived at Jon's grandparents' house. They looked up Mr. Ween in the address book and found that he lived right down the street. They told Jon's family they were going for a long walk and set out. As they approached their destination, an old shack, they noticed that there were no lights on inside. When Jill finally got up the courage to knock, it was half-hearted at best. But still, after a moment, the door creaked open a fraction of an inch as a gnarled face asked, "What do you want?"
Jill and Jon just stared.
He grunted and slammed the door. Jill knocked louder. This time he didn't bother opening the door.
"WHAT?" he growled through the rotting wood.
Jill was no longer timid. "Hi!" she said. "We need your help. We're humans, but we turned into candy and we can't get back. Could you tell us how?"
"No." he rasped. "Go away."
Then he opened the door again and said, "Unless you have something to give me, that is."
Jon and Jill checked pockets and whispered.
Jon spoke up. "We have a dollar and two cents. Is that enough?"
"No! Not money, CANDY. I'm too old and weak to leave this house to buy candy, but I need some! Do you have some to spare?" he questioned hopefully.
Call it fate. Jon had taken the Laffy Taffy bag along. He promptly handed it over.
Mr. Ween smiled evilly. "Thank you," he said as he led them into the broken-down house. "So," he continued, "what do you want again?"
"We need to go back to being human," Jon said.
"Ahh . . . the old ate-too-much candy case? I can help. Not the first time," he said, almost sentimentally. "You just need a simple potion." He flipped through an old, dog-eared book. "Ah, here it is."
"One warlock's toe
Two hairs off of a black cat
Three strands of a witch's broom
Four pumpkin seeds
and five spider legs."
"We have to get all of that?" Jill said. "I don't know what half those things are."
"No," said Mr. Ween. "I have it mixed. But some kids needed it a while ago and now it's hidden in the graveyard."
"Did they . . . die?" Jon whispered, as if they would hear.
Mr. Ween smiled. "You'll see when you go to the graveyard tonight at midnight to get the potion. Have fun and . . . watch out for spiders."
That night, Jon and Jill crept out of the house around midnight while the rest of the house slept. The walk was scary, but that was nothing compared to the actual graveyard. Ivy and spiders covered the main gates that hung together by broken hinges which screamed in protest when opened. Obviously, no one had been here recently. That is, no one had lefthere recently.
The whole thing was built like a labyrinth, one path leading to another. By this time, it had begun to rain — sheets of it falling, and lightning illuminating the graveyard.
As the duo stood, wet and miserable, a giant clap of thunder and an even larger burst of lightning shook the whole place. In the one moment of light, Jon thought he saw something near the middle of the graveyard, but a small brick wall separated them. The something was a glass vial containing glowing purple liquid. He began to run toward it and Jill followed.
They scaled the wall quickly and there in front of them was the solution to their problems. Jill reached out to grab it but immediately drew her hand back. "Ow!" she exclaimed. "I think something bit me!"
As Jon looked to see what it was, he nearly fainted. "Oh, my gosh. Not . . . SPIDERS!" Jill shrieked.
Both of them stood up and began stomping on the tiny menaces marching toward them. But both stopped in pure fright when they saw what had caused the outburst of spiders. A glowing blue form was staring at them placidly.
"Hello," she said. "I'm Susan. What are you doing with our potion?"
Jon and Jill just stared as another ghostly figure came into view. He was wearing a leather jacket and jeans.
"Hey," he said. "I'm Steve. What's up?"
Jon was the first to get up the nerve to reply. "Oh, hey," he said, ever so casually. "Just getting; a potion. How 'bout you?"
Jill spoke up, too. "Was it your potion?" she inquired breathlessly.
"Sorta," said Steve the ghost. "Some crazy science guy down the street gave it to us. I've been guarding it ever since. See, we turned into candy 40-some-odd years ago, and we needed to turn back.
However, the potion we need to go back — this — is the best tasting thing ever. We could barely stop drinking it. It said to only drink as much as two teaspoons, but we both drank too much. It turned us into ghosts. And now we're stuck."
"Oh," Jill said. "I'm sorry."
Jon agreed quietly.
Susan shrugged. "It's all right, I guess. It's our punishment to guard the potion until it's used, but drinking it would only thin us out further. The only way to be put to rest is to give the potion to a worthy recipient. We'd give it to you now, but it has to be a full moon. Coincidentally, that's tomorrow.
Jill and Jon looked at each other, they said in unison, "We'll be back tomorrow night."
The next day, Jon's grandparents forced them to have a family day. They went apple picking together. What was normally a fun thing to do became torture. During apple picking, though, they got to really admire how pretty Hershey was. With the big jack-o'-lantern lighthouse, even the autumn leaves seemed to smile. The lighthouse was amazing itself, actually. A giant pumpkin on a creepy old tower, lighting the town with its grinning face.
However, the candle in the pumpkin that lit Hershey during Halloween was diming fast. And according to Mr. Ween, that was bad. As soon as the flames of Halloween went out, which they would at midnight, they would be stuck like candy forever. Once they got home late that night, they "went to bed." At 11 p.m., however, they rushed to the graveyard. The jack-o'-lantern flickered ominously as they ran through the graveyard gates and were greeted by Susan and Steven.
"The candle goes out at midnight tonight. So you'd better hurry," Susan said. "Things don't look good for the potion. We're worried it will either turn you into ghosts or leave you as candy forever. Worst of all, though, there's not enough left for both of you. One of you is staying, and one of you is going, if you want the right amount."
Jon and Jill looked at each other. How could they make such an impossible decision? After a long discussion, they decided. Now it was 11:58! As Susan poured a sip of potion into two cups, the pair of best friends crossed their fingers.
"Are you ready?" Jon asked.
"Yeah," Jill said.
They tipped their cups into their mouths as the Halloween light went out.
Jill woke up the next morning feeling very tired. As she groggily got out of her sleeping bag on Jon's grandparents' floor, the events of last night rushed back to her. She pushed on her head, and nothing happened! Overjoyed, she woke Jon, who was decidedly NOT red and twisty.
They decided to go and thank Mr. Ween to tell him about last night's events. They knocked on his door and he answered. His gnarled and smiling face looked at them. As they breathlessly recounted the story, he oohed and aahed.
When asked about the effects of drinking not enough potion, he said that they'd turn into candy once a year, every Halloween. Jon and Jill listened happily. It was a perfect solution. They went home happy and relieved ready to start next year's great Halloween adventure.
'A united attack'
. . . they weren't the only kids who ate too much candy. In fact, by the time their school came into view, four other candy kids had joined them.
Mitchell was very thin and he kept sneezing out Pixy Stix powder.
Becky could blow a bubble to any size she wanted.
Tom was very sick and kept barfing up Juicy Drop Pop sour juice.
But the weirdest kid was Liza. She ate too many Hershey bars last night and when she got warm, her face would melt slightly.
When they walked into the school, they tried to keep their newfound gifts a secret because they knew no one would believe them, just like their parents hadn't.
By the end of the day, they knew they had to tell someone of their gifts (or their curse).
"But who will believe us?" Jill said. "My mom didn't believe me, and neither did your parents."
Everyone thought for a moment, and then a glint came into Mitchell's eyes. "Dr. Payne!" he exclaimed. "If we show him our powers he would definitely believe us! And who knows, maybe he'll have something."
Everyone agreed to his idea. It was better than anything else they had come up with.
Dr. Darryl B. Payne's office was on the outskirts of the town, but so was the school, so the walk was relatively short. The kids weren't afraid because of their past visits, they knew he was a nice man who would hear them out.
Like everyone else, he smiled when the kids told him of their curse. After each kid demonstrated their ability, a thoughtful look came across his face. "I think I may know what's causing these . . . effects, but to be certain, I'll need to examine you individually."
He sat us all in the spacious waiting room and called each kid in. One by one all but Jill had gone in but no one had come out.
"OK, Jill, it's your turn," he said to her. Tentatively, she went into the examining room. How do you treat diseases like these? She thought as she lay down on the table. Dr. Payne came through the door and told her to keep still. "Where are my friends?" Jill asked as Dr. Payne lowered something onto her mouth. Suddenly, Jill found herself inhaling something that made her feel woozy. "Oh, you'll see them soon enough," Dr. Payne said mischievously. It was the last thing Jill heard before blacking out.
Jill woke up in a dank, dark and dirty room. She looked around and saw that Jon and Liza were also in the room with her. Jill soon realized that the room was, in fact, a cell. As her eyes adjusted, she could make out three mats on the floor. The only light came from a flickering torch outside the entrance, which was a barred door. Across a hallway she could hear Mitchell, Tom, and Becky in a cell similar to theirs.
"HEY!" Jill yelled. "CAN ANYONE HEAR US? WHAT'S GOING ON?!"
"An excellent question Jill," a voice said. Jill looked toward the place where the voice came from and she saw . . . Dr. Payne! "Dr. Payne?" Jill said. "Why have you imprisoned us?"
"Why, to teach you a lesson," Dr. Payne said. "For generations, dentists and parents alike have warned their children again and again to stop eating candy and again and again they disobey. Even though they hate it, they've never done anything about it. But a few years ago, I found something that changed it all. It was a book full of magic spells. It wasn't the rabbit-in-a-hat hocus-pocus, though. It was real magic — real, powerful, dark magic. And one of the spells, to my surprise, had the power to turn anything — or anyone — into candy. It was then that I knew what I must do — use that spell to once and for all get children to stop eating so much candy by turning the kids into candy themselves."
As the meaning of that last sentence struck each kid, their faces turned to expressions of the utmost terror. "Wait," said Becky, "does that mean that we're not done transforming? That we're going to –- turn into candy completely?"
Dr. Payne interrupted. "Yes, I suppose you are and just to prevent any ideas of escape . . ." He then lowered his head and started muttering words that no one could make out. As soon as he raised his head, a platoon of armored goblins appeared in a burst of crimson smoke. "There," the witch doctor said, "that should keep you trapped until the transformation is complete. And now to establish an alibi." He cackled maniacally as he walked down the hallway, and the kids could hear his echoes long after he was gone.
The first week of imprisonment was the toughest week of the kids' lives. They got enough to eat and drink and everything, but slowly, they were nearing the end of the transformation.
Mitchell's hair was turning faded blue. Liza's skin was slowly getting darker, and Becky was starting to smell like strawberries. For the first few days, their parents were worried. Dr. Payne showed them security tapes of their children's newfound abilities and shooed them away because "their disease might be contagious."
On the ninth day of their imprisonment, however, things took an unexpected but desperately needed turn. Jill and Jon's limbs were slowly getting shorter, and they were beginning to despair.
Jill was the first to break down. "We're never getting out of here!" she cried and banged her head against the wall and let it stay there. Suddenly out of her mouth came a flood of Pez! It only took a couple of seconds for the entire floor of the cell to be covered in Pez. They were yelled at by the goblins to be quiet, but the damage was done. The children now realized their curse was a blessing.
Mitchell, Tom and Becky sat in their cell early that night marveling at Jill's earlier display, when they heard a tiny voice from the floor that was yelling, "Hey, guys!" They looked down and saw, to their surprise, that a small copy of Liza was standing on the floor of their cell! "Liza?!" Tom yelled. "How did you –-"
"You know how you can break a Hershey bar?" small Liza asked. "You can break the bar into smaller pieces, but they still look the same. Turns out I can do that, too."
Then Becky said, "So if you can make clones of yourselves and climb up walls!"
"Who knows what else we can do?" Mitchell questioned.
During the next few hours with Liza as a messenger, the friends discovered new powers and how to use those powers to escape. Around midnight, the goblins heard a loud noise. It was Mitchell breathing in, preparing to let out a sneeze he'd been holding in since the planning began. With a mighty achoo, the entire corridor was blanketed in Pixy Stix powder. The goblins couldn't see a thing.
Suddenly, out of the cloud shot Jon, a red, limbless bolt that fit through the bars and began dispatching goblins. Two half-size Lizas followed him and used their melted, brown hands to stick the guards to the wall. After that, they snatched the keys from the screeching goblins and, in a matter of minutes, the goblin guards were finished. All six kids were free!
Unfortunately, one of the goblins freed himself and ran up a stairway at the end of the hall yelling, "MASTER! MAAASTER!"
"Rats!" Mitchell said. "Now he'll know we're coming!"
Mitchell's guess was correct because when they reached the top of the staircase, more goblins were waiting. They were the only things between them and Dr. Payne, who was standing in his pajamas with a livid look on his face. "You can't defeat me! I'm a witch doctor with a goblin army! What could you possibly have to defeat me?!"
"The powers you gave us!" Jill said, and shot a giant Pez at him. He vaporized it with laser beams from his eyes and roared "GET THEM!"
Those two words began the weirdest battle in the world. As the goblins surged forward, the kids let loose their powers. The two Lizas became four, then eight, while Jon used his stringy body to ensnare a small part of the goblins.
Jill shot Pez pieces in a machine-gun like fashion, and Mitchell used his sneezes to throw the enemy into disarray. The fighting went on for nearly half an hour and it looked like the kids would win until two great beams of light separated the two sides.
Dr. Payne stood in the middle, his eyes smoking from the lasers he had shot. In his hands he held an ancient tome. "That is ENOUGH!" he screeched. "I took it too easy on you, letting you live. I've obviously taught you nothing. If anything, you seem to love candy even more! But no longer!" He held the book above his head. "Now, I'll teach you a new lesson; no one messes with Darryl B. Payne — and lives!"
He then opened the book, lowered his head, and started chanting in that same low voice. Only this time, instead of more goblins, the kids were paralyzed!
They floated in front of the witch doctor. He looked up and flashed a demonic grin, then went on chanting. The kids were powerless to do anything and they all knew that this was the end. All except one.
As Dr. Payne looked at the kids for what he thought would be the last time, a string of sour juice got into his eyes. "AAAAAAAA!" he yelled.
The kids found that they could move again and Becky used her gum powers to stick the doctor to the ceiling. She then plucked the book from his hand and prepared to throw it away when Jill took it. "We still have our powers!" she said as she flipped through the book. Quickly using some of the doctor's office supplies, she wrote the reversing spell down and gave it to Liza.
"NO!" the doctor yelled as he blinked out the juice. Liza's hands turned brown. The book and its writings were lost as they were consumed by the melted chocolate.
The kids' nightmare wrapped up pretty quickly after that. They called the police over to the office to show them the evidence of Dr. Payne's insanity. After seeing the remnants of the battle, as well as some security tapes showing them in captivity, they led Dr. Payne away to jail.
When their parents came to pick them all up, the reunion was tearful and exultant. Before they all left, however, they cast the reversing spell and took away their powers. (Andy was a little bit disappointed now that his sister wasn't an infinite source of Pez).
From that day forward, the six friends trick-or-treated every Halloween together — but they each ate only one piece of candy a day.
'A coin for every child'
. . . Almost every single kid had been turned into his or her favorite candy.
Looking down the street, they saw Twix, chocolate bars, gumdrops and even a few Circus Peanuts.
"Everyone is . . . candy!" Jon exclaimed. "This is the best day ever!" Jill said.
Jon looked around. "I can't wait to see the teachers' faces when we all go to the school as candy!
Jill could not believe the luck they had. Being a piece of candy was simply . . . amazing. Walking to Flarington Elementary with their friends, Jill really thought this was the best thing that had ever happened to her.
When they got to school, they all took their seats in Mr. Yum's class room.
"I can't wait to see the look on his face," Jill giggled.
The door slowly inched open.
"Now class," said the familiar voice of Mr. Yum. "I don't want anyone freaking out." The class looked around at each other. Why would we freak out? Jon thought. Unless . . . Oh no! Mr. Yum stepped into the room. He was wearing all white and looked really . . . puffy. Jill stared at him. Their teacher had turned into candy, too! He was a marshmallow.
Jill guessed kids weren't the only ones who got turned into candy.
Mr. Yum had a scared look on his face. "It happened to you, too?" Mr. Yum said shakily.
"Well, I guess I'm not alone . . ."
The class stared at him.
"Mr. Yum," one of the kids asked. "Why don't you like being turned into candy?"
He took a slow breath. "I just don't believe it's possible. My wife warned me to stop eating marshmallows or else I'd turn into one. This is ridiculous."
Jill couldn't see why you wouldn't want to be your favorite candy.
"What's wrong with being a marshmallow?" Jon asked.
"Well, nothing," Mr. Yum replied. "It's just that I'm a man . . . I mean I was a man . . . not candy!"
The class stared blankly at him.
"Never mind class," Mr. Yum said. He moved over to the chalkboard and pulled out a new piece of white chalk. "Now on to math. Let's recite the times tables . . ."
Jill was zoned out for the rest of the day. Whenever she got bored, she would just press her head down and eat another piece of Pez candy. When the bell rang, she came rushing out of the school with Jon.
"So what should we do now?" Jon asked.
"I don't know, Jill replied. "I guess we could go to my house."
"OK," Jon answered. "Sounds good to me."
As they were walking home, Jon suddenly stopped. "I just thought of something," he said.
"Really? What?" Jill asked with her eyes sparkling.
"Well, Jon hesitated for a second. "I realized that my mom didn't even look surprised when I told her that I was a Twizzler. She almost acted like . . . she knew it was going to happen."
Jill's eyes widened. "My mother, too!"
"And," Jon continued, "every kid didn't turn into candy. Like, maybe one-quarter of the people I've seen aren't candy."
"True," Jill replied, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "Maybe you had to do something to get turned into candy. Oh!" Jill looked really excited. "It mostly happened to kids. Right?" "Um . . . yes?"
Jon couldn't see why she was so excited. "Then maybe if you ate too much candy and someone told you to stop eating it . . ."
"Then you get turned into one!" Jon finished.
"Yeah!" Jill exclaimed. "But . . . why?" There was a long period of silence. "I don't know," Jon admitted. "But it's up to us to find out."
When they arrived at Jill's house, they went straight to her room.
"Where's your mom?" Jon asked.
"Oh, she got a new job at Which Craftery. It's a new store that sells craft stuff."
"Cool," Jon said as he opened the door to Jill's room. He saw Andy lifting up Jill's mattress and stashing something into a plastic bag. Jon thought he looked really guilty when he opened the door — like a burglar caught taking jewelry.
"ANDY!" Jill screamed. "OUT! OUT! OUT!" Andy quickly dropped the bag and ran out the door. "And never come back, you little pest!" Jill slammed the door shut.
"Wow," Jon said. "I'd hate to get between you and your candy."
Jill groaned. "He always takes all of my Whoppers. He just seems to love that candy."
Jon looked around slowly. "If he likes Whoppers so much, why didn't he turn into one?" Jon asked.
Jill thought for a moment. "Maybe because he doesn't eat all his candy at once. He just eats one a day for a month or two until he runs out."
"This could be important," Jon said. "I'll write it down."
Jon moved over to Jill's blue desk. Everything in her room was blue — her pillow, bed, fan, you name it. Jon took out his notebook and flipped to a fresh page. "Do you have a pencil I could use?" Jon asked.
"Yeah, I have one somewhere. Hold on." Jill reached into a drawer and took out a royal-blue pen. "Here you go."
"Thanks," Jon said. He wrote on the top of the page The Trick-or-Treating Tragedy. Under it he jotted down: Clue one: Andy isn't candy.
As they were sitting in Jill's room, they heard the front door open.
"Must be my mom," Jill said. "Maybe we can ask her questions and get to the bottom of this."
When Jill rushed down the stairs, she came to a screeching halt.
"Oh. Hi, Dad. You're home early." He was sitting at the desk in the living room reading the newspaper.
"It appears so," Jill's dad said with a laugh.
Jill signed. Her dad was always saying strange stuff like that.
"So, Dad, do you know when mom's coming home?"
"Yes," Jill's dad said without looking up from his paper.
"Um, are you going to tell me?" Jill asked.
Her dad slowly peered up from his paper. "Why are you so interested in your mom all of a sudden? You have a great dad sitting right here."
"Oh, I just wanted to know what was . . . um . . . for dinner. So are you going to tell me when?" Jill questioned.
"I can," her dad said. "Will you?"
"Of course." There was a short pause.
"DAD!" Jill screamed.
Her dad threw up his hands in surrender. "Fine," he said with a crazy grin on his face. "7:00." "Not until 7:00?!" Jill's eyes got big.
"New jobs take time to get used to, that's all," Jill's dad said. "On the bright side, I'm cooking dinner tonight."
"Oh, no," Jill whimpered.
"What was that?"
"Nothing Dad! Um, I have to go . . . somewhere . . . bye!" They ran back up the stairs.
"That was close," Jill said breathing heavily behind the door. Jill couldn't believe how she accidently let her dad know about the candy thing. Jill suddenly stopped in her thought. Candy thing. Her dad didn't even acknowledge that she was candy. He didn't look like he saw her. Suddenly she had an idea and yelled, "Hey Jon!"
"Yeah?" Jon said. He was still writing in his notebook.
"I have an idea," Jill said slowly. "That just might work."
Jill and Jon amassed an army of their candy friends and Mr. Yum near the store where her mom works.
Jill peeked around the corner of the fence she was hiding behind. Even though she herself had doubts about her plan, she knew it must work. She didn't want to be candy forever. She was a girl after all. After she came up with her plan, they just had to make it work. It just had to work.
Jill looked up at the store her mother was working at — Which Craftery. Something has to be going on in there she thought to herself. It was in the words that her dad said. No matter what, Jill's mom was always home by 5:30. One day, she even walked all the way home when she got a flat tire and no one would help her. She would not come home late just because of her job. Family was everything she would always say.
As Jill stood in front of the massive store, she believed that they could do it. They just had to wait until it got a little darker.
Jon looked at his watch. 6:20. He had 10 more minutes before the plan went into action. He looked back at his notebook.
Clue 1: Andy isn't candy.
Clue 2: Jill's dad isn't confused or mad.
Clue 3: Moms are oblivious.
Clue 4: Which Craftery is suspicious.
"OK, guys, you all know what to do?" Jon asked.
"Yes!" the group chorused.
"OK, everyone take your positions. Wait for the signal." Jon instructed. He looked up at the full white moon. The plan had to work.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash. It must be Jill, Jon thought. In the distance he could hear a faint whistle.
The plan had begun.
Jon rummaged through his backpack and took out the rope he had brought from home.
"OK, Mr. Yum." Jon whispered. "Do your thing." Jon handed him his rope.
Mr. Yum nodded. He had been trained in the army to do things like this. Jon saw him aim, and the rope settled quietly on top of the building. He pulled it twice and gave Jon the thumbs up sign. Jon took the rope from him and started to climb the building slowly. He probably would have fell five times if it wasn't for the faulty building bricks acting almost like a ladder.
When he got to the top, he realized how hard it really was to climb a rope. His hands had blisters on them. He moved to the right side of the building where all he had to do was wait. He heard an "oof" behind him and he realized that the others were joining him on top. They would form a candy barricade.
Jill had taken her half of the army to the back door. They had to talk to the manufacturers in the back. Some of the candy people stayed out front incase they wanted to escape that way. The plan was simple enough. They would chase them up to the roof where they would demand answers.
"Ready guys?" Jill asked.
"Yeah!" the others chorused.
"Then let's go."
Jill quietly opened the door. She motioned to the others. They followed her. After about 10 feet, she stopped dead. The factory was amazing. It had huge cauldrons full of rainbow-colored liquid. The machines had conveyer belts carrying goods from one bin to another. It was like nothing she'd ever seen. What is this place? Jill shook her head in amazement. She had to keep going.
As she neared the corner, she peeked around the edge and saw what looked like witches with black pointy hats. Jill took a deep breath.
Here goes, she thought. Jill ran around the corner and with a convincing tone yelled, "There they are! Let's get them!" All the candy people ran out and chased the startled workers. They chased them up and around until one of them pointed up. Jill felt her heart racing. It was working! They were falling into her trap.
The workers ran up the stairs and out onto the roof where Jon was waiting. The poor employees could do nothing. They were surrounded. "OK. Who thought this would be funny?" Mr. Yum shouted.
"Yeah!" echoed the PayDay candy bar kid.
"Turn us back!" another yelled.
Jill looked around until she found her mom. "What did you do to us?" Jill demanded, meeting her mother's eyes. She was startled when she saw her mom crying. "It was only meant to convince children not to eat too much candy," her mom stated. "I never thought you would get so angry."
Another worker piped up, "We just wanted to tell our children that they should eat healthier. We didn't want to hurt anyone."
"Yeah," the others said.
"I'm sorry, Jill. And well, everyone. Could you ever forgive us?" Jill's mom pleaded. Jill looked at Jon.
He nodded, "Of course." Jill said, "Oh, thank you, but," Jill interrupted, "you have to turn us all back into people."
"Is that all?" Jill's mom asked. "It's simple. All you have to do is put this coin under your pillow when you go to bed." Jill took the coin. It was quarter-sized with a jack-o'-lantern on one side and a full moon on the other. The other workers handed each child a coin.
When Jon woke up in the morning he quickly did a run-down on his body. He was back to being a kid! Jon had never felt so happy in his life.
"Mom. Mom! I'm a kid again!" Jon cried happily.
"Huh," his mom stuck her head out of the bedroom door. "What are you talking about? You were always a kid."
Wait," Jon said. "You mean . . . you didn't notice I was a Twizzler?" "Well you could have been turned into one with all that candy you were eating last night," his mom said.
"Last night?" Jon asked. "But I didn't eat any candy last night."
"Ha," his mom said. "Like you didn't eat any candy on Beggars Night."
"Beggars Night?" Jon said slowly. "But . . . that was two days ago."
"Are you feeling alright, Jon?" his mom said warily. "You probably ate too much candy. Why don't you go over to Jill's house before school, I'm sure she might like to hear about your dream."
"My mom didn't seem to remember anything either," Jill said. "Do you think it really was a dream?" Jon asked. "Maybe," Jill flopped her head on her pillow.
"Oww," she said. "What is it?" Jon asked. "Something is under my pillow," Jill said as she flopped it over. Jill gasped. "What is it?" Jon asked eagerly.
Jill stood speechless as she held up a coin with a jack-o'-lantern on it.
'You are what you eat'
. . . they were going to be made fun of.
"What if somebody gets hungry and wants to eat me?" Jon said.
"The good part is that I can charge people for Pez at lunch," Jill said.
"The only bad part will be if they find out the only way to make Pez come out is by pushing my head down," Jill added.
As they got on the bus, they were thinking about what would happen at school.
When the bus driver saw them he said, "It's not Halloween anymore Kids, why are you wearing costumes?"
Jill and Jon told him they weren't wearing costumes, but they had actually turned into the candy because they ate so much of it last night. The bus driver sarcastically said, "Sure you did."
At school, a funny thing happened. None of the teachers seemed to notice Jill and Jon had turned into candy, but all the students did.
While the teacher was focusing on grading tests, the kids kept throwing notes at Jill and Jon. Some of the notes asked if the kids could have some free Pez.
At lunch, Jill and Jon thought that if they ate vegetables or fruit, they would change back to normal.
Of course, that day for lunch, there were no vegetables or fruit on the menu. The school was serving nachos with a side of brownie and a piece of cake. All the other kids were happy with the lunch, but not Jill and Jon.
After school, they went right to Jon's house and ran to the refrigerator to see if there were any fruits or vegetables, but Jon's mom had not been shopping for the week. And was going later.
So Jill and Jon hid in Jon's closet for almost three hours until his mom came home. For dinner, Jon ate a big plate of broccoli and Jill ate a bunch of carrots. While they ate their vegetables, Jill and Jon started feeling normal again, so they kept eating broccoli and carrots until their bellies were really full. By the time dinner was over, they no longer looked like the candy, but looked human again.
The next morning, while Jill's mom made breakfast, she heard Jill scream from the upstairs bathroom.
"What's wrong?" shouted Jill's Mom.
Jill walked downstairs and her mom fainted because Jill had turned into a giant carrot.
At Jon's house, he looked into the mirror to wash his face and said, "Oh no!"
Jon had become a giant piece of broccoli.
'Could it be true?'
. . . it's the best thing that ever happened to them!
This is awesome!" Jon said. "Let's get on the bus and we'll talk more, OK?" Jill nodded in agreement.
Jill was the first to try to get on the bus. She then tripped on the stairs.
"Ha, ha! Nice job, Jill," Jon said.
"Hurry up, I'm on a time limit!" shouted the bus driver without even noticing she was a Pez dispenser.
"I'd like to see you try it," Jill replied.
Jon didn't have much luck either. Everyone was just chattering away, not even noticing the walking Pez dispenser and Twizzler. As they sat down, they saw their friend, Kyle, turned into a Gummi Bear and their other friend, Rachel, had turned into a green M&M.
"So, you guys got candified, too, huh?" Kyle asked.
"Yep," Jon and Jill said.
Along with Jon and Jill, Rachel had quite a big problem getting on the bus.
It took me nearly forever," Rachel said.
Luckily the Gummi Bear was there to help. He didn't need any help, since he has LEGS!"
Throughout the bus ride, the four kids, Kyle, Rachel, Jon and Jill kept talking about the previous night and what their mothers thought when they said they were candy.
When they got to school, they put their things away and went to class. Jon and Jill had language arts and social studies in the morning while Kyle and Rachel had math and science. Jon and Jill had who they thought was the best teacher ever, Mr. Michaelson.
"Jill, what on Earth are you wearing?" questioned Mr. Michaelson. "Did you forget to take off your Halloween costume?"
Everyone chuckled, even Jill and Jon.
"No," Jill replied.
"Then what is it? Mr. Michaelson asked.
"I don't know, I woke up with it," Jill said.
"OK, same with you, Jon?" Mr. Michaelson asked.
"Yes, sirree!" Jon replied.
They all continued on with the day, having both Mr. Michaelson and Mrs. James, the math and science teacher, noticing all four kids were candy. It was the one and only thing the other students talked about.
"See you tomorrow," shouted Rachel as Jon and Jill got off the bus.
"Let's hang out at your house for a little bit," Jon said.
"Sure, let me go tell my mom we'll be outside and you can tell your mom we'll be out here," Jill said.
A few minutes passed until Jill came out.
"Hey, want to play tag?" Jill shouted.
"Sure, why not?" Jon replied.
They thought it was a brilliant idea. It wasn't.
*Hop!*, *Hop!*, *Hop!*
They hopped at a speed of about one mile per hour. They decided to stop after a few minutes.
"That wasn't fun," Jill said. "Not at all," They thought and thought about what to do. Then Rachel and Kyle came over.
"What are you guys doing over here?" Jon asked.
"We stopped by to see if you wanted to work on homework together," Kyle replied.
"But we don't have thumbs," Jill said.
"To heck with thumbs, we don't have hands! Though Kyle does. . . ., wait a minute."
"I'm not doing it!" Kyle shouted. They all stared until he snapped.
"OK, fine! I'll write all of our papers, but you guys are spitting out the answers," Kyle demanded. They finished all of their homework in less than an hour.
"I can't wait until we all turn back into humans so you guys can write down your own answers," Kyle said.
"Yeah, I'll have to admit the fact that we're all candy is quite annoying," Jon said.
"I agree!" Rachel and Jill said simultaneously.
"It's getting kind of dark," Rachel noticed. "I think it's time we head home."
"All right, we'll see you tomorrow Jill," Kyle, Jon and Rachel said as they left.
An hour passed and Jill decided it was time to go to bed. She went to the bathroom, brushed her teeth and splashed water on her face by hanging under the faucet.
All of a sudden she woke up in her bedroom, on her bed at 1:39 a.m., breathing heavily.
"Was that all just a dream?" Jill asked herself. "That was weird." She laid her head on her pillow and went back to sleep. In the morning, she was still very confused as to what had happened. She asked her mother at breakfast, "Can I shoot Pez out of my mouth, Mom?"
"No," her mother replied. "Apparently you have a vivid imagination."
Jill ate breakfast and hopped on the bus eager to tell her story to her friends.
"I had the craziest dream last night," Jill told Jon, Rachel and Kyle. "It was the day after Halloween and we all had eaten too much of one type of candy and turned into it the next morning. I was a Pez dispenser, Jon was a Twizzler, Rachel was a green M&M, and Kyle was a Gummi Bear."
"That sounds crazy!" Kyle replied.
"That would be really weird if it actually happened," Jon said.
"Definitely!" the rest agreed.
'A lesson learned'
. . . that they were not the only children who woke up looking like their favorite candy.
"Jon, Is everyone made of candy?" Jill asked.
"I think they all ate so much candy they turned into candy. It looks like only the kids from our neighborhood are made of candy," Jon said.
"Do you think one of our neighbors gave us candy that was bad?" Jill asked.
"If they did, they wouldn't have given some to their child," Jon said.
"Should we go door to door through our neighborhood looking for a kid that isn't made of candy?" Jill said.
"That sounds great, we'll go after school," Jon said.
As they continued on their way, Jon and Jill make a unique discovery about their classmates.
Cindy, who is the cutest and most popular girl in class, turned into Red Hots. Alex, the class bully, was a Whopper. The twins, Mike and Ike, actually turned into Mike and Ike's candy. Paul, who happens to be the class clown, was a giant Snickers bar. Bill, the computer whiz, was a box of Nerds candy.
The most astonishing friends were Stacy and Ralph. Stacy is the daughter of the local dentist. She was a toothbrush. Ralph's dad is a police officer and he was a jelly doughnut.
"Jill!, are you seeing what I am seeing? All the kids are not only turning into their favorite candy, but it also reflects their personalities. What does Twizzlers have to do with me?" Jon asked.
Jill thought for a moment and said, "You know, Jon, that you are an awesome soccer player. It is amazing how you can jump and twist your body to kick the ball in the goal. But what about Pez. There is no way I am like a Pez dispenser. "
"My gosh, Jill. That is so easy. You are always talking. Your mouth is always open," Jon laughed. "We definitely have to figure out what is going on after school," Jon added.
After school, Jon, Jill and their friends started to walk around the neighborhood to figure out which house gave them the mysterious candy. As they passed by the local candy store, Mr. Goodbar came out to talk to them. Did you get a chance to eat the Pixy Stix I gave you? All the kids said yes.
Jon and Jill gawked at him in awe. They realized that Pixy Stix was the only candy all of them ate.
"Mr. Goodbar, was there something wrong with the Pixy Stix?" Jon asked.
"Why would you ask me that?" he asked.
Jill exclaimed, "LOOK AT US! WE ARE ALL CANDY!"
Mr. Goodbar looked the children over and said, "I want you to think about the way you eat. I may sell candy, but even I know there is a limit to what you should eat in a day."
The children thought about what he said. They realized that they all eat a lot more candy in a day that they should.
Jon sadly said, "Mr. Goodbar, we understand the lesson you taught us. What do we need to do to change back?"
Just then, Mrs. Smith came shuffling up to the children. She said to them, "I am so glad that I found you children. I was unable to pass out candy last night because my husband had to go the hospital. I want to give all of you treats. You get to choose which one you want."
She opened her bag and the children looked in it. She had plain apples and candied apples.
Stacy went first. Knowing her dad, she chose a plain apple and ate it right away. The most amazing thing happened. She turned back to her normal self. Alex chose the candied apple, but nothing happened to him. He was still a Whopper. Bill chose a plain apple and was himself. Cindy snatched a candied apple. She was still Red Hots.
"Jon," gasped Jill. "Do you see what is happening."
Jon looked puzzled and asked, "What do you mean?"
Jill pointed to their friends. "Everyone who chose a plain apple is turning back to normal. But Alex and Cindy chose candied apples and are staying as candy," she said.
Mr. Goodbar said, "That is a wise observation Jill. There is a time and place for candy. Candy in small amounts will not harm your body, but if you eat too much it will change your life. You need to find the right balance between healthy food and junk food. What about the rest of you children? What are you going to choose?"
The rest of their friends quickly grabbed a plain apple from Mrs. Smith and ate it. They turned back to themselves. Jon and Jill walked over to Mrs. Smith and took a plain apple. They went over to Mr. Goodbar and thanked him for the lesson he and Mrs. Smith taught them. They ate their apples.
Everyone looked at Alex and Cindy. Bill asked Mr. Goodbar, "What about them? Are you going to leave them that way?
Mr. Goodbar looked over to Mrs. Smith. She softly said, "That is entirely up to them. They may have a second item of their choosing."
Cindy, who was crying, quickly ran over and grabbed a plain apple. Alex, at first, grabbed another candied apple. His friends quickly convinced him to drop it and take a plain apple instead. After looking longingly at the candied apple, Alex put it down and ate the plain apple.
All the children were themselves. To this day, their parents often wonder why the children are only occasionally eating candy and are requesting healthy snacks. They are afraid to ask the children and are just happy for the change.
'Too much of a good thing'
. . . that everybody else looked very different. It took Jon and Jill no time to figure out what had happened. They, too, had eaten too much candy. This really did not come as a shock to any of them. They started to discuss what had happened last night and how much candy they had eaten after they had finished trick-or-treating. Don was a Dum Dums lollipop, which really fit him because he had a big head and acted very stupidly.
Ken was a Kit Kat chocolate, and Sarah was a Snickers bar!
You all ate too much candy didn't you?" inquired Bob the Blow Pop, whose head was even bigger that Don's!
"Yup," answered Jill.
"At least we are not the only ones Jill," Jon said, "It's actually pretty cool being candy."
The kids had no choice but to go to school looking like candy. When they got there though, they found a huge surprise. Everyone in the school looked like candy, even the teachers! Principal Franklin was a Three Musketeers candy bar, Mrs. Smith was a Hershey's Kiss — she was also the health teacher, who always told us to eat healthy. Then Mr. Ralph, the math teacher was a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup!
Everybody in the school was some type of candy, from Twix to Take 5!
The kids could not stop laughing at the other kids or even the teachers. The teachers all denied, though, that they had eaten any candy, which was a huge lie.
Principal Franklin, a.k.a. Mr. Three Musketeers, had to end the school day early because there were just too many distractions.
Obviously, the kids were happy about this. The celebration would not last long, though. That night all the parents had decided that they were going to hide the candy so their kids could not eat any more, already knowing what had happened at school.
Jon, Jill, and all their other friends were unaware of this. They soon all began to turn back into regular humans. As you would imagine, they searched their houses for the candy but could not find it. They started to accept the fact, at their own houses, that they could not be candy forever.
They all had mixed feelings as they were walking to school the next day.
"It was really fun being a Pez dispenser, but I'll never want to be one forever," Jill said.
"Being a Twizzler was very uncomfortable as well," Jon said.
Everybody else started to pour out their feelings and emotions. When they arrived at school everything was back to normal. Everybody was a regular human being, except for one person: Mrs. Smith, the health teacher.
When school was over, they could not help discussing more about the experience of being candy.
"It was sure fun while it lasted," Sarah said.
"Sure was," Jon agreed.
"But it's great to be back," Jill proclaimed.
And they all agreed.
'Not as much fun as it seems'
. . . Their friends were all candy, too. Even some of their pets were candy.
Chris's turtle was a twisted peppermint Starlight candy. Chris was a lollipop, with a long stick body and colorful swirled candy head.
At school, all their classmates were candy. It was scary at first, but the kids quickly got used to having their best friend be a Butterfinger. But then, the problems began. On the big test, none of them could write answers to the questions because they didn't have arms. At recess, they couldn't play any games.
They thought how they should have listened to their parents and not have eaten all that candy. At lunch, they had to eat by sticking their faces in the food and gobbling it up. It was a mess!
"I'm sick of being candy!" said Ginger, who was a marshmallow, as she tried to unstick the pages of her textbook that was stuck to her.
"I'm so hungry from lunch," Jon said. "I couldn't pick anything up. I had more lunch on my tray than in my mouth."
At P.E., it was even worse. Tootsie Roll Timmy was knocked down and had to be scraped up with a giant paint scraper by the custodian, Sam Graham, who was now a Graham Cracker.
By the time Timmy was scraped up, it was time to go home. On the walk home, Jill and John couldn't even walk, they had to hop. They couldn't talk because they were so out of breath.
The kids had left their candy buckets at home, all day, with their parents, but when they got home they were sick of candy. They were so tired from their hard day, they immediately went to bed.
The next morning, John woke up to find his arms and legs were back. He was so happy! He stretched and got out of bed and went downstairs . . . to find that his father was a PayDay bar. And his mom was a Hershey's Special Dark chocolate bar. The kitchen was a mess. They had tried to make coffee with their bodies and were trying to slurp the watery mess of coffee grounds off the floor.
At Jill's house, it was even worse.
"Don't be sour," said Jill to her mom, who was a Lemonhead. "It only lasts 24 hours. You'll have plenty of time to think about why you shouldn't eat so much candy."
Jill took her candy bucket and threw it outside in the trash. After she walked away, a raccoon crept up and started to nibble at the candy . . .
'A surprising finish'
. . . that every kid they walked with had turned into candy!
One of their friends, Jeff, had turned into a giant M&M. As soon as they got to school they realized that something weird was going on. Only the kids on their street had turned into candy.
At recess they both agreed that something weird was going on. Jill suggested that only a certain amount of kids ate a lot of candy.
Jon thought about this and then said it was impossible. He thought it was magic.
Jill said that it was possible. Jon and Jill had gone trick-or-treating together. They both got their favorite candy from this one creepy lady dressed up like a witch. Since she gave them their favorite candy and they ignored her witchy appearance. Jill suggested that her witch costume wasn't really a costume.
Jon pondered this for a while and decided that must be the case.
The witch could be heard saying: "Yes yes! This is exactly what I need to make all those little children regret eating so much candy on Halloween!"
Jon and Jill gathered up all the kids that turned into candy and went to the witches' house. Jon went up and rapped his knuckles on the door. All of a sudden, the door fell down! Inside, it looked like a real, normal house. Then everyone went down to the basement, where they saw a huge bubbling cauldron with a grumpy-looking witch beside it.
"I heard you little candy kids coming when you broke down my door!"
Candy Kids? She did mean for this to happen? Jill thought.
"Now little children, come here so I can eat you!"
"How about you eat this!" yelled Jill.
She started to repeatedly pressing her skull and fire Pez at the witch.
Then Jon jumped up and tied her up. Jill stopped shooting Pez and looked at the witch. No one's face is green, she thought. She must be wearing a mask! Jill pulled off the witch's mask.
"Mom?!?! What are you doing here?" Jon said.
"I'm teaching you kids a lesson about eating candy!"
'Hometown heroes'
. . . nobody else was reacting to the fact that everything was candy; people were just chitchatting about how Jenny Moraz was crushing on Jason Hankert! It was like the minute they stepped out the door they traveled to an alternate dimension where everything being candy was . . . normal.
Once in class, it hit Jill that EVERYTHING IS CANDY!!!!!!!! It was like a dream come true! For breakfast, lunch and dinner she could eat candy . . . CANDY!!! She spent the rest of the time until lunch day-dreaming about Twix and Kit Kats and PayDays.
In the hall, the smell of hot melted chocolate wafted from the candy kitchen. It was pulling Jon and Jill (but no one else) toward the cafeteria. The lunch line was filled with candy-pizza pie, chocolate burgers with whipped cream, 8-ounce bottles of milkshakes, candy corn on the cob and sugar-coated jelly orange slices.
After lunch was art. They painted on fruit-leather canvas with Gusher paint and cotton candy brushes. The assignment was to paint a bowl of Fruit Roll-Ups. In music they learned how to play the giant Peppermint Patties symbols. In gym they played dodge marshmallow.
Surprisingly marshmallows are very hard to dodge! Apparently you are not allowed to eat the dodge marshmallows, because Jon got yelled at for "scarfing down the dodge marshmallows!"
When they got back to Jill's house they saw that everything inside her home had been turned into candy except, sadly, Jill's mom. She was as human as ever and was cooking dinner. Instead of chocolate cake and whipped cream, she was serving broccoli and Brussels sprouts! And, much to their chagrin, at dinner, Jon and Jill were both forced to eat their vegetables! After practically shoving veggies down their throats just to get it over with quickly, Jon went home and Jill had to go to bed.
In the morning, Jon woke up feeling sick from all the candy. He looked at his feet and saw that he was no longer a Twizzler! On the way to school he ran into Jill and she was no longer a Pez dispenser! They spent their lunch and after school time thinking up a mischievously awesome veggie plan to turn the town back to normal.
The next morning, they drove a truck full of V8 V-Fusion to school and sprayed down the whole town. In a matter of minutes the last drops of candy were falling into the sewer drain.
Jon and Jill had saved the town!


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Masoretic Bible, Spain, 1266Monday, September 7th, 2009
"The Haverford Hebrew Bible" was a gift of J. Rendel Harris, 1890. Part of the J. Rendel Harris "Oriental" Manuscript Collection, the Bible is the oldest Hebrew Bible located in North America and one of the treasures of Special Collections. In addition to the standard columns of biblical text, each page of the Haverford Hebrew Bible is bordered by intricately woven lines of textual marginalia that serve as a concordance on selected passages of the main text. Side margins are decorated with colorful abstract ornaments and at the beginning and end of the volume are "carpet pages," richly colored patterns of diamond shapes and interlocking chains that resemble the patterns of carpets.
This exceptional bible was copied in Spain in 1266 by "Solomon, son of Moses." Remaining in Spain until the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, the Bible then made its way to Egypt. Three further changes of ownership are documented in the Bible itself: one in 1714-15, one in 1755-56, and the last in 1890 when it was acquired by J. Rendel Harris, professor of Ecclesiastical History at Haverford. Harris's gift of the Bible plus 46 additional Semitic language manuscripts form the nucleus of the J. Rendel Harris "Oriental" Manuscript Collection.

subset: commoncrawl


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Risk Management
Program Purpose
The purpose of the Risk Management Program is to provide claim services for Franklin County agencies so they can resolve and reduce vehicle accidents.
Program Services
Claim processings, driver training classes, body repairs, towing for accident.
See the Vehicle Risk Management Program budget
For more information about this program
Please contact us at 614-525-3412.
Board of Commissioners Agencies
- Animal Care & Control
- Child Support Enforcement
- Economic Development
& Planning
- Fleet Management
- Homeland Security
& Justice Programs
- Human Resources


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Education, wages, cellphones headlined sessionVermont Press Bureau
and Vermont Public Radio | May 15,2014Lawmakers addressed a variety of issues in the second half of the 2013-14 legislative biennium that adjourned Saturday. Today, we finish a two-part series recapping many of the major bills and issues lawmakers considered and acted upon.
The Bill: An Act Relating to Prohibiting the Handheld Use of a Portable Electronic Device While Driving (H.62)
Who It Affects: Anyone driving on Vermonts roads.
What It Does: Makes it illegal for anyone to talk on a cellphone while driving; the use of hands-free devices will still be allowed.
In 2010, Vermont lawmakers approved a ban on texting while driving. But there was a major problem when it came to enforcement, according to police, who said they had no way of telling whether a motorist was texting illegal or simply dialing up a phone number, which remained permissible under Vermont law. The fix, public safety officials said, was to ban the use of handheld devices outright while driving.
Police testimony had the effect of dislodging some of the long-standing opposition that had blocked previous efforts to ban talking on a cellphone while driving. And it changed the views of two people in particular the chairmen of the House and Senate transportation committees.
The House gave overwhelming approval to the cellphone ban early in the session. However, opponents, including Gov. Peter Shumlin, helped block its movement through the Senate. The bill looked doomed to fail yet again, until a late-session compromise cleared the way for a bill that Shumlin said he will not veto.
The bill creates civil fines for people caught driving while using a handheld device. But it wont add points to the licenses of people cited for committing the infraction.
The Bill: An Act Relating To Raising The Minimum Wage
Who It Affects: Approximately 50,000 Vermont workers earning less than $10 per hour, as well as their employers.
What It Does: Ratchets up the minimum wage to $10.50 per hour by 2018.
The big fight about worker rights this year was originally focused squarely on an effort to ensure paid sick days for all employees. But when President Barack Obama stepped up his push to lift the federal minimum wage to $10.10 by 2017, it had serious political implications for Vermont.
Gov. Peter Shumlin suddenly made the issue his own, and said Vermont would lead by example by raising the wage here. While lawmakers were generally receptive to the concept, however, many felt the governors plan didnt go far enough.
The House passed legislation that would move the minimum wage to $10.10 beginning in 2015, drawing the ire of business groups in the process. The Senate, meanwhile, decided that $10.50 by 2018 with lower increases in 2015 and 2016 was more appropriate.
The debate in the end came down to a late-session battle on the House floor, where Republicans, who preferred the more modest increases in the early years, banded together with Progressives, who favored the higher wages in the out years. The House passed the Senate version. Shumlin has said he will sign the bill.
The Bill: An Act Relating To Financing For Green Mountain Care (S.252)
Who It Affects: The Shumlin administration, Green Mountain Care Board, and other entities involved in creating a single-payer health care system.
What It Does: The legislation was stripped of most of its single-payer financing mandates, but now includes mandates on some for-profit medical businesses.
Three years after passing the law that set Vermont on a course toward single-payer health care, Gov. Peter Shumlin said the 2014 session would see the arrival of concepts for a public financing plan. But not long into the session, Shumlin said hed moved back the deadline. And in the face of inaction from the administration, lawmakers began to take matters into their own hands.
The bill at various stages in its progression included new timelines for establishing a third-party administrator for single-payer, as well as a new deadline Feb. 3, 2015 for the administration to deliver a financing proposal. Those mandates fell by the wayside, however, replaced largely by calls for new studies and reports about how the new system will work.
The legislation has some policy items also, including one that aims to bring transparency to aspects of the pharmaceutical sales industry by requiring Pharmacy Benefits Managers to disclose how much money theyre making by acting as a sort of middleman between insurance carriers and pharmacies.
The bill also prohibits private, for profit urgent care clinics from turning away patients for lack of insurance. The clinics can continue to refuse care if the patient doesnt have money to pay for services.
The Failed Bills: An Act Related to Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12 Education Districts (H.883); An Act Related to Making Miscellaneous and Technical Corrections to Education Laws (H.876)
Who They Would Have Affected: School board members, superintendents and anyone else with a vested interest in education.
What They Would Have Done: The House Education Committee spent hundreds of hours taking testimony and deliberating on H.883, which proposed an ambitious, six-year plan that would have consolidated the states nearly 300 school districts into 45-55 education districts that would have offered pre-K-12 education and access to one of the states 17 career technical centers.
The bill would have created a single tax rate for multiple towns within the education district, as well as a single, district-wide budget for multiple schools.
The bill faced a fair amount of vocal opposition on two fronts: first, it would have eliminated the states approximately 300 school boards, in favor of one board for each district. This proposal led many to fear the bill would have resulted in a loss of control at the local level.
Another contentious facet of the plan was the creation of a state-appointed design team, would have created a consolidation plan for those districts that did not consolidate voluntarily within the first three years.
The bill narrowly passed out of the House on April 30, but lingered in the Senate Rules Committee for the remainder of the session.
In the waning days of the Legislative session, the Senate Education Committee took up a last-minute amendment to a miscellaneous education bill that would have increased the financial incentives for districts to consolidate voluntarily, while doing away with the involuntary consolidation component of the other bill.
Lacking the votes to take up the bill as amended by the Senate, the bill died on the floor of the House on the final day of the session.
The Bill: An act related to Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses (H123)
Who It Affects: Doctors who prescribe antibiotics to treat Lymes disease.
What it does: Lymes Disease named after Lyme, Conn., where it was first discovered is an illness that will sap a patients energy and can lead to neurological impairment. The disease is transmitted through the bite of a tick, and if diagnosed early, can be treated with short-term course of antibiotics.
However, because the symptoms are varied fatigue, fever and headache the disease often goes undiagnosed until it takes hold in a persons system, making treatment more difficult.
The medical community is divided on what is the best course of treatment. While the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society recommends long-term courses of antibiotics in some cases, the federal Center for Disease Control and Protection advises against such treatment, for the negative side effects on the patient and the potential to create an antibiotic-resistant strain of the bacteria.
At the state level, the bill was opposed by Dr. Harry Chen, commissioner for the Department of Health.
The bill provides immunity from charges of unprofessional conduct for any doctor who prescribes long-term courses of antibiotics. The bill also requires a doctor to obtain a patients informed consent in writing before prescribing long-term courses of antibiotics.
The Bill: An Act Relating to the Establishment of Lake Shoreland Protection Standards (H.526)
Who It Affects: Landowners and developers who are looking to build on lake-front parcels.
What It Does: Vermont has a host of regulatory programs to protect water quality in the state, from wastewater and stormwater discharge to agricultural runoff. Added to those regulations this Legislative session is one that governs construction along the states lake shores.
The bill requires developers to receive a permit from the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) if they wish to build next to one of the states lakes or ponds, with exceptions for privately owned ponds, including those found on golf courses or built for fire suppression.
The bill creates a 100-foot protection zone. Within this zone, developers cannot on a slope greater than 20 percent. Developers are also prohibited from clearing more than 40 percent of the vegetation on the parcel.
Lastly, the parcel can contain no more than 20 percent of impervious surfaces, defined as when the ground wont absorb water from runoff. The bill gives the ANR the ability to expand these permit requirements.
The bill also allows for municipalities that have their own shoreland protection laws to enforce them, as long as the regulations are comparable to those outlined in the bill.
A lake or pond with a surface area greater than 10 acres is located within 184 of the states 251 municipalities. As of the writing of the bill, only 48 of those municipalities had shoreland zoning laws that address vegetative cover.MORE IN Vermont NewsMONTPELIER Gov. Full StoryMONTPELIER Gov. Full StoryMONTPELIER Former Vermont Gov. Full Story
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Climate Change & Global Warming
- Department:November 19, 2010
The average global surface temperature in October 2010 was 58.07°F (14.54°C), which is 0.97°F (0.54°C) above the historical average, according to the monthly assessment from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.
- Department:November 3, 2010
Rising concentrations of carbon dioxide in the air lead to more acidic seawater. More acidic water corrodes minerals that many marine creatures rely on to build their protective shells and skeletons.


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Ultra-lightweight glide of silky fabric shows you how to stay cool and stay chic. Button-front top's exotic print brings Espresso, Flame and Auburn red into the mix. 100% Polyester. Machine wash. Imported.
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Sunday, September 15th begins Child Passenger Safety Week. With school having just started, this is a good time to think about how you keep your kids safe while on the road. Naturally, you will have a car emergency kit in your vehicle, but there is so much more to consider.
To help you teach your child, and maybe even refresh your own memory, Traffic Safety Marketing is offering a free activity book PDF called Let's Learn About Safety. This 20-page book includes coloring pages, word puzzles and more. This is a big file to download, because it includes other materials as well, just so you know before you start to download it.
For kids old enough to ride the bus to school, they also offer a bilingual PDF titled Tips to Increase Your Child's School Bus Safety. This PDF offers tips for parents so they can teach their child to be safe on the school bus, as well as approaching and walking away from the bus. It also provides ways that parents be be safer during the school year, such as slowing down and watching for children in school zones.
Use these materials to help your child have a safer school year.
Image credit: Traffic Safety Marketing


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You'll get a quick cash offer, within minutes with SellhouseFAST. Our professional team of investors will analyze your property and give you a cash offer usually within 24 hours. We base our offer on homes comparable to yours that have sold in the last 3-6 months.
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If you listen closely you can here John Kerry answering the question as the cops handcuff and tase him into submission.
I'd hate to see what they do at Republican events.
His name is Andrew Meyer.
Check out his website at www.theandrewmeyer.com.
Here is a link to the police report. It doesn't really describe what I saw in the video.
It sounds like he wanted to catch John Kerry on tape talking about Skull & Bones. I think that plan backfired when his ass got tasered.


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We're Your Local NH Harley-Davidson Dealer
There's nothing like cruising the open road on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. From the classic styling to the unique exhaust note, there's nothing like a Harley. Our Harley-Davidson dealership in Manchester, New Hampshire, is proud to serve New England with top-quality new and pre-owned Harley-Davidson sales, service and of course the Harley-Davidson accessories and collectibles you crave.
We're just 45 minutes away from the seacoast, Boston and northern Massachusetts in TAX FREE New Hampshire...always worth the ride! Our diverse inventory makes us worth the trip. We carry the entire lineup of new Harley-Davidson motorcycles, including the Sportster, Super Glide, Street Bob, Softail, Road King and Street Glide. If you're looking for a quality used Harley-Davidson, we have a range of top-notch models in our showroom as well.
Our dedication to New England Harley-Davidson owners continues in our H-D service department, where we make it easy to keep your hog barking like it should. From simple maintenance to complete overhauls and even upgrades, we can handle it all. We also sell the Harley-Davidson accessories you desire, from chrome to exhausts and everything in between.
If you're looking for Harley-Davidson clothes and collectibles, we have a wide selection to choose from. Our NH Harley-Davidson accessory center has everything you and your loved ones want. From leather jackets and hats to chaps and boots, you don't need to drive far to find a great deal.
No matter your motoring needs, we have you covered, and you can always count on a first-rate experience when you visit our Harley-Davidson dealership in southern New Hampshire. Visit us today and swing your leg over an American legend.


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"Thank you for Catholic Answers. I enjoy hearing Patrick and his guests each weekday evening, and I have grown so much in my faith in the last 7-8 years. Thank you for speaking the truth."
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"The Church knows no weapons other than faith, virtue, and prayer."
~ Aegidius, bishop of Viterbo (later cardinal) in response to those who would expand the Church by force (from the article "Archdiocese of Zara")